Pay less for your road tax

Recent research has revealed that the average UK driver spends about £485 on their car each month. In the light of this shocking statistic, a lot of us women will be looking for ways to decrease our motoring expenses so we have more to spend on the fun things in life.

No doubt we will all go about this in different ways - changing our lady car insurance provider, trying to cut down on the number of miles we drive and checking out where the cheapest petrol stations are. Read more about cutting your fuel bill.

There are some costs that we usually just accept as expenses of motoring that we can't do much about, such as servicing, MOTs and road tax. However, the ladies at CoverGirl Car Insurance Services have a nice surprise in store which may just leave you with some spare cash.

Saving money on your road tax

Gone are the days when road tax was one set price for all cars. In 1998, the government introduced amendments which meant that those who drive more environmentally-friendly vehicles should be rewarded with a lower road tax bill - and rightly so. In this move, the official name of road tax became "Graduated Vehicle Excise Duty" or GVED for short - catchy eh?

There are two components to GVED. The first means that ladies who own cars that were registered before the 1st March 2001 will have their cars judged by engine size when their road tax bill is being calculated. So, if you are in the market for a pre-2001 car and want to pay about £55 less per year for your road tax, buy a car with an engine size that is less than 1550cc.

The second component of the GVED applies to cars that were registered after the 1st March 2001. Rather than basing the road tax price on the size of a car's engine, it is instead concerned with the level of CO2 emissions. If you don't know your car's CO2 emission rate, you can find it on your V5.

It divides cars into 8 different bands, ranging from A to G. Band A cars are the most eco-friendly and emit less than 100g of CO2 per km travelled, whilst Band G cars produce emissions of more than 225g of CO2 per km. If you have tried getting low cost lady car insurance but still want to save more money, your best bet is to plump for a car that qualifies for a lower band.

Here are some examples of the types of cars which fit into the 7 bands (applicable to cars registered since 1st March 2001):

• Band A - Honda Insight (petrol/electric)
• Band B - Toyota Prius 1.5 (petrol/electric)
  Ford Fiesta 1.4 (diesel)
• Band C - Fiat Panda 1.2 (petrol)
  VW Golf 1.9 (diesel)
• Band D - Mini One hatchback 1.6 (petrol)
  Peugeot 307 1.4 (petrol)
• Band E - Ford Mondeo 1.8i (petrol)
  Toyota Avensis 1.8 (petrol)
• Band F - Land Rover Freelander 2.0 (diesel)
  Audi A4 1.6 (petrol)
• Band G - Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe 3.6 (petrol)
  BMW X5 4.8 (petrol)

So, the lower the band, the more environmentally-friendly your car is and the less you have to pay for your road tax. Although that is the general principle, unfortunately things aren't quite that simple when it comes to working out exactly how much your road tax bill will add up to. This is because the fuel you use is also taken into account.

Drivers of petrol cars pay either £5 or £10 less than owners of diesels, depending on the band (bands B - E have a £10 difference, whilst bands F and G have a £5 difference). For example, a lady who drives a band C diesel car will find that she has to pay £10 more than a woman with an otherwise identical petrol car.

After all that complicated stuff, the women at CoverGirl Car Insurance Service have a very simple tip for shaving an extra few pounds off your road tax. Simply buy a year's cover rather than six months and it could reduce your bill by up to £18.

Getting lady's car insurance for less

If you are in the mood for making savings and your lady's car insurance policy is up for renewal, you are probably on the look-out for the best buy on the motor insurance market. Luckily for you, you came across CoverGirl Car Insurance Services.

Because we know that women are much safer motorists than men and don't make such costly claims, we are able to offer fantastic car insurance rates to female drivers. In fact, we only provide car insurance for ladies, although we do let men be added as named drivers on our policies.

As we are an online car insurance company, we don't have the huge expenses of running a call centre to worry about, nor do we do any offline advertising. Because we don't pay for these things, it means that you don't pay for them either, unlike with other motor insurance companies who have massive TV marketing budgets. Many women find that a lady's car insurance quote with CoverGirl Car Insurance Services is significantly cheaper than anywhere else.

If you are looking for cheap motor insurance, you need look no further. With optional legal expenses insurance and low cost breakdown cover, it's well worth getting a lady's car insurance quote with us.