Car insurance for women

For many years if you ticked the F box, your premium automatically got a discount. But although driving statistics may show in women’s favour in some respects, it’s not purely because of biology.

There are complex reasons why we’re all familiar with the generalisation that women are safer drivers – but we all know of perfectly safe male drivers and terrible drivers who are women.

When did women-only car insurance end?

Back in 2012 the EU passed a law that made it illegal to charge women less for their car insurance premium on the basis of their sex or gender. Since then, no discounts have been available purely for women. And after Brexit, this is one of many pieces of EU legislation that still applies in the UK.

Do women get cheaper car insurance now?

Sometimes, but not because of who they are, but because of their driving habits. Things that women statistically do, such as driving less, having clerical jobs, getting fewer driving convictions, reduce risk and, in turn, bring down premiums. But if a man gave exactly the same answers on a quote as a woman, his price would be the same as hers.

Women don’t always get cheaper car insurance

There are times though when women can find they’re actually paying more for their insurance. Women often get insured as a second named driver, which can make things cheaper for the main policyholder.

When a named driver then goes on to get their own policy, they find their premium is high because they haven’t built up their own no claim discount (NCD).

An NCD can have a dramatic effect on cost, and discovering that many years of claim-free driving as a named driver doesn’t count can be a shock. An NCD can carry over for two years, so if you’re always a named driver and never the policyholder, you could look at alternating each year.