Last year, car insurance premiums have risen significantly, bringing an average insurance policy up by more than 15 %. This means that the average annual cost of a car insurance policy in 2011 being at £840 was then raised to a hefty £970. The Automobile Association revealed that the 5.4% increase alone, was risen during the last three months of the said year. With young motorists incurring exorbitant quotes, the average young driver aged under the age of 22 would be expecting to pay close to £2,500 for a car insurance coverage. That is also equal to an 11% rise within the year.
Young male drivers, within the 21 and below age range, are the drivers which have the most for an average in car insurance quotes. With an expected average of around £3,100, this is significantly higher than the average for a female driver which is at £1,700. On the other hand, for male driver aged 30-39, the cost of car insurance is averaged at £820. And female motorists in their sixties are the drivers paying the least car insurance, being averaged at £420.
Late last year, the European Court of Justice set out a ruling which stated that insurance providers could not use gender as a factor in considering the exact car insurance premium of a driver. This is because of the belief that the insurance practice is deemed discriminative. Nevertheless, the Court of Justice also ruled that this mandate will take effect in the last month of this year (2012). With this mandate to be taken into effect this December, female drivers must brace themselves for the same insurance quotes that young male drivers have been receiving over the last few years.
On the bright side, if the court of justice closed a door with the gender ruling, car insurance companies have opened a window of opportunity with their ‘black-box technology’. This black box is based on telematics technology which will be able to observe record and report the driving skills and habits of a driver. With car insurance companies being able to see for themselves the driving performance of a policyholder, they will be able to gage the risk that these drivers present while driving. The better the driving performance of a motorist, the lower the car insurance premiums will be. And what is best about this is that, the black box will record data based on their performance alone, and not on the fact that they are female or male. Hence, both male and female drivers will be able to see better insurance quotes with the use of this technology.
