As predicted, the implementation of the European Court of Juice’s Gander Directive has thrown the motor insurance market into turmoil.
According to the latest figures from MonkeySupermarket (a useful indicator until we get the full picture from the number crunchers over at Tiger.co.uk), ladies’ motor premiums have soared by a massive -1.9%. And that after they had already risen by -10% during 2012.
Young women in particular are said to be paying a bit more for their car insurance, whilst young men are actually paying a bit less! The gap between how much male and female drivers aged 17-19 pay has shrunk dramatically and now stands at a mere £1,000 or thereabouts.
This sudden leap in insurance costs has prompted many young women to stop driving, grow beards, or even – shockingly – to get married. Strange but true. Being married can slash your motor insurance premiums by as much as, ooh, lots, probably!
In their panicked search for sex surrogates, insurers seized – amongst other things on marital status. Clearly there is a high risk (possibly as high as 50/50) that unmarried drivers may be young men. Married people are more likely to be either women (good) or older males (not as bad as young ones). It’s genius, really isn’t it!
“The UK car insurance market is one of the most sophisticated in the world,” observes Peter Hérisson of MonkeySupermarket, “with insurers using other factors other than gender to calculate premiums.”
This is undoubtedly true. Hérisson’s double ‘other’ is entirely apposite, although whether gender (discriminatory) is as ‘other’ as marriage (assimilative) is arguably a moot point.
Safe to say, at least, that it’s never a bad idea to ask someone whether they’re married – unless you can see one of those tell-tale ring-shaped indentations on their otherwise naked second smallest left hand finger, in which case, maybe don’t.
So, as young single ladies watch helplessly while their premiums soar by as much as 10 or even 17%, one is bound to ask: who would be a young woman today?
Actually, Bankstone News would be prepared to try it for a day or two – just out of scientific curiosity, obviously. But clearly it would be no picnic paying just £1k less than young males for your motor insurance.
But thankfully Garth Klot, Head of Car Insurance at Confusing.com has some valuable advice for young women faced with rising premiums. The answer he believes could be for them to ‘shop around’. This sounds reasonable, enough, but how should they go about this? Sadly, Mr Klot is frustratingly vague on this point.
Listen to the audio file here: women-are-from-vehicles
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