Gender ruling and the affect it will have on cheap car insurance

Unless you’ve been living with your head in a bucket over the last two years, you will know that, come 21st December, 2012, there can be no further discriminations based on gender. No matter what you might think of the judgment itself, this creates a short-term opportunity to get cheap car insurance over the next twelve months. So let’s start at the top and see where it leads us. According to experts, the average male driver on his own policy will see very little change out of £1,000. The statistics have always shown the male of the species to be a faster, less careful driver. Whereas women, always the more careful and safety-conscious, are paying an average of £500. Yes, half the average male premium! So much for men being better drivers!

Yet if those men can add a spouse to the policy, they can make big savings for the next twelve months. Here’s how it works. On the 21st December, the way the premiums are distributed between men and women will change to a more even spread between the sexes. On average, men will pay slightly less and women slightly more. In fact, insurers believe stable couples make good insurance risks anyway. But if you change your policy from single to joint, you can lock in savings for the next year, assuming your spouse drives on a regular basis, of course. Remember that insurers don’t like fronting, i.e. the main driver not being a regular driver as a “trick” to get a lower car insurance premium rate. It’s estimated that a young couple still under the age of 25 will save about one-third of the premiums paid separately. Around £500 can be saved in a year by the average couple and some money will be saved by even the older drivers that are already getting the lowest rates.

This potential advantage will only last one year and it’s not certain what the joint rates will look like next year. More importantly, although this can produce cheap car insurance, it can also cost more if you are proposing to join one very experienced driver with one who is inexperienced or has a bad claims record. Before you make any kind of decision you should, as always, use you common sense and look around for quotes first.