Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Female Motor Insurance To Increase After EU Ruling

Insurers have been using gender as a 'risk factor' in motor insurance since forever, but an ECJ ruling (European Court of Justice) today has ruled this as 'gender discrimination' and insurers in the UK will no longer be able to charge different premiums if you are male or female.

Up until now females, especially young females have been paying lot lower premiums for their car insurance as it's been statistically proven that females safety records are better than men.

ABI have stated that male drivers under 21 are twice as likely to have an accident than a female driver under 21, the average cost of a claim for a male 18 years old is £4,400 compared to £2,700 for an 18 year old female involved in an accident.

The ruling will not come in to force until 21st December 2012 to give insurers time to fully revamp their pricing structures and the way they offer insurance to customers.

It is predicted the average female motor insurance policy will increase by 25% and in some cases up by 50%. This should in theory reduce the cost of male insurance policys slightly but whether this happens remains to be seen.

Hodgson Insurance Services believes this EU ruling is ridiculous for the UK market. It's in proven stats that females are a better risk so this should definitely be a 'risk factor' in motor insurance. What will be next, discrimation against where somebody lives in the UK. It's another sign that good old common sense has gone out the window !!!!!