Female car insurance is already considered to be slightly cheaper than it is for male drivers, but there are still ways to reduce your premiums even further.
When applying for car insurance, the details you supply are used to calculate the likelihood that you will need to make a claim against your policy. If you are deemed to be very likely to make a claim, your car insurance will be expensive. If your details suggest that you are unlikely to make a claim, your policy will be cheaper.
The following are examples of some of the factors used to assess your risk when applying for female car insurance:
Date of Birth:
Statistics show that younger drivers are more likely to make a claim than older drivers. Therefore, younger female drivers will pay more for their car insurance than older female drivers. This is obviously an obstacle that is hard to avoid if you are a young girl insuring her first car. However, to reduce the impact as much as possible, try and get some experience on the road in your parents car before purchasing your own.However, avoid falling into the trap of remaining under your parents insurance policy for too long, as the sooner you have your own policy, the sooner you can build up your own "No Claims Bonus", and your insurance will be cheaper within a year.
Post Code:
Your post code is used by the insurer to determine several factors of the area you live in. Females living in an area with a high crime-rate will have a higher premium because there is an increased risk of them making a claim. Similarly, traffic density of the area is also considered, and a higher density means a higher perceived risk.Again, these are factors that you can do little about, but there are still ways of reducing their impact.Storing your car in a garage for example can help considerably against thieves, and drivers who may only use their car a few times a week pose less risk of being involved in an accident.
Security:
As mentioned above, female drivers who keep their car in a locked garage will benefit from a lower premium. If this is not possible, a driveway is preferable to simply parking it on the road.Items such as steering wheel locks and alarms are unlikely to make a noticeable difference to your premium, but a thatcham approved immobiliser can help quite a lot. Ensure to have it fitted by an approved mechanic and make sure you keep a copy of the installation certificate.
Start Date of Cover:
Insurance rates vary monthly with most insurers, and a company offering the best price for female car insurance one month, may not be able to offer such a good deal the next. For this reason it is best to use a service such as My Motor Quote who can search through many different insurers all at once.
Previous Claims:
Female drivers with previous claims represent a higher risk than those without any claims. The more claims a driver has, the higher her premium will be. For this reason and to prevent affecting your No Claims Bonus, drivers should avoid making claims where possible.
Excess:
The "excess" is the amount YOU will pay when making a claim against your policy. For example, a female driver involved in an accident has an excess of £200. If the damage to her car is worth £500, she will pay £200 and her insurance company will pay £300. Voluntarily increasing your excess can help reduce your premium, but you must be able to pay the excess in the event you need to make a claim.
Also note that if you had a fairly high excess of £300, and you made a claim of £250, you would be liable to pay for all of it, and the claim would still be noted down against you.
Duncan Hall
