Women Make the Safest Drivers, We Can Save a Bunch of Fivers

When Sheila’s Wheels burst onto the insurance scene, women across the UK rejoiced. It’s long been known that women are involved in fewer accidents than men, though insurance premiums didn’t accurately reflect this. Sheila’s Wheels, the car insurance company for women, was launched to put a stop to the inequality and offer women a cheaper, fairer price on their insurance.

In 2012, the EU ruled that insurers could no longer charge premiums based upon gender. However, that didn’t stop companies such as Sheila’s Wheels, from continuing to offer cheaper prices to its female drivers. So, was the ruling pointless and do women deserve lower rates?

Why many men are still being charged more

What’s been interesting about the ruling, is that although it aimed to lower insurance premiums for men, what it’s actually done is increase them. In a bizarre twist of fate, eliminating the gender influence forced insurers to look at other factors more closely.

Statistics do show that men have more accidents than women. It’s a fact which cannot be argued, leaving insurers well within their rights to charge a higher premium to men than women. After all, their premium calculations are largely worked out depending upon risk factor. Hearing statictics like this proves that having insurance is important. You just never know what will happen while you’re on the road. If you are a new driver, why not read this article to find out more about insurance and be sure that you are taking the right steps to keep safe.

There’s a lot of reasons men are involved in more claims than women. In business for example, the majority of drivers are male, and the vehicles are larger and ultimately more expensive than the ones driven by women. So, if an accident does occur, the cost of the claim would be higher than the average claim made by a woman. This, along with many other factors, help to push up male insurance premiums.

Why the ruling has made it fairer for women

Some experts argue that the ruling has actually made it fairer for women. Although some types of insurance like GAP insurance, have never really priced their policies differently based on gender, the majority of insurance policies did. However, this simply involved charging men a little bit more. Now, insurers are working out premiums based upon numerous factors, many of which fall into a woman’s favour.

So, the ruling didn’t quite have the effect many men were hoping for. It is true women shouldn’t be priced a lower premium just because of their gender. However, they should receive a lower premium if they pose a lower risk. Regardless of gender, insurance premiums today are at an all-time high and shopping around is crucial for getting the best deals.

Thank to Jony