Why women get cheaper car insurance!

[Anonymous]

http://www.aoninsure.ie/blog/2012/09/17 … insurance/

An interesting read from AON Insure:

It is universally known that lady drivers often avail of cheaper car insurance then males. There are quite a number of solid reasons as to why females get offered cheaper car insurance…

The Accident Factor:
Technically, female drivers do not account for a significantly lower volume of insurance claims in Ireland. However, the value of claims presented by women is significantly lower. In other words, even though female drivers are about as likely to be involved in accidents as their male counterparts, those accidents are significantly less serious.

Let’s look at some statistics (always bearing in mind that each insurer will have their own statistics based on their experience). The Road Collision Facts Book of 2010 published by the Road Safety Authority and compiled from information provided by An Garda Siochana notes that for male car drivers, the risk of being killed in a car crash is about three times higher than for female car drivers. If you look at the younger section of drivers (17-24) males in that age category were more than four times more likely to be killed than females of that age category. Between ages 35 and 65, the difference between genders reduces considerably. Insurers will be dealing not only with deaths and serious injuries but also vehicle damage. If you assume that the rate of driver deaths does have a correlation to injuries and vehicle damage –it is safe to assume that claims cost for injuries and vehicle damage will be less for young females than it is for young males.

Other Factors

It’s hard to pin down the reasons for this disparity without making general claims about risk-taking male tendencies

However, a few other factors also feed in to the gap between women and men in insurance premiums. Many men are more likely to be involved in heavy manual or delivery-based work, which involves much more intense use of a vehicle than driving to and from an office. Doing a more sedentary job results in a cheaper car insurance premium, another benefit for many female drivers.

Insurance and Equality – Change is on the way

The Equality legislation that has been passed into law in Ireland in recent years is accepted as being socially progressive- equality for all is something that should be a cornerstone of our laws. What if however that search for equality gives rise to what could be perceived as a less than fair situation?

We will all be aware that following a decision by the European Court of Justice, come 21st December of this year motor insurers will no longer be able to use gender as a rating factoring in the calculation of motor insurance premiums. (Read more about the EU Gender Directive here) Given a similar vehicle, age of insured, area of use and all other things being equal, a female policyholder should therefore pay the same rate as a Male policyholder.

In practice you rarely see two exactly similar risks given all that goes into the calculation of the premium. The question to be asked- whilst removing gender from the equation provides equality –does it seem correct that gender will no longer be a factor? If young females have to pay similar amounts for their motor insurance the net effect will be increased premiums for females and presumably reduced premiums for males.

Back to our question – does this seem correct? Some will argue that equality should take precedence. What if however the perception that premiums being reduced for young males will encourage a less careful attitude in some (e.g. the loss of no claim discount will not have such a large effect on the pocket as in past times) will this be a good thing? Significant strides have been made in the area of road safety in Ireland in the last 10-15 years. We have all played our part; motorists, Road Safety Authority, Garda Siochana, politicians, legislators, road planners etc.

Usually common sense prevails. Let’s wait and see.

[Author]

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