Women drivers face insurance price-hike

Gender-specific insurance pricing will soon be a thing of the past, and females - previously enjoying the lower-risk pricing - are likely to be hit with premium hikes.

An EU ruling is to blame: putting an end to the trend of charging 'risky' males more than traditionally 'safe' females, and equalising prices across the two genders.

Coming into force on December 21, insurance companies have begun issuing statements on how they'll start dealing with the new system.

Female-centred insurance company Sheila's Wheels has been the first to clarify their plans: phasing out their old policies entirely 3 days before the deadline, and issuing new regulation-compatible renewals from the 18th of November.

What of the prices, though - how much more will females be charged? Sheila's Wheels, who have 50,000 male and 450,000 female customers, told the Mirror that the rise is likely to be as little as four or five per cent on the latter's premiums.

However, continues the piece, "thousands" of customers will see an increase by as much as 10 per cent, and 'a handful' could be seeing price rises of as much as 25 per cent.

Additionally, companies with more males on the books are likely to pile even more onto female premiums in order to balance out risk-heavy males.

"We have always believed the effects of this ruling will create many unforeseen consequences - not all of them positive for women," said the company's head of projects Jacky Brown.

"[However] Sheilas' Wheels expects that the impact for the hundreds of thousands of women we insure [..] will be more favourable than what we expect to see in the market generally."