Car insurance

You've probably seen the television adverts for Sheilas' Wheels motor insurance, with three women generally camping it up in a bubblegum-pink car. These good-time girls are contrasted to a group of morose Australian sheep station blokes missing out on cheaper car insurance only available to women. The message is that sisters are insuring it for themselves and can get better deals. But is it just a marketing ploy with the same old insurance dressed up in female-friendly packaging?

Need to know

The promise of cheaper deals is based on the fact that women on average don't have as many serious accidents as men - as such they should be less risky and expensive motorists to insure.

And there is clear evidence that when it comes to appalling driving, men are way out in the lead. Home Office annual statistics show that 96% of dangerous driving offences, 85% of careless driving and 72% of speeding offences were committed by men.

Sheilas' Wheels also promotes the idea that car insurance can be customised for women, such as providing £300 for handbag insurance, a counselling line after accidents and the promise of women-friendly repair practices, which could be making sure that cars can be collected from garages in daylight or before they're needed for a school run.

But mainstream, non-specialist insurers are less convinced that gender-specific insurance gives much extra. They warn that such brands can be clever window dressing and that many are just different doors into the same same shop. For instance, Sheilas' Wheels is not Australian, it's part of the HBOS group that includes Halifax, Bank of Scotland and esure. All insurers know that women drivers represent a lower risk, says Craig Martin, head of motor insurance for Norwich Union. There might be a "few gimmicks added" to a women-only brand, but he says that there might be as many practical benefits in standard policies.

It is also a mistake to assume that women drivers are consistently cheaper to insure, he says. There is a "tipping point" in later middle age when it becomes as expensive as men's.

Among young drivers, men are much more likely to be involved in accidents - but this risk difference narrows through later years.

The AA says that a high-crime postcode can more than double the cost of car insurance (with Liverpool the most expensive). This will be a much more dominant feature in premiums than gender. The way that insurance costs change for women and men over time is also shown by research from the AA. While among teenagers there can be more than £1,000 gap in prices for men and women, this has narrowed to almost nothing by 40. By the time men reach their mid-50s, their insurance is slightly cheaper than women's.

Young men are six times more likely to die in accidents than young women. But this gap closes sharply with age - with men and women equally likely to be in fatal accidents by their mid-30s. In later life, women in their 70s have higher driver-fatality rates than men.

Churchill's analysis of male and female driving records also shows that over a lifetime women are likely to have more accidents, an average of 9.5, compared to 8.2 for men. But in terms of the cost to insurers, women's crashes tend to be at lower speeds and less expensive.

Allan Burns, Tesco's head of insurance, says there is "nothing unique about what's being offered".

But Diamond, part of the Admiral group and pioneers of car insurance for women, says that dedicated services for women are part of a wider social change. Most women now have a driving licence (61%, compared to 81% of men) and female-friendly insurance is about independence rather than handbag-appeal, with an increase in the number of single female households and women owning their own cars.

Obtaining a quote

Anyone seeking a quote should look beyond the headline figure. The scale of excesses, where the customer has to pay a certain amount towards any accident costs, can lower the premium - so cheapness can be scuppered by having to pay a chunk of the repair bill. So while the Norwich Union in our table is among the lowest quotes, the excess it charges is the highest.

And a cheap headline figure might mean you have to pay extra for services such as a courtesy car, or if you want cover if you're driving outside the UK. The Co-op's quote includes automatic coverage across Europe.

Insurers within the same group will be looking for their own customer profile and price accordingly. Churchill, Direct Line, Privilege and NatWest are all part of the same RBS group but quote different prices. Among the supermarkets, Tesco motor insurance is underwritten by part of the RBS group, Asda's is provided by Norwich Union and Sainsbury's by esure.

The results

So what did our price test tell us? Are the female-branded insurers cheaper? Although Diamond and Sheilas' Wheels are at the lower end of the scale, the comparison chart shows this isn't always the case.

And changing a few variables, such as age and occupation, could throw up different results, so it can be deceptive to draw general conclusions about cheapness.

The comparisons also show your postcode is more significant than gender. Living in a lower-crime area, such as rural Norfolk, can more than halve the cost of insurance.

So before hitching a ride with any insurer, check out what's on offer for your individual circumstances.

Click here for pdf of the prices of car insurances for women.

How motor cover savings decline for women

Age |Female |Male

17£1,938.13 |£2,906.25

21£576.92 |£804.71

25£423.15 | £489.00

30£367.00 | £408.80

35£341.78 | £358.98

40£312.10 | £319.81

45£293.78 | £297.63

50£267.72 | £268.17

55£257.65 | £252.52

60£253.70 | £245.40

65£264.77 | £239.70

70£280.59 | £264.36

75£366.32 | £367.11

80£476.75 | £458.85

Source: The AA.

· Comparison between male and female insurance costs over time, based on a quote for a driver of a Ford Focus, living in Cambridgeshire