Foxy handbags make the difference

To get a fair car insurance premium, women drivers may need to shop for female friendly cover options including the likes of designer handbag cover in motor insurance policies in future.The sort of handbags that men won’t need cover for…

Last week women drivers looked likely to be the car insurance losers as a result of the recent EU ruling to equalise gender premiums.

But now I’m not so sure this is how it will work out in the end for the creative insurers. In fact I predict there will be many new ways to create a fair insurance formula to reward women with the car insurance premiums they deserve by simply differentiating the product so it isn’t what men want to buy. Designer handbag cover is an excellent example of this.

After a lot of female furore in the EU and in our offices recently, the indignant heat seems to be off for a while because the ruling only applies from December 2012. It’ll be a while before women start to feel the car insurance premium pinch.

But assuming that the reported doom and gloom were true, this is what we can be fairly certain will happen as a result of the EU ruling…

  • Women will pay a lot more for their car insurance (which may deter the younger ones from learning to drive)
  • Men will pay a bit less so perhaps MORE risky younger ones will be able to afford to drive younger (the probability of their accidents will keep premiums high for young men)
  • Women will pay towards young men’s accidents (that’s the same as paying into insurers coffers then out again in male claims)
  • All insurers will work hard to earn as much as they can (in what has been an unprofitable sector for some for years)
  • Many insurers will see this as an opportunity to bump up rates for existing female customers (a short term but likely lucrative strategy for the uber greedy)

But the good news is that female insurance brands like Sheilas’ Wheels, Diamond and Ladybird insurance won’t face the same underwriting concerns because they don’t have to underwrite for men (by and large) so they won’t need to demonstrate equal rates. This means they can underwrite using probability models where women, being the less dangerous and less expensive gender to insure, pay less than men would do, all things being equal.

So we can expect to see a spate of new pink and frilly brand names for car insurance products for women. Insurers that don’t already have a FOXY Lady-like brand can be seen to offer benefits that are clearly female friendly, like handbag cover, compared to a Brut-like brand for men with benefits such as toolbox cover ;-)… that sort of thing.

An opportunity for a FOXY Lady-like insurance brand for women perhaps?

FOXY

All feedback about women’s car insurance is welcome – where relevant and news to us, we share this within FOXY Lady Drivers Club.