But prices down 3.7% year-on-year

Traffic cars

Car insurance prices rose 2.2% during April compared to the same period in March.

That is according to the latest figures released by comparison site Tiger.co.uk which revealed that women drivers had a price increase of 3.2% - almost three times that of male drivers (just over 1.2%).

But prices were lower than the same period a year ago at around 3.7% below those of April 2011 prior to their peak in June last year.

This comes ahead of the December 2012 EU gender directive and follows three consecutive months of insurance prices dropping.

The Tiger Watch price monitor looks at hundreds of policy prices across a range of driver profiles.

Tiger Watch April 2012

Tiger.co.uk’s commercial director Andrew Goulborn said: “Tiger Watch provides the most up to date snapshot of what’s happening to car insurance prices and, following a few months of declining prices we have seen a considerable hike in rates in April, particularly for female drivers.

“Whilst it’s great to see that, year-on-year, prices are down, it’s worrying to see such big month-on-month increases returning to the market. A 2.2% monthly increase equates to a 26.4% annual rise – the kind of annual inflation we were seeing in 2010 and the first half of 2011.”