It has been just over a year since the gender equality law was passed ruling that car insurance policies could no longer take gender into consideration.
Many experts thought that the change in law would adversely affect women by up to 40 per cent. However, it appears that the falling cost of premiums has concealed the worst effects of the change in law for females, according to research by the AA.
The survey suggested that a young woman would now find her premium remaining unchanged or even potentially lower than it had been before the law came into effect. This is due to a no-claims bonus taking up to a third off the cost of her premium. Her twin brother would now, as expected, enjoy a significantly lower premium due to the law not penalising him for his gender.
Simon Douglas from the AA said: “Dire predictions that car insurance would be in disarray and that young women would see major price hikes has not come to pass.”
Insurers now put greater emphasis on alternative factors to calculate the cost of a premium; these include occupation, age, postcode, driving experience and the type of vehicle driven.
Mr Douglas said that occupation in particular was a helpful determining factor in working out how much insurance policies should cost.
“As a group, midwives or student nurses are likely to return a good claims experience although the fact that the majority of them are female can’t be taken into account. Similarly, trainee actuaries or building apprentices are less likely to present a good risk: most happen to be male,” he remarked.
Young drivers are still statistically most likely to have an accident, with this age group accounting for one in four accidents despite only making up one-eighth of the driving population. In addition, young male drivers have double the number of road accidents than women of the same age.
Insurance premiums tend to be higher generally for young people due to not having a no-claims bonus and the statistic that one-fifth will be involved in a crash within six months of passing their test.
Here at GSI Insurance Services (Southern) Limited we offer comprehensive deals on insurance for young motorists, with the aim of helping new drivers to save on their motoring costs.
