The best car insurance deals for women

Do female-friendly car insurers really offer the cheapest deals for women?

If I asked you what you associated with women's car insurance, what would you say? Colourful TV adverts with irritatingly catchy theme tunes? Pink sequined outfits? Handbag and shopping cover?

Or would your answer simply be 'cheaper car insurance'?

Many female-friendly car insurers claim their products are competitively priced because statistically, women cause fewer accidents and make fewer claims.

But having sat through numerous renditions of 'For ladies who insure their cars, Sheilas' Wheels are superstars...' on the TV, I started to wonder whether specialist insurers really do offer the best deals for women. Are these sparkly adverts nothing more than a gimmick?

The case study

To help with my investigation, I'm going to use my imaginary friend Mrs Ramsey as an example:

• Mrs Ramsey is 30 years old and married with no children.
• She is a teacher and lives in Battersea, South London.
• She is a homeowner.
• She drives a 3 door Ford Focus 1.41 and leaves the car parked on her driveway.
• The car is driven 8,000 miles a year.
• Mrs Ramsey is the only person to drive the car but has use of another car.
• The car was manufactured and bought in 2001 and it has a value of £3,000.
• The car is used for social and commuting purposes.
• She has 5 years no claims and has held her driving licence for 12 years.

Mrs Ramsey is happy to pay a voluntary excess of £250 and goes off in search of the cheapest comprehensive deal for her car insurance.

Female-friendly deals

Mrs Ramsey decides to tackle the specialist insurers first - Diamond and Sheila's Wheels. And after further browsing she discovers More Than also has a women's-only policy so she decides to check that out too. Here's what she found:

As you can see, Sheilas' Wheels is the cheapest quote out of the three. That said, it's worth noting that Diamond's quote includes £100,000 of legal services as standard. In comparison, both Sheilas' Wheels and More Than include legal cover as an optional extra - and are therefore not included in the above quotes.

So if Mrs Ramsey wanted to add legal services to these two policies, the quotes would come to £296.46 for Sheila's Wheels and £328.60 for More Than. This would mean the quotes from Sheila's Wheels and Diamond were almost identical - just 16p difference!

The big boys

So let's see how the above quotes compare to those from five of the biggest standard car insurers:

*Includes £100,000 of legal cover as standard

**Includes special offer of one day a week free.

You'll see that both Swiftcover and Zurich beat the quotes from Sheilas' Wheels, Diamond and More Than. So even if you'd opted for the cheapest specialist insurer's quote (Sheilas' Wheels' quote of £271.46), you could still save yourself £19.41 by choosing Swiftcover.

This saving rises to £44.25 between Swiftcover and Diamond, and £51.55 between Swiftcover and More Than.

Admittedly these savings aren't huge, but don't forget that the savings you personally make could be far greater than this depending on your own circumstances. (Of course, on the flipside, they could be smaller, too.)

But still, this shows that specialist insurers for women won't always offer the best deal - and as always, you're better off carrying out your own research and getting quotes from car insurers across the entire market if you want to be sure you're getting the best deal.

Extra benefits

But are there any other benefits to choosing an insurer such as Sheilas' Wheels or Diamond?

Well, in a nutshell: yes. Diamond, Sheilas' Wheels and More Than all offer perks tailored specifically towards women. For example, all three insurers offer handbag cover up to £300 - More Than also covers shopping. Sheilas' Wheels and More Than also offer a counselling service if you've been in an accident.

What's more, More Than and Sheilas' Wheels offer female-friendly repairs. This means repairers are more aware of safety concerns women may have, and won't arrange a pick up or delivery after dark if requested. Sounds tempting, right?

But however attractive these extra benefits might sound, it's important to weigh up their value before being lured in by them. Are you really likely to use them? And are you prepared to pay more for them? Suddenly, they might not seem so attractive...

Final tips

I've already said that it's important to do your homework when looking for car insurance, and make sure you shop around. But if you're looking for extra tips on how to keep your car insurance premiums low, read Ten ways to cut your car insurance costs.

It's also worth remembering that cheap doesn't always mean good value for money. Features and benefits can vary considerably from policy to policy and it's not always easy to make an informed decision. So it's vital you research the policy fully and read the small print so you know exactly what you're getting.

You can read more about what the best quality comprehensive car insurance policies should provide in this article: The Best Car Insurance You Can Get.

And finally, however glamorous women-only car insurance adverts might seem, don't let the female-friendly perks and benefits dazzle you too much - or you could find yourself out of pocket.

More: Get the right car insurance cover | How to save money on your car insurance

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