Loading ...Posts Tagged ‘cheap car insurance for women over 25’
Consider the following scenario that really happened recently on a busy highway in Johannesburg. An elderly gentleman was in the fast lane of the highway with a string of cars behind him. He was driving at around 75km per hour and the younger guy just behind him was getting increasingly frustrated and impatient. When he finally managed to get into the lane just left of the elderly man, he slowed down and with arms waving tried to indicate to the older man that he must move out of the fast lane. The elderly man didn’t even move his head, he just held on to the steering wheel and continued driving in the fast lane. He was clearly concentrating and didn’t even give other drivers a thought.
The actions and reactions of other drivers on the road in this scenario raises a few questions. Are older drivers a bigger danger on the road than younger drivers? Should older drivers be penalised for their age when their car insurance premiums are calculated? Or could we argue that they should pay less for car insurance than younger drivers because they have the benefit of experience behind them?
If we look at the facts around this subject, we know that car insurance companies favour females above males as far as calculating car insurance premiums go because females are known to be better drivers than males as they are more patient and often have children as passengers. It is also a fact that young males – usually those under 25, are known to be high risk drivers because they are prone to speeding, drinking and driving and in general not very attentive on the road. Males and females over 40 are seen as drivers with lower risk as they are more experienced and not as impatient as younger drivers and therefore their car insurance premiums also tend to be lower.
It is, however, also a fact that as people age, factors like impaired vision, mental and/or physical deterioration, slower reaction times and a lack of confidence on high speed roads can severely impede their driving skills. The question is how do car insurance companies determine at what age car insurance premiums should increase, and is it fair to assume that all people reaching that specific age would automatically qualify as high risk?
If looking at statistics that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the USA released, drivers between 64 and 69 are the safest drivers on the road, no doubt, because they have years of driving experience behind them and also because they have learned the art of being patient. Unfortunately, many people in that age group are already suffering with age related disabilities and car insurance companies could argue that even though that age group was proven to be the lowest risk for them, they should be paying more for car insurance because their physical deterioration turn them into high risk drivers.
This issue could be debated and discussed and pulled apart, argued for and against charging senior citizens more for car insurance and setting an age at which this should happen for whatever reasons are decided. The question, however, remains. Can a specific age be determined at which senior citizens should be charged more for car insurance?
We all want cheaper insurance. Though it is a necessity, most people tend to view their monthly premium as a grudge payment. Insurance companies across the board use the lure of cheaper premiums very effectively in marketing campaigns; in certain cases even offering to pay out an agreed sum of money should they not be able to provide you with a cheaper quote.
But what exactly is cheaper insurance? A cheap monthly premium is not the only consideration to keep in mind. An insurance policy is, in essence, a legal document, and the document in its entirety has to be reviewed thoroughly in order to ascertain the cost effectiveness of your insurance.
A starting point would be to confirm that the policy you select is fit for purpose and covers your insurable interest (for instance, if you are the only person driving your car, there is no reason to have a policy permitting more than one driver).
In addition, the following can be considered:
Excess
This is where most people lose with their vehicle insurance. The amount of excess you will pay in the eventuality of a claim is directly proportionate to the cost of your monthly premium. As an example (using very simplified figures):
Sandra pays a monthly premium of R100 towards comprehensively insuring her car, a late model sedan. She is covered for the full retail value of her vehicle should it be stolen. Her excess is 15% of the claim with a minimum payment of R5, 000.
Dan pays a monthly premium of R150 for the exact same vehicle. He is also covered for the full retail value of the vehicle, but his excess in such an eventuality is only 5% of the claim, minimum R2, 500.00.
Assuming that the model of car in question has a retail value of R100, 000.00, Sandra will only get a settlement of R85, 000.00, whilst Dan will get a payout of R95, 000.00.
In addition to the basic excess explained above, additional excesses should also be taken into consideration. The full description of excesses will always appear in your policy. You can use this schedule of excesses to help you determine whether your cheap car insurance is really as cheap as claimed.
Policy Wording and Inclusions/Exclusions
The way in which your policy is worded along with the specific inclusions, exclusions and conditions pertaining to your insured vehicle also plays a huge part in ascertaining how affordable your car insurance is.
