Tag Archives: car insurance for women

women's car insurance

Which insurer is best for women?

We can always rely on Which? to keep us posted about the latest tactics of car insurers in what can be a minefield of information. And just in case you don’t get their magazine here is a review of their latest findings (March 2012 pp55-57).

1. Those who shopped around in 2011 paid 18% less than those who settled for the first quote.

2. Sharp rises in premiums were often dropped when challenged – without any apparent reason.

3. The average Which? consumers paid for their car insurance policy was £343 and in many cases those who found cheaper insurance didn’t have to jump ship – all they had to do was ask their current insurer to match the lowest quote.

4. Even those who queried a price over the phone were able to trim the premium by £15, without having an alternative quote.

5. Some 70% didn’t negotiate and paid more than they needed to.

6. Beware optional add-ons you don’t need such as eSure’s charging for ‘free’ Motoring Legal Protection after Year One without drawing this to your attention. Other insurers like Churchill will offer a free hire car in the first year of a policy (we preseume this is to replace your in the event of an accident) but this is reduced to a 10% discount the next year and should be removed from the policy.

7. Firms offering ‘free’ breakdown cover will usually have asked for your credit card to make renewals easy and less noticeable in subsequent years…

In a nutshell, women drivers really do need to be foxy to negotiate a fair price for car insurance… and that’s before the discriminatory EU ‘gender equality’ Directive comes into force this December.

I am not at all surprised that so many Which? consumer panel members are tired with shopping at comparison websites. It is tedious, wastes hours and defeats the common sense principle that insurers should reward existing customers not neglect them in favour of attracting new ones through discounts.

As Which? sees it, many insurers are guilty of not stating the premium you paid last year in their invitation to renewal letter. It’s as if they know the increases they are suggesting are unreasonable.

Looking on the bright side however, here are the top ten insurers that Which? recommends and FOXY supports, based on 54 different policy considerations. I am delighted to see that customer service is alive and well, depending on who you choose as your insurer…

1 NFU Mutual
2 LV
3 Nationwide
4 John Lewis
5 The Co-operative Insurance
6 SAGA
7 50 Plus Insurance
8 Marks and Spencer
9 RIAS
10 Sheilas’ Wheels
with the biggest samples coming from SAGA and LV.

Wouldn’t it be nice to turn back the clock to the days when High Street insurance brokers knew their stuff and offered that oft missed element of personal customer service. Well, maybe they do and we should try them out as well as or instead of the comparison websites…

As an example, my son used my browser recently and all the comparison websites he visited quote his name when I go back to them. It never fails to irritate me – a human being would never get us confused!

FOXY

PS: If you’d like FOXY to keep you posted about the EU’s Unfair For Females insurance plans you can either
join the Club
subscribe to our news via the Unfair for Females sidebar textbox on the Insurance page
LIKE us at Facebook
LIKE the new Unfair For Females community page at Facebook

women's car insurance

Could your car be a classic?

You might be surprised to read that your old but much loved car could be a classic. And that you would be entitled to a lower insurance premium because of this.

Classic car insurance broker Footman James recommends that women drivers check to see if their cars are classed as classics in case they qualify for a reduced motor insurance premium.

Apparently some specialist motor insurance policies cover cars that are just five years old; but they do seem to be prestige brands so the Bentley in the photo would probably qualify (sadly not mine) but not the more mundane models most of us drive…

For example, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar car club members who have a model as their second family car (and only use it for limited miles each year) seem to qualify for special policy rates when the car is five years old and more.

And anyone with an American car which is five years old or more also qualifies for a specialist insurance policy.

But the important thing is that women looking to insure what may be a classic car under 15 years or a classic American car under 20 years old must be a member of a related car club.

Andy Fairchild, Footman James’ managing director, said: “The industry recognises that, on the whole, owners who cherish their vehicles usually drive fewer miles and generally avoid taking their car out in adverse weather conditions, therefore reducing the likelihood of a claim.”

Which makes sense and rings true, if you can avoid using your car in bad weather.

Needless to say, FOXY is not a ‘related’ car club to any one brand, but it could well be that FOXY Lady Drivers Club services (free seasonal car checks and so on) mean that our members will qualify when it comes to insuring a special and much loved model providing the car is more than 5 years old, is a second family car and is used for limited annual mileage. Which is often the case for the cars women drive of course.

Please let us know about your classic car insurance experiences so we can share relevant female feedback with members of the Club and their family.

FOXY

women's car insurance

Say farewell to fairness for females in future…

How much did you say?
How much did you say?
Dear Mr Cameron

Please remember that many foxy ladies are formidable female voters who can potentially secure or lose you your political future.

And that too many are struggling to balance the family budget and have yet to realise that their critical car insurance premiums are set to soar later this year, simply because they are female.

This could well prove to be a tipping point for motoring mums and daughters when it comes to voting time.

In a nutshell, if anyone thinks equality means fairness for females, please think again. I’m talking about car insurance costs come December 2012 when HM Government is allowing car insurers to charge women the same premiums as men, having been told to do this by the EU, in the name of ‘equality.’

By ‘equality’ they mean that women drivers are to pay more for their car insurance than male drivers. Despite statistics confirming that young women, in particular, are considerably safer and less accident prone motorists than young men who account for 98% of dangerous driving convictions and cause the majority of fatal and serious road accidents.

But isn’t motor insurance supposed to be about underwriting risk and rewarding no claims experience? I had always thought so but clearly not. Otherwise I know which gender I’d prefer to underwrite from a commercial point of view.

