Although young women pay half as much as their male counterparts for
car insurance, older women are finding their premiums have increased.
Data gathered by Guarding Money shows that until the age of 60, male drivers have a higher accident rate than women. However, after that age women are responsible for a greater number of
car insurance claims, and by the age of 80 they are making more than men the same age.
As a result of these findings, some
car insurance providers are charging premiums of 50 per cent more for women over 75, than for men. Once they are over 80-years-old, women are paying up to double what men are paying.
Driving the increase in accidents is the fact that the number of older women driving on the UK’s roads has increased hugely in recent years. In 1976, only 4 per cent of women drivers were over 70. This had increased to 20 per cent by the 1990s and has now reached 36 per cent.
The average increase in premiums quoted to
car insurance applicants aged 75 years, when the only detail changed on the form was the sex of the driver, was 53 per cent, according to a Guardian Money survey.
