This isn’t a contentious point anymore because ladies almost always get lower auto insurance rates from nearly all providers. A male driver with the exact same particulars is deemed riskier because of the characteristics of his gender. Before anyone starts, gender is a significant factor in premium calculations and is used primarily in life and vehicle insurance because it is an indicator of risk.
Insurance premium calculations are based on a thick set of measures that determine individual risk. Companies will have to try and figure out the main indicators, which will tell them which types of drives are more likely to make a claim at some point in the future. This is simply a damage control practice. Also, it is only fair to charge more to drivers who are claiming more.
There are several factors used in premium calculations. These include driving history, insurance rating, value and sales tax on cars, actual distance and for what purpose the vehicle is used, and other details such as age and gender, marital status, credit history, or the crime rate in a particular community.
Chief of these is the individual’s driving habits – whether he or she will stay safe on the road. As statistics show, SHE will likely stay safe more than he. Hence, this results in cheaper auto insurance for women. It is all about what predictive information is used to tell the companies rather than any sentimental thinking or gut feeling.
When driving, ladies keep a fair distance, watch out for their speed, don’t overtake as much, stay in their lanes longer, break the journeys to manageable portions rather than trying to get to their destination in one go, and generally aren’t keen to force their driving skills to limits. They are better prepared and organized in advance to help them avoid rushing around. These qualities result help them avoid accidents.
Skills and driving behavior
Although numerous studies show men are involved in more accidents than women, it does not necessarily mean that they are less skilled on the road. In fact, men tend to be more proficient on the road. It seems that men’s skill is their own downfall — for this encourages them to engage in more risky road behavior.
Therefore, men are more prone to violate traffic laws and to be involved in other sorts of road altercations. Consider the statistics: men are 3x more likely to be convicted of DUI, more than 3x likely to drive recklessly, and they also overspeed much more than women. In effect, men are of course slapped with more expensive car insurance rates.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), male drivers take too many risks with their lives too by not wearing seat belts, driving under the influence, and speeding. Crashes involving male drivers are deadlier than females mainly because of the speed and daring driving patterns. In 2020, 72% of all traffic accident-related deaths were males. And the driver was male in most cases of accident-related death. The biggest problem is that they caused more pedestrian, cyclist, and motorcyclist deaths than female drivers.
This means insurance companies would have to pay a lot more damages for the vehicles and properties as well as injuries and deaths. At the end of the day, someone has got to pay for those costs and it isn’t fair to charge more to ladies for these damages and injuries because they don’t usually cause them. That is why men have to be charged a lot more auto insurance premiums to cover all those claims.
Source: motor1.com
The biggest gender-related premium gap is seen in teen drivers. Somehow boys are much more showy, daring, faster, and more dangerous than girls behind the steering wheels. That is why, the vehicle insurance premium gap between a teenage boy and a girl can be as much as 14% in many cases. Knowing how expensive teenage premiums can get, that is a lot of dollars.
That is why a parent of a teenage boy may have to downgrade the family car in order to be able to buy liability-only car insurance, which is usually half the price of full coverage. With a teenage boy in the family, this could mean about $2000 in savings on the insurance premium. The problem isn’t that obvious when it is a teenage girl being added to policies.
The premium gap starts closing as motorists mature and calm down a bit and is probably at their lowest between the age of 55 and 65 when both can get the best automobile insurance rates of their lives. Yet, it doesn’t completely disappear at any stage and ladies almost always enjoy better deals in nearly every state and with most companies.
Social Forces at Play
Another factor that may distort the statistics against male drivers is concerned with the way our society is structured. This means while men tend to figure in more accidents, it could simply be because there are more male drivers on the road. Also, in many domestic setups, it is usually the men who need to drive farther to work.
There is also the observation that when couples are driving, the women tend to relegate more driving to their male companion. This includes situations like driving in bad weather, on congested urban highways, or in otherwise difficult conditions. Of course, these are the very same road conditions where most accidents occur.
Source: nypost.com
Controlling Costs
For both men and women, the only controllable way to get the cheapest car insurance is by improving your driving record. This means obeying traffic laws and keeping your slate clean in terms of accidents for the longest time possible. In addition, minding your credit score, buying a lower-risk automobile, and avoiding high-crime neighborhoods help.
Regardless of gender, experience, and age, everyone can benefit from shopping around for the best deals as well. Actually, families can set up their vehicle insurance policies in a way that the mother is the main insured and especially male members are listed as drivers. This way, they maximize their savings and there is nothing wrong with this practice.
