Women's car insurance: Driving down insurance quotes
Women's Car Insurance: Driving safely and cheaply
Women are recognised as being safer drivers so insurance premiums are lower. However, you still need to shop around and comapre quotes from both women-only insurers and general insurance companies to get the best deal.
By going on the roads with your car you are taking a risk and an insurer will calculate how high that risk is based on a number of factors including the age of a car, its engine size and the profile of the driver, including age and sex.
The good news for women is – despite all those jokes about women drivers – the mere fact you are female usually entitles you to cheaper premiums. This is because insurers, guided by statistics, think women are safer drivers. They make fewer claims.
A niche market for women-only insurance is emerging as a result and they claim to provide cheaper premiums for women. However, many mainstream insurers will still provide cheaper quotes to women, making this area of car insurance a distinctive market in its own right.
Reasons to have women's car insurance
Women-only car insurers argue they – unlike their mainstream competitors – do not have to factor the higher-claiming male policies into their business when calculating premiums.
In other words, they only insure women, and therefore have to fork out for fewer claims so can afford to charge lower premiums.
There are also additional "extras" which women-only car insurance policies include which many female drivers find useful.
Handbag cover, for example, means if a driver's bag and its contents are stolen they can claim the costs. Some insurers provide access to counselling phone lines for its customers in case they are involved in an accident.
Also, breakdown cover is a more common feature in women-only policies and it will usually be with a firm which will prioritise females who have broken down.
How to buy women's car insurance
The rules for buying women's car insurance are much the same as buying any other policy. It is important, first and foremost, to shop around for the best deal. Decide on your priorities and what you want from a policy. If you want handbag and breakdown cover on top of the standard features, make sure you compare policies which, like-for-like, include these additions.
There is an argument which suggests women-only insurers don't provide anything different to a big high street insurer. In other words, women will get quotes which are just as cheap by going to insurers which also insure men and can get the benefits of breakdown cover and replacements for contents, such as handbags, in these policies anyway.
So check out the full range of insurers before going straight to women-only firms.
Brokers scour the whole of the market to find the cheapest deal for you, so can save you time and maybe even money. And, of course, there are a range of internet comparison websites to help you compare deals – although beware as they do not always cover the entire market.
Pitfalls
Some insurers, in their bid to appear to be charging lower premiums, only offer ten-month contracts as opposed to the standard year-long policies. Be careful of this and make sure you read the small print before signing.
Handbag cover might seem like a great idea but critics argue it is just a marketing ploy on behalf of the women-only insurers. Consider whether this is essential – particularly if your handbag is covered in your home contents insurance. Many normal car insurance policies include provision for lost contents under which handbags are included.