The Central Bank of Ireland is conducting a review to establish the impact of differential pricing on consumers and to understand consumer behaviours relating to private car and home insurance, including how consumers engage with their insurance providers. As part of this review, RED C is conducting a survey on behalf of the Central Bank of Ireland.

RED C is a provider of research-based consultancy services. Founded in 2003, it is an independent Irish company with a well-established record of carrying out high-quality market research across Ireland and internationally.

RED C is a member of the Association of Irish Market Research Organisations, the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research and the Market Research Society. It abides by the professional guidelines for conducting high quality research and polling set out by all these organisations.

RED C was appointed by the Central Bank to undertake the fieldwork on this important project.

In order to conduct all of the fieldwork required within the short timeframe, RED C is also working with partners. These partners include Yonder Data Solutions, formerly Populus Data Solutions and The Contact Centre. Yonder Data Solutions is based in the UK.

You can find some specific information on how we are processing your information as part of this survey under Question 7 below.  

The Central Bank of Ireland’s general privacy notice contains further information on how the Central Bank processes personal data and on your data subject rights. You can also read more in RED C’s privacy notice and RED C’s partner’s Yonder Data Solutions’ privacy notice and The Contact Centre privacy notice.

Please note that in carrying out this survey, the Central Bank of Ireland and RED C will never ask for your address; any bank account or credit card details, insurance policy numbers, passwords or PIN numbers.

The Central Bank initially sent a request to insurance companies and their intermediaries asking that they provide us with the insurance policy details of over two million Irish consumers’ private car and home insurance. As part of this request, the Central Bank collected the minimum amount of data necessary to robustly deliver on the objectives of this review. We collected policy numbers and other risk details, but did not collect any specific personal identifiers such as names or addresses – as these were not deemed to be necessary.

Using the information provided by insurance companies and intermediaries, the Central Bank picked a random sample of the policy numbers. This random sample formed the pool of potential participants for the survey, conducted by RED C. A new data request was then sent to insurance firms asking that the names and contact numbers of these policies be securely transferred to RED C, in compliance with Data Protection legislation.

Names and contact details of this sub-group of policyholders were transferred over solely for the purpose of allowing RED C, and their partners, to undertake this survey. Your name was among this sub-group of policyholders and this is why you have been contacted.

The Central Bank does not have access to these contact details in the Bank. RED C and their partners will hold these contact details only until the survey has concluded. At that point, which is expected to be around 30 June 2021, all contact details will be deleted.

RED C will provide the answers from the survey to the Central Bank, but will not include names or contact details. Please be assured that no names or contact details will be provided. The Central Bank will not be able to identify you by name or contact number.

If you were contacted by RED C to participate in this survey it means that your home or private car policy was randomly selected as part of the research sampling process. The database from which the sample was selected from was based on customer data from 2019. So although you may no longer be with the same insurance provider you used in 2019, your opinions and behaviour today are what is important for the differential pricing review.

 

No. The Central Bank of Ireland would be very grateful if you choose to take part in this important study. However, please note that participation is entirely voluntary. Should you choose to participate, please be assured that all of the answers you provide will remain completely confidential.

Your responses to the survey will remain entirely confidential. RED C will send the survey data it collects to the Central Bank but will not include names or contact details. This will be combined with information collected from insurance firms, such as the length of time a customer has been with the firm, and the annual amount paid on their home or motor insurance policy. RED C will not include details such as name or telephone number. Neither RED C nor the Central Bank of Ireland will share any individual’s data or individual-level findings with insurance firms. 

Your responses will be aggregated with those of thousands of other policyholders around the country for analysis. The results of this analysis will inform the second phase of the differential pricing review currently being undertaken by the Central Bank of Ireland.

As previously stated, participation is voluntary. However, surveys like these are a way for you to express your opinions and share your experience. In this instance, your responses will inform the comprehensive review that the Central Bank has initiated into differential pricing in the insurance industry, focusing on motor and home insurance.

In order to fully understand which consumers are affected by differential pricing, we need to hear directly from a broad and representative range of consumers about their experiences of the home and motor insurance markets. This will also help us to identify any potential drivers of the practice and to determine what remedies might be appropriate.

It is very important that the survey includes responses from a diverse and varied group of consumers. This will help to ensure that the full range of consumer opinions and experiences of motor and home insurance markets in Ireland are represented.

As this is a large scale study, with thousands of customers being asked to take part, RED C are working with partners to help them conduct all of the fieldwork within quite a short timeframe. One of these partners (Yonder Data Solutions, formerly Populus Data Solutions) is based in the UK. Please be assured however, that all of RED C’s partners work to the same strict standards of confidentiality, data protection and GDPR compliance.

The results of this study will inform the differential pricing review currently being conducted by the Central Bank of Ireland. The Central Bank will publish the findings of the review in 2021 and it will be available on the Central Bank of Ireland’s website. The findings will be general in nature and will not refer specifically to anyone that takes part in the survey nor your specific answers. 

 This consumer FAQ contains further key information about the Differential Pricing Review.

Should you have any queries regarding this survey or the review itself, please contact the Central Bank at the following email: differentialpricingresearch@centralbank.ie