Do women DESERVE lower motor insurance?

[Fran666]

Is this a legitimate action or one that is unfair/ presumptious/ even anti-feminist?

[Theland]

We deserve it don't we?

[rja211077]

strange question.

women make fewer claims, therefore pay lower premiums. there is no presumption involved...this is based on facts.

it is legitimate because there's no law against it.

it is fair because those who, by virtue of their characteristics and attributes, are - in theory - more likely to claim, should pay higher premiums.

anti-feminist??! yeah i can just see women across the world going 'how dare you charge me less than an otherwise equivalent male! i demand to pay equal premiums!'

[Panic Button]

Insurance companies just work by statistics.

Women drivers cost them less than us men, so get charged less. How can we argue.

I have no proof, but I suspect that women have more low speed bumps, but for a good expensive wipe out you have to stick a man behind the wheel

[jno]

well, you can slice the market many ways... basically, most bad driving is by men, especially young men. So you could charge older people less (as Saga do), or charge the wealthy less (they're less inclined to crash their Lexuses) and so on.

Still, it's a step towards charging higher health insurance premiums to the poor, or those with chronic illnesses, and I'm not sure whether this is the right thing.

[DamonZanetti]

no

[flip-flop]

Yes, it is fair.

Women, in fact, have more accidents than men but men have the more expensive ones - so from a pure actuarial point of view it is completely just that women are charged less for motor insurance because they cost their insurance companies less money in claims.

Likewise, men pay less for long term disability insurance - sometimes known as permanent health insurance - because men don't have as much time off sick as women.

[idalovett]

I think any driver (male or female) who has never made a claim on their insurance deserve to be on a lower scale completely. I have been driving for 36 years and have never had an accident but my insurance reduction is pegged at 5 years no claims bonus. I was told that this is the ceiling that most insurance companies give to drivers these days.

[redcrx]

i think that lower risk drivers should have lower premiums, if thats women then so be it.
Just to add though that I have never found the companys offering insurance to women only to be the cheapest. Maybe its the cars i drive as i have never made a claim in 17 years of driving and have a clean licence.
The best advice is to shop around every year, or check out websites like confused.com for the best deals. You may find that women policies are not always cheaper.

[Loosehead]

If women are better drivers as we are continually being told, how come there are very few women racing drivers? You'd have thought that F1 would tap into this talent!

[jno]

because 'better' is not the same as 'faster' perhaps, Loosehead? And perhaps male failure to realise this is what puts their premiums up? Just a thought.

[Pippa68]

F1 requires strength & stamina in their drivers..and men fit the bill far better than women in this respect.

Although a mans pain threshold is notoriously lower ;o)

[chilledmatt]

If statistics revealed that people of a certain race, or that gay people were a higher risk I think there would be an uproar if this were reflected in premiums.