Female drivers to pay a lot more for car insurance?

As a result of a European Court of Justice Ruling that insurance companies can no longer use gender based risk assessment for calculating car insurance premiums from December 2012, it’s likely that premiums will rise for young women drivers.

Previously, young female drivers had been paying significantly less for car insurance because statistics showed that they experienced lower accident rates as well as actual claims costs.  The average claim cost for an eighteen year old female is £2,700 whereas their male counterpart average claim cost is £4,400.

Insurance companies will have until December 2012 to calculate a new pricing model that eradicates this gender based factor from insurance premiums.  The upshot is that young female drivers are likely to see a significant increase in their car insurance premiums – as much as 50% in some cases – to subsidise male drivers.  It is also unlikely that young male drivers will see a comparable decrease in their premiums because of the known statistical risk.

With higher car insurance premiums forecast for young female drivers it is worth shopping around and to use a reputable insurance broker with access to a panel of insurers.