The world will end when men & women pay the same for insurance

I wrote recently about how insurance premiums of all sorts will have to be harmonised for gender from 21st December 2012 following a European Court of Justice ruling. So from then on it will be illegal to charge different premiums for men and women for insurance.

But it will never happen!

As it turns out, 21st December 2012 is the day that the world ends. This is the day that the Mayan calendar ends and according to many highly respected sources, it will be the date that the world will come to an end. Google "End of World 2012" if you don't believe me. The internet never lies.

Oh those cunning Europeans.

Testing Posterous

Nothing to see here folks. Just testing!

TRS online only...and Revenue on YouTube

I see that Revenue are no longer accepting paper applications for Tax Relief at Source (TRS) on new mortgages - TRS must be applied for online. That might prove troublesome for people who aren't that comfortable with the web, don't have unrestricted access to the web etc.

However, Revenue have produced a few snazzy new videos and published them on YouTube to help people through the process.

You can get more details of TRS in general by clicking here and watch their videos by clicking here.

Unisex premiums for insurance deferred

I blogged last week about today's European Court of Justice hearing in relation to whether or not men and women could be charged different premiums for various types of insurance. This includes life assurance, income protection cover, car insurance - any type of insurance where gender is a factor in the price.

Well the Court today decided that gender-based pricing is not in keeping with EU law. BUT they have permitted an extension such that the current pricing methods can continue to apply until 21st December 2012.

No doubt our insurance companies will be poring over the full text of the judgement in the coming days to see what needs to be done. But it's business as usual for now...

You can read the press release here.