Women’s car insurance premiums begin to rise

With a week to go until the European Court of Justice ruling on gender equality comes into effect, new figures from comparison site Gocompare.com reveal that women's car insurance premiums have started to rise.  The average best price for female car insurance has gone up from £748 on 1 November to £862 on 12 December.

Gocompare.com's ‘Gender Watch', has analysed over 10 million car insurance quotes since January 2011, but this is the most significant movement in premiums to date.  In addition to the overall average best price for women rising, there has been a slight increase in the best price for 17 and 18 year old females from £1,910 at the start of November to £2,191.

Gender Watch has also revealed that the number of insurers currently offering car quotes for 17 year olds on Gocompare.com's panel has reduced from 35 to 32 on average.  It is anticipated that a number of insurers could exit the young driver market temporarily until prices equalise and the market stabilises.

In total, half of the insurers on Gocompare.com's car insurance panel have now begun to equalise premiums in some way.  However, the majority of the premium changes to date have been in relation to older drivers where the gap between male and female premiums is less marked.  Only a handful of car insurers have so far done any equalisation of younger drivers' premiums.

Gocompare.com's head of motor insurance, Scott Kelly, said, "We've tracked male and female premiums for the last 23 months and this is the first real sign of movement as a number of insurers begin implementing rate changes.  However, with the majority of insurers saying they are leaving full equalisation until the last minute we are not going to see the real impact of the ruling on the best prices available until 21 December.  

"One impact could be that the number of insurers offering cover for drivers of certain ages will fall as companies temporarily exit the market until prices settle down and they can then pick their price points.  As a result, there may be less choice but the advice is still to compare all the prices available to be sure you are getting the best deal you can at that moment in time.  We still don't know exactly how the market is going to look post 21 December, but the assumption is that rates for female drivers will continue to rise."

Gocompare.com has produced a guide to the ruling and how it could affect female motorists which can be accessed by going to the following address: gocompare.com/gender.