Young Driver - First Car - First insurance

[need_my_wedge]

My youngest is just starting to learn to drive and looking to help him get his first car and insurance. Been speaking to my own insurer, and a couple of others, but none prepared to / allowed to offer actual smart advice. They have quoted me over £2000 for a 1.2 Renault Clio - which is £500 more than the car is worth!

Anyone got any experience of same situation, recommendations etc.

i.e.

Should he get own policy or better to be a named driver on mine?
Is there a good car that automatically brings the insurance down?
Particular good Insurer for first timers?

thanks

 

[guest100718]

18yo daughter just passed and I bought her a 1.2 Ford ka. 1500 to insure in her name with a black box installed . that's with more than

 

[guest100718]

that's with an 8000 mile limit . any more and she has to pay extra

 

[anotherdouble]

My youngest is just starting to learn to drive and looking to help him get his first car and insurance. Been speaking to my own insurer, and a couple of others, but none prepared to / allowed to offer actual smart advice. They have quoted me over £2000 for a 1.2 Renault Clio - which is £500 more than the car is worth!

Anyone got any experience of same situation, recommendations etc.

i.e.

Should he get own policy or better to be a named driver on mine?
Is there a good car that automatically brings the insurance down?
Particular good Insurer for first timers?

thanks

The Clio is a car that is often customised by the young ones and therefore insurers tend to put the price up for youngsters. Fords will generally be cheaper to insure but you have to get your head around that any 1st car for that age group will be 4 figures. Black boxes will save some £'s but do find out if there are any restrictions, such as mileage, time of day and one used to have road category.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

My son is an add on to my wife's car. That cost an extra £500. She has a 1.0 petrol Citroen C1. Have a look at the likes of that, Toyota Aygo, Skoda Citigo etc. We didn't add the black box, wife didn't want to be judged ha ha. We did quite a bit of research beforehand, spoke to a few different insurers, including brokers. You need to put in the leg work to find the right combination of your location, your car, insurer. We ended up with Direct Line incidentally

With regards to the high cost, one insurer pointed out to me that an old cheapo car doesn't automatically mean low insurance. The insurance is high to cover the cost of the young driver piling into another car and them having to pay for the other persons repair bill, compensation etc. This is why it is not unusual to have insurance way more than the cost of the car for a teenager.

Bit of a left field one. One friend of my son turned up in a brand new car one day, think it was something like a 1.2 Fiesta. Crackers we all thought until we discovered the dealer was throwing in free insurance for the first 2 years. Suddenly not such a bad deal, if they did need a car of course.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

I got both my 2 daughters a Micra when they were learning and passed. For insurance as a learner, the cheapest way was with their own insurance through a company that insure learners only. We had to provide evidence in the form of copies of the provisional license to keep it going, then once they passed that policy was then voided and they had to progress to a normal insurance policy through another company.
My wife deals with car insurance, and she tells me that policies that have the new driver only as a named driver and a parent being the main ( and not the real main driver) can and often be cancelled in the event of a claim if they think the driver/parents are being somewhat devious.

 

[Reemul]

Yeah it's tough to insure a new driver at any age.

I passed my test at 44 and my first quote was £800. I have a clean bike license with no claims on it. In the end I ended up getting a car and being added to my wife's policy for the first year for £500. After the first year I moved to having my own policy which took in to account my 1 year on a policy as a named driver which got me an additional discount down to £350.

On the 7th January my new policy will be £250 fully comp. This with 1 years no claims and 1 year as a named driver on another car. Insurance for the teenage years is always going to be a killer. Really need to work on not having any claims and earning the no claims / good driver rep. I even got offered a black box option but the original quote was higher.

 

[DCB]

Went down the Telematics route with Direct Line for my own daughter. £850 for the first year in a 1.3 Yaris. My wife and I are on as named drivers, but Daughter is primary driver so building up her NCD. Figures must have been good as there was a reduction on renewal time of about £170. Certainly makes the younger driver think a bit more as all their driving is monitored. You need to look around as some insurers won't touch a young driver. Worst quote I got was over £3K when I first started the process.

 

[Coffey]

As already mentioned, insurance is going to be huge for any new driver.

When I started driving about 8 years ago, my first quote was £1600 for my own policy.

Try adding yourself as a named driver onto the policy, mine came down by about £300 once I added my dad.

Also be very careful adding him as a named driver on the policy if he is going to be the main driver. As mentioned the insurance companies can refuse to payout if they find out this is the case. When I initially passed my test, I was a named driver on my parents insurance but I only drove the car in the evenings with my friends and didn't commute to school or work or anything like that.

