Motor rates show minor fall in July

Motor insurances prices have remained stable this month with prices dropping 0.6% compared with last month, according to Tiger.co.uk’s monthly car insurance price monitor.

Prices fell 1.8% when compared to the same period last year.

Analysis of prices by gender revealed another significant movement towards greater equality in policy pricing.

Tiger Watch estimated that female drivers have seen their policies increase in price by around 0.1%, whilst prices for male drivers dropping by 1.2% compared to a month ago.

Women have held the historical policy price advantage but this has been eroded since March. Since then car insurance prices for women have soared by 5.6% - equivalent to an annualised inflation rate of around 17% - whilst male prices have dropped by 1.6%.

This means males are paying around 5% more for their policies in July 2012 than women drivers, whereas they were paying some 12.4% more just four months ago as the gender gap narrows in anticipation of the introduction of the EU Gender Directive in December 2012 that prohibits the use of gender as an insurance rating factor.

Tiger.co.uk commercial director Andrew Goulborn said: “What we are seeing is, broadly, continued stability in car insurance prices – they’ve been pretty flat for the last 12 months. However since March we’ve seen female pricing increase by 5.6% - more than five times the current rate of inflation. Essentially women drivers are seeing the results of what we consider to be an unfair EU ruling that comes into effect at the end of 2012.”