Being rather new to the adulting life, my friends and I were talking about our monthly expenses when we realised that we were paying different premium amounts for the same types of insurance policies.
And that’s even though we are of the same age!
The only difference that we could think of is that I’m female, while he is male…
Wait, don’t rage!
‘Cus we did for a while before it dawned on us: there must be a logical explanation as to why women and men pay different premiums for the same insurance.
Putting aside other deciding factors such as age and medical history, I did a little research and found out several interesting factors which explain why men and women pay different premiums.
TL;DR – Who Pays More For Insurance?
Looking only at gender as a point of comparison, and assuming all other factors are kept constant…
Here’s a look at the most common form of insurance that most Singaporeans would get, and who pays more for what kind of insurance:
| Type of Insurance | Who Pays More? | Why Are We Paying More? |
|---|---|---|
| Life Insurance | Men | Shorter life expectancy |
| Car Insurance | Men | More prone to accidents |
| Health Insurance | Women | Longer life expectancy |
What Are Men Paying More For?
Term Life Insurance
Typically, Singaporean males tend to pay more for their term life insurance premiums as compared to females.
“Why is this so?” you might ask.
Well, it’s simple. There is a higher chance that insurance companies would need to fulfil the death benefit payout for males (touch wood) since males have a shorter life expectancy.
Seeing that these payouts will cost the insurance companies, they will redirect that expense by charging more for premiums.
Car Insurance
Yup, you read that right!
Male drivers pay more for their car insurance as compared to their female counterparts.
WAIT!
I can already picture some of your puzzled faces as you think about the stereotype that women are bad drivers, which probably means that female drivers should be paying more for car insurance…
With everything else kept constant, such as driving experience and history, women pay lesser for their car insurance as we are typically safer drivers. This means that we are less likely to file claims on our policies and that’s why we pay lesser for car insurance.
In fact, statistics have shown that male drivers are 1.4 times more likely to get into an accident compared to female drivers. And this is largely because women are typically more careful and more risk-averse on the road.
See?
I always knew that driving slowly (not ridiculously slow, of course) and carefully pays off.
Fun Fact: You Pay Lesser If You’re Married
No, it’s not because you already have way more expenses as a married individual.
The insurance companies aren’t so nice.
A more plausible reason would be because once you’re married, you should technically be more accountable to your partner as well as your children!
In short, marriage makes people more responsible, and that translates into our daily actions – which includes our driving practices as well.
Which means, in the eyes of insurance companies, you are less likely to file for claims if you are a married driver.
What Are Women Paying More For?
Health Insurance
Disclaimer: Since there are so many different types of healthcare insurance, this trend does not apply to all of them.
But in most cases, women pay more for health insurance.
And don’t worry, it’s not because of some kind of pink tax.
For policies that charge women higher premiums, it’s the same reason why men get charged more for term life insurance: women have a longer life expectancy than men.
While we want to imagine that we will be spending our golden years enjoying life, the sad truth is that many of us are likely to spend those years in different states of ill health (touch wood).
So it’s extremely important to eat healthily and stay active by working out!
Anyways, since women have a longer life expectancy, we are more likely to claim more from our healthcare insurance policies for a longer period of time. Since there’s no such thing as a free meal in this world, the insurance companies will definitely charge us higher premium prices.
Insurance has become an important part of our lives as we work hard to safeguard our finances and plan for uncertainty.
If any of the above policies sound foreign to you, then maybe it’s time to start doing some research on the key policies you might need.
Or if you’d like a second opinion, why not ask our friendly community in our Seedly Q&A?
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