samuels@houxz.UUCP (M.SAMUELS) (05/22/84)
Anyone who has ever tried to collect payments from Allstate will know that their opinion can't be trusted for anything. Mike Samuels houxz!samuels
sdo@u1100a.UUCP (Scott Orshan) (05/23/84)
>Anyone who has ever tried to collect payments from Allstate >will know that their opinion can't be trusted for anything. This doesn't relate to women or this discussion, but I just had a good experience with Allstate in New Jersey, and it seemed the right thing to present it here. (At the end of this article I present my views on the real topic.) My door got bashed by an insured driver. Two days after Allstate looked at it, I had an estimate and a check for everything but my deductible. I waited two months to get it fixed, but the week after I did, I got the check for the deductible, which they had collected from the other insurance company. I believe, new laws in New Jersey require that insurance rates now be based on driving record, rather than a statistical measure of your "category" based on your sex and where you live. This means that young black males in Newark will see their rates go down, and old white farmers in the rural areas will see a rise. I was quite pleased when I got my latest bill, as my rates had gone down by about $300 per year. So, between getting the quick settlement, and paying less, I'm quite happy with Allstate now. I'm quite aware that this will prompt a flood of articles from people who were screwed by Allstate. Please put them in another newsgroup unless they relate to a woman's issue. Now, here are my views on the real topic - determining rates based on race or sex. Even if there is a statistical correlation between sex (race) and driving ability, I believe that the individual variances, and the social implications of allowing a genetic characteristic so obviously unrelated to driving ability to judge such an ability, should be cause for disallowing such a correlation. Other, quantifiable, characteristics which are related to driving ability (such as years of experience - not age, or maybe the results of road-test performance rather than just pass-fail) could be found. This is the intent of the New Jersey effort. Scott Orshan Bell Communications Research 201-981-3064 {ihnp4,allegra,pyuxww}!u1100a!sdo