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FEMALE DRIVERS MAY face considerable increases in their car insurance premiums after December this year thanks to European Commission guidelines on gender discrimination.
The guidelines, published in January, mean that from 21 December, insurers will not be allowed to take gender into account when calculating premiums and benefits.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Miriam O’Neill of AA Ireland said the new directives are “unfair and harsh”, particularly on young female drivers who could see their premiums soar as much as 50 per cent.
“This will definitely have an impact on young female drivers even though it’s well known that young male drivers are the highest risk,” she said.
Young male drivers, on the other hand, are in luck as their premiums will be mixed with those of female drivers and charged equally.
O’Neill said the new rules are not “distinguishing between quality” of drivers as young men have a considerably higher risk of crashing their car.
“Quite a shock”
In the next few weeks people will begin to receive their insurance renewal notices and will start to realise the effects of the new rules.
“It will be quite a shock for a lot of people as people might have only a vague awareness of it now,” O’Neill said. “I think the responsibility now lies with insurers themselves to make customers aware of the changes.”
While young female drivers will see their premiums rise, the Commission’s directives will have a knock on effect on parent’s pockets as well. Parents who have adult children as named drivers will see their sons saving them money on insurance and their daughters costing them.
AA Ireland said it has been working “behind the scenes” in preparation for 21 December and aims to soften the blow for drivers.
“We’re definitely looking at proposals for young drivers to moderate the effect, particularly for female drivers,” O’Neill said. “Drivers should also shop around to make sure they get the best deal and look for group schemes to join.”
“By and large drivers will be shopping around more and more which will put pressure on insurance companies to provide good deals,” she said.
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Fair is fair
I do think it should work on statistics and if they’re proven safer drivers then they deserve cheaper insurance. Isn’t that how insurance works, higher risk = higher premium?
Fair is fair… ;)
They could have reduced the premium for men.
Likewise Niall, if I am proven to be a safe driver, i.e: clean license, no points, should I not get a discount? Oh no, I am male, therefore I get tarred with the same brush as young dangerous male drivers. There are alot of very very bad female drivers out there getting cheap insurance on the back of these statistics. Treat everyone the same, fair is fair
Yes, let’s discriminate against half the population based on statistics. Isn’t that prejudice? If premiums for a particular race were higher due to statistics people would be outraged.
Why use gender statistics? If you’re doing that then why not shoe size, hair colour or “people with freckles have been shown to be safer drivers?!” It’s all nonsense!
It’s all nonsense indeed used by the insurance companies to make loads of money. Massaging of figures was all it ever was in the first place as they never compared the number of miles driven. Quinn insurance is a loss here.
Men have been fighting for equality for many years
Equality at last…….
The overall premium costs are still too high, that wasn’t the point I was making :)
AXA insurance ltd had retained profits of 75,097,000 for 2010, no accounts published for last year yet so not like these companies are loosing money because premiums are too low ;)
Im driving 10 years, never had an accident and I have no points. My policy, third party, is still more expensive than some bimbo I work with who has crashed twice in the last two years. The last time she crashed was because she was checking her phone. The first time “one of the other girls was playing with her hair”.
We should be regulating the prices of the Insurance Industry.
Even more money for Insurance companies.
Don’t bring women’s prices up, bring men’s down. Price of insurance in Ireland is f***ing scandalous. My first years insurance was third party on a 1.2 €3000
The cynic in me thinks insurance companies are delighted with this. They don’t have to lower mens premiums, just charge more for womens.
too right andrew
Does not make sense , premiums should reduce slightly for men and increase slightly for women .
Not this way where premiums for men stay the same and for women rise by a shitload . Not fair at all , more like a clever way to rise insurance company revenues under the guise of equality.
Surely they can get around this by having a space on the form for…. ‘people that never say thanks when another driver let’s them out at a junction’ discount…;-)
i think you’d tick that box quicker than most women
About time it was after all they do cause most the crashes on the road
Equality Rules :-D
Regulate the prices of Insurance companies to minimize the potential monopoly after December.
Why can’t the cost of men’s insurance be reduced to that of the women’s? Equality?!
This does not make sense….speeding and careless driving is much more dangerous that not knowing how to park or use the mirrors to tidy up the make up.
Well and if you do make up while driving…? Daily traffic view of many ladies on my way to work :) Great multitasking I have to say anyways :)
Whatever about gender and being more dangerous but shouldn’t male prices be dropped or at least let the difference meet halfway. Sounds like a scam to me.
My thoughts exactly, after a ruling calling for more equality, we if viewed equally should be met in the middle on prices and not allowing women to be ripped off as well as men have been. The only winners here are Insurance companies and neither men nor women actually receive equality. More rip off Ireland more like.