Let’s continue with Sandra as an example and assume that she has lodged a claim for a stolen vehicle. Sandra bought her car with a factory-fitted alarm, but never installed a VESA-approved gear lock, which her policy stipulates as a security requirement. Because of this policy condition, her claim might be repudiated. This means that her “cheap insurance” potentially ended up amounting to “no insurance”.
Dan, for instance, might have installed an expensive sound system in his car, never realizing that additions such as those are excluded in his policy. He might have his claim settled for the retail amount of the vehicle minus the excess, but he will incur a loss with the sound system.
On the other hand, specific inclusions might make the insurance policy more worth-while.
Enticers (or Policy Sweeteners)
Policy sweeteners are terms and conditions in your policy with the specific purpose of making it more attractive.
An example of a policy sweetener might be that you will pay no excess (or greatly reduced excess) should you lodge a windscreen claim. Or that an extra driver can be added to your car insurance policy without affecting the monthly premium.
These are always worthwhile to consider when looking at getting the cheapest car insurance.
Staying with the theme of rights, do women have the right to lower insurance premiums by sole virtue of their gender?
Pity the man who drives with care and caution, because his insurance company will load his premium anyway.
That’s because claim statistics reveal that men, especially young men, are more likely to be involved in an accident, and the repair bill is likely to be higher than that arising from a car accident claim submitted by a woman driver.
As was recently reported, the European Court of Justice has ruled that from December 2012, insurers in the UK can’t practise gender discrimination by charging men higher premiums than women. While that ruling is not binding on South African insurance companies, it has caused major ripples because our industry tends to follow trends in the UK and Europe.
1st for Women is determined to stick to its business model, and the statistics which underpin it.
“1st for Women stands by the fact that, statistically, women are lower insurance risks than their male counterparts,” said managing director Robyn Farrell.
“They take fewer risks, make more careful decisions, usually stick to the speed limit and frown upon road rage.
“The insurance industry as a whole differentiates but does not discriminate.
“Discrimination implies an arbitrary distinction that is not based on merit whilst differentiation is a distinction based on merit.
“The entire insurance industry differentiates in terms of age, gender, geographical location, years of insurance and licence period.”
Not surprisingly, the SA Insurance Association (Saia) has also come out in support of “differentiation in insurance premiums to benefit low-risk consumers”.
Saia’s legal manager, Suzette Strydom, said insurance premiums were based on risk – the higher the risk, the higher the premium.
The constitution outlawed “unfair” discrimination, but discrimination which “reasonably and justifiably differentiates between persons according to objectively determinable criteria, intrinsic to the activity concerned” was defensible, she said.
In other words, there’s solid evidence that women are generally lower risk when it comes to car claims than men.
“In the South African insurance industry, the interpretation has always been that in the event that an insurer can show, with statistics, over a particular period of time, that the claim ratios confirm an increase in and an exposure to risk as a result of age, gender, location or other factors, the premiums will be determined accordingly,” Strydom said.
Age also played a major role in determining car insurance premiums.
“Drivers between the ages of 18 and 25 are three times more likely to cause an accident,” she said. “It is unfair to expect pensioners, for example, to subsidise younger drivers.”
The other factor which influences your car insurance premium is your claim profile – lodge a claim and your premium may well increase afterwards, in keeping with your increased risk status.
So it stands to reason that if you haven’t claimed on your policy for some time, your risk diminishes and your premium should too.
But this doesn’t happen automatically – you have to ask.
In January I got the usual letter from my insurer, telling me that my monthly premium was about go up because of increases in the cost of labour repair rates, vehicle parts and the like.
I was told that my monthly premium, which includes household insurance, was going to increase by a whopping R564 a month.
So I made a call to my insurance company, pointing out a few facts: that while car parts and labour have gone up in most cases, the value of the two cars in question had significantly decreased; that we do relatively low mileage, and that we hadn’t made a car claim for many years.
Within minutes, I was offered a new deal.
Instead of going up by R564 a month, my existing premium went down by R244 a month, so that call saved me more than R800 a month.
If you’re in a similar position, make that call. –
By Wendy Knowler, Pretoria News