Insurer plans Facebook-based motor policy

Admiral plans to use Facebook profiles to help young drivers get cheaper car insurance.

But the launch of the policy has been delayed.

”We’ve been working closely with Facebook in Europe to get the service ready, and are now addressing a few outstanding issues. We hope that very soon we will be able to offer first-time drivers better deals on their car insurance,” an Admiral spokesperson said last night. 

The new firstcarquote policy aims to help new drivers without a driving history to get a cheaper quote by using the information they hold on their social media accounts.

Firstcarquote will let first-time drivers share their data to produce a personality-based risk assessment to secure a heavy discount on their car insurance.

The insurer said that first time drivers currently face huge financial obstacles because running a car is the biggest annual expense for one in five young people.

Additionally, drivers aged 17 to 24 are four times more likely to be involved in road accidents than other drivers – with the risk increasing when they have a car full of friends.

Admiral said: “Not all first time drivers are the same. But without a driving history, all first time drivers have to start from scratch, and are lumped into the same high risk profile.”

Firstcarquote project lead Dan Mines said: “Firstcarquote from Admiral is a new way for first-time drivers to get a cheaper car insurance quote from one of the most trusted providers around.

“It’s a win-win, because quotes will only go down, not up. Firstcarquote exists to offer responsible new drivers the best car insurance deals on the market.

“With this product, social data for the first time has a real, tangible value for consumers. Nobody will get a worse deal using social media analytics, but many young drivers will make significant savings.”

The technology matches social data personality assessments to real claims data, to better understand first time drivers and more accurately predict risk.

It lets young people use their data from social media profiles to create a reputational ‘track record’, which can - in the absence of a driving history or no-claims bonus - let firstcarquote offer a personalised quote.

The customer decides whether they want to share their social data and what permissions they allow. Admiral sees only a snapshot of the customer’s Facebook page likes and posts – and only once, during the quote process.

The data is held for only as long as the quote is valid and it’s only used for calculating their discount. None of the Information is shared with third parties – including Facebook.

Drivers can get a quote in as little as 60 seconds by entering their license plate, logging in with Facebook and answering ten questions.

The quotes are then compared to a standard quote in real time so that drivers can quickly see how much they save.