From this ruling should not a common pricing system not have been put forward rather than immediately just raise women’s premiums?
One would imagine a more equal “halfway” would be found for say a 26 yr old male and female driver.
This is not a win for anyone but a handsome boost to insurances companies revenue..
my view has always been your insurance should be calculated on years driving irrespective of age & limits on engine size that would increase with experience. ie year 1 = 1ltr car , year 5 = 1.6l, every 10 years you re sit your test
trying to figure out why the thumbs down ???
This engine size is a silly thing imho, so if you or your family own 2.0 car then as new driver you cannot drive it? Do they have to buy another 1.0 car then?
Funny enough 2.0 cars are usually much safer for life than shoe boxes 1.0 cars and if they do that just for power level of the engine then this is silly point as you can crash and die in 1.0 same as 2.0 or 3.0. 1.0 can do over 100 km/h as far as I know and if you’re speeding above that what is difference what you drive, you are toasted if you crash simple.
because it assumes that experience and responsibility are related.
but surely restricting drivers engine size untul they hsve ammassed the knowledge to drive safely is better than anyone being able to buy a big a car as they want just because they have the funds. potentially putting other lifes at risk ? im the first to agree that young male drivers drive the fastest and most irrrsponsibilist. increasing womens premiums wont save lives
@Conor. It actually does sound like a good idea, I’d imagine the thumbs down are coming from the ones who probably took several attempts to pass their driving the test and don’t like the thought of redoing it every 10yrs which in my opinion is a good thing!
engine size has nothing to do with accidents thats why you got thumbs down.
its not the engine its the inexperience of those people behind the engine is my point.
Think your getting thumbs down because when scrolling down on iPhone my thumb seems to hit “thumbs down” icon !
So I’m guessing it happens to others, that…. Or a lot of people don’t agree with ya
Think your getting thumbs down because when scrolling down on iPhone my thumb seems to hit “thumbs down” icon !
So I’m guessing it happens to others, that…. Or a lot of people don’t agree with ya
Think your getting thumbs down because when scrolling down on iPhone my thumb seems to hit “thumbs down” icon !
So I’m guessing it happens to others, that…. Or a lot of people don’t agree with ya
Conor why should I have to resit my driving test every 10 years. I drive for a living & can tell you the driving test in this country including the lastest one in no way prepares you for everyday driving. I have friends that are driving instructors & we laugh at most of the stuff they teach. I believe there should be training courses advertising programmes online education but resit a driving test. I believe most experienced safe drivers would fail their resit test not because they cant drive but because they have developed better skills than those in the test. Even the higher skilled driving tests such as bus & truck tests do not teach anywhere near the amount needed for driving compared to the UK or Germany.
This is absolute BS from the EU.
Insurance premiums should be calculated based on risk and if the stats say a certain demographic are a lower risk then the premium should be lower regardless of gender.
As someone who paid extortionate premiums when I was younger, I’ve always felt that young drivers are guilty until proven innocent by the insurance companies and these EU imposed changes will only give the green light to insurance companies to increase their average premiums for young drivers.
I agree to a certain extent, but imagine if Health Insurance companies started charging more to woman of child bearing age to cover additional costs.
As a former young male driver I agree that they are the most dangerous group. But equality is equality, not just when it favours women.
but what happened if they were to look at skin colour, race, left handed v right handed. hair colour.
When u say young drivers do u mean just male? Because if not then its not bs
At the end of the day it’s more money for the insurance companies. We the public can debate if its right or wrong, while the insurance companies laugh at us
And the EU score another own goal.
Without getting into a row here will this hike as they call it affect older drivers?
I know of some older drivers who are driving ( and shouldn’t be as they are dangerous) and they pay very low insurance ?
They base premiums on the risk of certain categories for the previous 3 year period. Young males are the highest risk category and should be charged more. Next they’ll have to charge an 85 year old the same as a 40 year old due to ageism. It’s ridiculous! But hey, I’m still considered a young male driver and I’m delighted with this stroke of luck!
And yet again prices go up. Here’s a thought bring male insurance cost down.
If black people were statistically proven to be a higher risk category would it be ok to charge a higher premium based on skin colour? I don’t think so.
Insurance premiums should be based solely on driving ability / history etc (as well as factors directly related to the car being insured). Unproven drivers would start on a high premium and as they prove themselves to be safe drivers (i.e. by not causing accidents) the premium should decrease.
Also, insurance companies should be required to show a complete breakdown of the premium showing the various risk factors involved in calculating it and how much of the premium is attributed to each factor.
If so will Male equivalents see there premiums reduce ?
