A Buyer’s Guide for Car Insurance for Women
As most people know, car insurance for women is cheaper, on average, than car insurance for men. But it’s a far cry from knowing this simple fact to finding the best car insurance plan for you. This buyer’s guide for car insurance for women shows you how to shop for car insurance and maximize the inherent benefits of a lower risk profile. Better yet, we’ll show you how to shop, find, and buy reliable car insurance in just minutes.
Cheap Car Insurance for Women
Study after study shows that not only do women get into fewer accidents on average, but they cause less damage, fewer fatalities, and commit fewer vehicle-related crimes. Yet, how much cheaper car insurance is for women is all over the place, depending on who you ask. Some studies suggest 7%, others suggest as much as 71%, while much of the discrepancy can be attributed to different locations and different age groups.
Advantage Disappears with Age
According to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, there were 3.91 deaths per 100 million driving miles caused by 16 to 20-year old male drivers compared with 1.99 killed per 100 million miles for the same aged females. Other studies have shown that these numbers slowly converge during middle-age, and actually reverse later in life. In fact, many men over 50 or 60 years-old pay less than their female counterparts. In general, age is more important than gender in determining insurance risk, as one study conducted at Carnegie-Mellon University showed that elderly women are 60% more likely to die in a car accident than a 16 year-old boy.
How to Maximize Cheap Car Insurance for Women
With discounts come extra responsibilities. Speeding ticket, car accidents, and drinking and driving are blemishes that are likely to impact the very data points that allowed you to get cheaper insurance in the first place. Beyond this cardinal rule, you may be able to emphasize certain components of your driving habits that will signal a low-risk profile to insurance companies. Married women with children who drive primarily for family-related functions are likely to receive the lowest rates, as mothers tend to be particularly careful drivers. On the other hand, if you do have children, health insurance can quickly become an important buffer to maintain cheap, car insurance. If you need car insurance that provides personal injury protection for an infant, expect extra costs that may negate your otherwise low-risk profile.
Lower Rates vs. Lower Value
It’s important not to become so focused on lower car insurance rates that you rush toward the cheapest plan. Many states have low car insurance minimums. Twenty thousand dollar limits on bodily injury liability and/or five thousand dollar limits on property damage are unlikely to fully protect from financial liability in the event of a major accident. Plus, cheap car insurance for women is often directly linked to a lower risk profile for bodily injury and damage liability. Rather than opt for cheaper car insurance, the wisest course of action might be to pay comparable premiums for superior coverage. In fact, many insurance companies push their cheapest plans because lower coverage limits can actually lead to higher profit margins overall.
Health Insurance for Women
As a woman, you need all the car insurance discounts you can find, as you’re likely to pay more for health insurance. This extra cost stems from data that suggests that women use more health care services, even for policies that don’t include maternity care. In fact, some insurance companies are so reticent to insure women that they’ve been known to charge more for women who don’t smoke than men who do, as revealed in this New York Times blog post. This type of disparate pricing is yet another reason why you need to get quotes from multiple insurance companies, whether it’s car insurance, health insurance, or some other type of insurance policy. Fortunately, the time needed to get multiple insurance quotes is but minutes when you use an online referral service, like NetQuote. You can make an online request for car insurance quotes, review cost figures and policy details from the comfort of your own home, and still make it to bed at a decent hour.