Also, my brother passed his test a few years ago and the best quote he got was with NFU. His was about £1000 which also included driving other cars strangely enough. When I tried to go through them they quoted me £4k when I was paying £800 through another company so it may not work out but worth a go.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

My daughter is insured on my policy - she drives a 08 1.2 VW Polo. Cost on my insurance for her was about £600. I'm going to move her off my insurance onto her own as she is now commuting to work daily...and don't want insurers getting sniffy of she has an accident. She's 22 and so I'm guessing she won't get much change out of £1200?

 

[Coffey]

My daughter is insured on my policy - she drives a 08 1.2 VW Polo. Cost on my insurance for her was about £600. I'm going to move her off my insurance onto her own as she is now commuting to work daily...and don't want insurers getting sniffy of she has an accident. She's 22 and so I'm guessing she won't get much change out of £1500?

It depends really.

Some companies work differently on how they hand out their discounts. Some companies will take driving on another policy in good light and offer a reduced rate. Others will simply say that if the policies are not in your name then tough luck.

I got my first car and first policy when I was about 20, had been driving on my parents policy for 2 years and my first quote was £1300.

It dropped significantly the next year to about 700 and then started coming down slower than that (changed car to a much more expensive car as well). I would be surprised at 22 and having driving experience if it would be £1500, I would expect it to be lower than that. Try a few comparison sites and see what comes up. Always a good way of getting a starting point

Another thing to consider is the address the car is registered at, I moved house this year and my policy went down by £120 (for 3 months insurance). I changed car and was told that i would have to pay £300 for the remaining 3 months of the year, moved house at the same time and now the quote was for £180. And that was moving 10 mins down the road.

 

[jim8flog]

My wife deals with car insurance, and she tells me that policies that have the new driver only as a named driver and a parent being the main ( and not the real main driver) can and often be cancelled in the event of a claim if they think the driver/parents are being somewhat devious.

Absolutely right. I had to go through a right grilling when my daughter wrote off the family car because I had a second car with me as the only driver.

Luckily having worked in the industry for many years I was expecting to get the grilling.

 

[jim8flog]

To get the initial cost down it is worth looking at companies that offer ten month policies rather one year policies.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

To get the initial cost down it is worth looking at companies that offer ten month policies rather one year policies.

The only problem with that is that (as my youngest found out) if and when you change insurers the new insurer may not take it as a full years no claims so you effectively lose out on no claims time.

 

[guest100718]

the black box is already telling my daughter how much she can expext to save on her renewal

 

[RollinThunder]

I'm 24 with 7 years no-claims or convictions, and my current quote for a 2-litre saloon is £500 fully-comprehensive. It's gone down about £200 per year. When I first passed my test, with a 1.4 hatchback it was nigh-on £2000. For a 22-year old with a small hatchback, and 3-4 years no claims bonus, I reckon £700 - £800 is about right.

I'm not too knowledgable about the boxes, but a few of my mates had them. I think they can restrict driving to within certain times (such as no driving between 10:00PM and 5:00AM), and or micro-manage your driving. A kid I know gets warning messages from the insurers when he breaks the speed limit. As far as I know they can warn for harsh acceleration and braking too. I think the driving management benefits from a black box are quite good, especially as a new driver. Much less likely to take a risk and do anything stupid. Especially when the insurers will have routes and speeds on record.

I've always had a lot of respect for driving, and prided myself on driving sensibly. As do the majority of new drivers. Sadly, some just don't. Especially when they're with their mates. Black boxes are a decent remedy for that.

 

[CliveW]

Just a thought on restricting driving times. What happens if the driver needs to do shift work or similar?

 

[anotherdouble]

Just a thought on restricting driving times. What happens if the driver needs to do shift work or similar?

That's why it's imperative to check on any restrictions

 

[mikevet]

We used Go Girl online insurance for my daughter, and the local insurance agent (Swinton) couldn't quote as low, even with the same company that serviced the Go Girl policy. When our son started to learn, we also insured him with Go Girl (sounds funny, but they can't refuse as it would be illegal discrimination) and they were the cheapest online policy at around £800 pa. We put him as the main driver, as the intention was for him to drive to school once he passed his test, and wife and me as named drivers. He is therefore already building up a no-claims bonus. Annual cost for the first year on passing his test is around £1800.

They have been an excellent company to deal with, especially after a recent accident when someone came out of a side road and side-swiped him. He also took his Pass Plus with a professional instructor, and they reduced his premium slightly after that. Bear in mind that some policies specifically exclude commuting to a place of work or education.

Older, cheaper cars tend to be more expensive to insure as they do not necessarily have so many safety features. We went for a Ford Fiesta because of its high safety rating.

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Just to follow up, the learner insurance co we used was Collingwood
https://www.collingwoodlearners.co.uk/UK/