In the UK, if you still use an outdated Hotmail email account, you may not only lose the respect of younger people, but also have more of your money taken by insurers. According to foreign media reports, British insurer "Admiral" is under investigation by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) because of a bizarre price discrimination policy. The matter began when Admiral was revealed to charge certain customers higher fees based on their email domains.

        Admiral has admitted that, compared with customers who registered Gmail email accounts, the company does charge customers who provide Hotmail email addresses "at least $30 more" in annual insurance premiums.

        According to a separate investigation by the UK's The Sun, Admiral was also found to charge drivers named "Mohammed" higher premiums. That raises the question: just how crazy are the company's actuarial tables?

According to the company, the extra charge for @Hotmail customers is based on research indicating that customers with older email domains are more likely to have accidents.

        But clearly, the UK Financial Conduct Authority was not convinced, and immediately launched an investigation into the Leicester-based company.

        If you think £30 of price discrimination based on an email domain is crazy, think again -- because the price gap between two male customers named John Smith and Mohammed Ali can be as wide as £1,000.

        Unfortunately, Admiral is not the only company doing this (even though its behavior is the worst). In tests, Admiral charged a fictional customer named Mohammed an additional premium of £515, while some other insurers charged around £200 more.

Source: cnbeta 2018-01-24