As a 23-year-old female who has had a full driving licence for almost six years, has never needed to make a claim and has no motoring convictions, I did not even consider I might not be eligible for Sainsbury's motor insurance when I rang up for a quote.

However, the person I spoke to on the phone did not even get as far as asking how long I had been driving or what my history was. As soon as I said my occupation was a student, he said Sainsbury's would not consider me.

I was horrified but the only explanation I received was that the underwriters are not prepared to insure students under the age of 25 because of their statistics on the number of claims made by that category.

Such mass stereotyping and discrimination are unwarranted and unfair and are not carried out by any of the other insurance companies I have approached.

I happen to be a student who has lived on campus (without incident) for two years but I could have been an Open University student on a correspondence course and living full-time with my parents in a low-crime area with the car locked in a garage. However, I wasn't asked.

I am fed up with people generalising about students and I cannot believe this prejudice has spread to a company as big as Sainsbury's.

There are 10,000 students at my university alone and I can honestly say the people there are as diverse, if not more so, than the people I meet in the so-called "real world". So how can we be lumped together, based on a very broad title for people furthering their education?

I won't be phoning Sainsbury's when I turn 25. Perhaps I will try Tesco instead.

-Becky Wood, Southdown Road, Southwick