On the contrary, this ruling allows insurers to ignore risk, to reward testosterone-prone boy racers with lower car insurance premiums and to penalise women drivers of all ages by requiring females to pay more than in the past and to contribute towards the cost of accidents we didn’t cause.

This might be called ‘gender equality’ in the EU but it certainly isn’t fair on women drivers in the UK.

Shame on you, Mr Cameron and your Office of Fair Trading lawyers. You know it’s unfair on females and that women drivers paying more for their car insurance are purely transferring money from stressed family budgets into the coffers of allegedly ‘poor’ motor insurers.

Whatever happened to the logic of underwriting insurance on the basis of risk? Which is why women drivers have been paying less for car insurance than riskier male drivers for as long as I can remember…

But say farewell to fairness for females in future as soon as it comes to motor insurance premium hikes that are on the horizon from December onwards.

Fortunately there is still time to fend off this discrimination before it starts to cost you female votes Mr Cameron…

FOXY

FOXY Lady Drivers Club is the female voice of motoring. We are championing this important insurance issue on behalf of UK women drivers. To support our efforts please either join us, LIKE the FOXY Lady Drivers Club page at Facebook or email Steph Savill info@foxyladydrivers.com to add your support and/or to raise awareness of this unfair treatment of female motorists in the UK.

road safety

Over 80s are safer drivers than we realise

DVLA figures show that there are now more than one million drivers over 80 and it is the one age group (between 80 to 90 years) where the number of women drivers outstrips men by nearly 2:1 (662k women vs 351k men).

Which may go some way to explain why, contrary to common assumptions that the older you are the worse you drive, motorists in their eighties are NOT dangerous, according to the IAM who has analysed the Department for Transport’s ‘Reported Road Casualties in Great Britain: 2010’ statistics as well as the DVLA’s licensing statistics by age. I say that because all the evidence there is confirms that women, in the main, are safer drivers than men in terms of severity of accidents.

Believe it or not, the figures show that this 80-90 years old age group is much safer than their more youthful counterparts. In fact the rate of deaths and serious injuries in crashes among drivers over 80 is three times less than the rate for those aged 17-19 years. In 2010 almost one young driver aged 17-19 was killed or seriously injured per thousand licence holders.

The rate of deaths and serious injuries in crashes among car drivers aged 20 to 24 is 36.4 per cent more than the rate for drivers aged 80 or over.

However, drivers over the age of 80 are more likely to suffer serious injuries in a car crash due to their frailty.

IAM chief executive Simon Best explained: “Older people need their cars which give them better mobility and access to more activities and services. Those who wish to continue driving beyond the age of 70 should only be prevented from doing so if there are compelling reasons. Rather than seeking to prevent older people from driving, we should make them more aware of the risks they face, and offer them driving assessments to help them eliminate bad habits. Driving helps older people play a full and active part in society.”

The number of older drivers will continue to rise as the Office of National Statistics predicts that there will be 8.7 million people over the age of 75 by 2033.

FOXY

NB: In 2006 young male drivers were responsible for 66 per cent of KSI (Killed &/or Serious Injuries) and 74% of fatalities. FOXY Lady Drivers Club believes this makes a mockery of the EU ruling that motor insurance premiums for this male age group are to be reduced this December and young women expected to pay more for their car insurance to pay for male-caused accidents, under guise of ‘equality.’ Rest assured this will also feather the nest of insurers which is why we’ve heard no protests at all from them. We thought insurers underwrote risk not their own profits…

women's car insurance

Women drivers taken to the cleaners

It seems that motoring Mums and daughters are the silent audience that car insurers are targeting from December onwards so they can underwrite more profitable business in future.

This is unfair treatment of women drivers however you look at it and nobody, other than FOXY Lady Drivers Club of course, seems prepared to stand up for women’s best interests here.

Reading about the subject I find that young women take an average of 51.9 lessons from qualified driving instructors compared to 36.2 for young men (DfT research 2004).

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why most young women drivers are safer and more considerate than many young men?

And why it makes little sense to rate young men and young women drivers as the same motor car insurance risk; which is precisely what is due to happen as a result of the forthcoming gender equality ruling in December 2012. Which is deeply unfair to most women drivers because it flies in the face of years of statistics that prove different gender motoring profiles.

To the extent of being sexist and ageist even?

Add to this the perennial debate that young drivers need more lessons such as taking a PassPlus course to gain insurance discounts…

Yet if I had invested in 15 more lessons than my male counterpart before passing my test (at an average £20 per lesson that’s c£300 more I’d have spent), I’d feel I had paid enough already. And if that difference was PassPlus or got me an insurance discount, I’d say that was self evident.

Like it or not driving ability is a gender thing and age is a key consideration too. Young men are naturally more confident drivers (it’s proven to be because of testosterone levels) than many young women hence their seeming to need fewer lessons before passing their test.

But this is but a false dawn because statistics confirm men attract 92 per cent of all driving convictions and 98 per cent of convictions for dangerous driving. So the driving test isn’t preparing them for a safe driving career whereas perhaps more lessons might…

According to the UK Treasury, taking gender out of the car insurance equation will result in a general levelling of premiums, with women under 45 paying an extra £920 million a year with men paying £620 million less. Women under 25 could see their premiums leap by a quarter, while men the same age will save 10 per cent. And there’s an interesting £300 million gap…

The outcome is clear – simply raising insurance prices for women isn’t going to result in fewer accidents – all it will result in is that young women pay for accidents they don’t cause and insurers get richer.

Or put another way – women drivers are being taken to the cleaners.

FOXY

“What you need is sustained outrage – there’s far too much unthinking respect given to authority” Molly Ivins, American humorist and political commentator 1944 -2007