Slashdot Mirror
Do Firefox Users Pay More For Car Loans?
RandyOo writes "Someone wrote in to The Consumerist to report an interesting discovery: while shopping online for a car loan, Capital One offered him different rates, depending on the browser he used! Firefox yielded the highest rate at 3.5%, Opera took second place with 3.1%, Safari was only 2.7%, and finally, Google's Chrome browser afforded him the best rate of all: 2.3%!
A commenter on the article claims to have been previously employed by Capital One, and writes: If you model the risk and revenue of applicants, the type of browser shows up as a significant variable. Browsers do predict an account's performance to some degree, and it will affect the rates you will view. It isn't a marketing test. I was still a bit dubious, but at least one of her previous comments backs up her claims to have worked for a credit card company.
Considering the outcry after it was discovered that Amazon was experimenting with variable pricing a few years back, it seems surprising that consumers would be punished (or rewarded), based solely on the browser they happen to be using at the time!"
It doesn't matter in this case; all you need is correlation.
You base your assumptions that:
1. the browser is telling the truth about the user agent.
2. the browser used it the one the customer uses regularly.
3. your eveluation about "risky" browser is correct.
4. all this makes some kind of sense.
Maybe Computers will never be as intelligent as Humans.
For sure they won't ever become so stupid. [VR-1988]
Flamebait? Yes.
True? Yes.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Or it could be that firefox users tend to work in the tech field, a field with notoriously short and unreliable job durations. It could be that firefox users are rated lower due to more frequent (if short) bouts of unemployment.