Sheilas' Wheels comment on car insurance

Jacky Brown, spokesperson for Sheilas' Wheels car insurance said:

"By focusing solely on women, Sheilas' Wheels reflects the relative safety of female drivers (when compared with their male counterparts) through attractive premiums.

The key thing for any motorist - whether male or female - is to shop around at renewal for their car insurance and not only look for a good price but also a quality product.

Women are becoming more discerning customers - they want good quality car insurance plus one that is well priced for what it offers.

Both factors that have contributed to the rapid success of Sheilas' Wheels with its female-focused product features such as built in handbag cover, a network of female-friendly repairers and a 24-hour confidential counselling line for drivers suffering trauma on the road.

"The Sheilas' Wheels brand - for both is motor and home products, has built up well over half a million customers since its launch three years ago - with a growth rate that outstrips the majority of modern insurance brands that market to both sexes." Sheilas' Wheels Car Insurance Product Benefits Summary: Sheilas' Wheels provides product features specially designed for women - handbag and contents cover of ?300, a 24 hour confidential counselling line for policyholders and a network of repairers trained to follow a female-friendly code of practice.

Sheilas' Wheels also offers customers the opportunity to build up to 75% no claims discount.

Handbag Cover: Handbag cover of ?300 (for bags stolen from your car) which can be added to personal belongings cover of ?200.

Our research shows that the average woman's handbag and contents are worth ?290 yet most insurers will only cover ?100.

Our handbag cover is therefore set at a more realistic and inclusive level for women who are not well served by existing cover.

Female friendly network repairers: Our repairer guidelines have been drafted to meet women's motoring needs.

All our network repairers have been issued with best practice guidelines on the appropriate treatment of women customers.

These include: ensuring that they make appointments at times that suit (i.e not during school runs etc) are mindful of personal safety concerns e.g won't deliver/arrange pick up after dark if requested they help with moving e.g car seats from customers car to courtesy car.

Counselling line: A free telephone line for female drivers who need some support for example in cases of road rage, post-accident trauma, bag snatching etc.

Women are a good insurance risk - some stats: All insurers have different rates for men and women because the claims experience for men and women is consistently different.

For instance, a man under 21 years old is approximately one and a half times more likely to make a claim than a woman of the same age.

Women also tend to have far less costly claims - usually lower speed and closer to the home, with far more involving parking and 'narrow streets' type incidents.

Men have more crashes on motorways and A roads and more accidents involving third parties (often those relating to other passengers in their cars).

According to the Home Office, over the last five years in the UK, male drivers have accounted for: 94% of all car accidents involving death or bodily harm 97% of all dangerous driving convictions 89% of all drink and drug driving convictions 83% of all speeding convictions and 85% of all careless driving convictions.

..despite the fact that the male:female driving population is currently split 55% men and 45% women.

These are publicly available statistics (the link to these figures is www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb0605.pdf page 12).

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