None of these regulatory changes are ever bad news for insurance companies. Whatever changes they will find a way to increase their profits. Suspect they are delighted with this ruling.
i reckon most of the accidents in around Dublin I’ve seen are mostly woman drivers. ban them all i say
@ Emma,male insurance is going to go down,just that yours will go up,equality rocks doesn’t it,a young male driver with a clean full licence still pays more than a female with a 1 day old provisional who never sat behind the wheel of a car in her life,you can’t say that’s fair
sure I had to crash the car just to get the money back, Yea there was talk of me going to jail there for a while….
Why did insurers oppose the test achats case in the ECJ if it means a premium bonanza. If you can’t take gender into account for women anymore then you can’t take it into account for men and there premia must fall!
Insurance companies are rubbing their hands with glee!
It’s a known fact that insurance companies make the biggest profit from young male between 18 and 25. Now they are going to make even more.
Insurance should be based on driving ability and history not what you have or don’t have between your legs.
To say young women are better drivers than young males is sexiest, if it was the opposite way around women would march on Dublin to burn their bras!
Does that mean that women will be paid the same wage as men in the work place? Rather than paying women 20% less, for the same work! Then fair would be fair!
It’s fairer to set the insurance price based on past claims (individual parameter) rather than gender, age etc (a collective parameter the driver can influence). Young men should not pay a premium just because they happen to be part of a group that tends be more likely to get involved in road accidents.
In any case, having a car is a dear luxury. It’s better to use public transport or, ever better, cycle. These methods don’t discriminate.
Public transport not a realistic option for many people outside of Dublin. For me to get public transport I would face a 25 walk to the nearest bus stop and then have to get two buses (one city, one “rural”) to get to work. It would take two hours, all going well. Or I can drive there in 30 mins.
Unfortunately, you are right. Public transport is not a good solution for everyone. At least not at present.
Do any insurance companies here use telematics? The Guardian had an interesting piece on it last week.
Interesting to see the reaction when “equality” takes a step to balance the divide but it’s actually women who have to pay.
I don’t get this. Are young men no longer statistically more likely to crash? If that’s the case, why not LOWER their rates instead of increasing women’s? I agree with equality, and young men’s ins. was ridiculously high – but are they now saying the stats were wrong? Or are there so many more women driving now they’ve equalled out?
You’ll all be that much safer soon, as it looks like I’ll be priced off the road.
Jo,
women get pregnant and take time off for martentiy leave. Shoud they be paid less?
Agree or disagree?
any group could be broken into a demographic, like drivers called Peter are a higher risk than someone called Paul. you can’t divide society into 2 groups.
I’ve held a full licence in all categories for a few years now, as well as doing numerous advanced courses over the years, eight years no claims, no penalty points, huge experience on the road with a couple of hundred thousand miles under my belt, then got the lowest possible on my policy that I could. all that was done and dusted and I added my girlfriend to the policy, it immediately dropped ?50! now she’s not a bad driver by any means, but cannot touch my record of safe driving and years of paying extortionate premiums. all I’m saying Is that for some people, this policy increase is fair, but in other instances, the insurance company criteria are completely skewed.
I’m young, fairly healthy and don’t smoke, but pay the same for health insurance as someone who’s 30 stone and smokes 80 a day. If women get lower car insurance rates, I should get lower health insurance rates.
All car insurance & tax should be loaded onto the cost of the fuel, – that way, the more you drive, the more you pay.
Also, it would catch out the insurance & tax cheats, largly found among the non-nationals.
it would get rid of a lot of useless jobs in the insurance sector.
There are too many non-productive jobs in this country, & too many parasites.
I have a feeling the insurance companies will all bring in the thing they brought out for young male drivers to make insurance cheaper for everyone now just to make an extra bit money
question please,as im not from Dublin and havent driven up to Town in months and I mean at least 4-5 months …whats the speed limited after the Airport I thought 80 klm. but was told 40 …can anyone enlighten me …thanks
sorry heading northbound after AP
Not 100% sure, but if you are taking the road out of the airport to Swords, its 60kmph… There should be loads of signs around there anyway, considering the amount tourists that would rent cars and drive from the airport.
f###kkkkk !!:(….
I can’t shop around as my insurer refuses to close a small claim which we were told 6 months ago was straight forward and they would deal with everything. They never contacted us and now when they increased the premium by €260 we are stuck with them as we have an open claim. They tell us it’s “standard practice” to keep a claim open, yet there is nothing left to repair or pay for. No other insurer will take us because the claim is not concluded. I now hear this is common practice. How is this legal? I am furious.
theyre not going to bring male premiums down because they still pose the same risk as this time last year.. why would they?
have your say