Teenagers Car Insurance

[pasty]

18 year old daughter just passed her driving test this morning and has money left to her by her gran to get a car.

We are slowly discovering the astronomical price of teenagers car insurance. Anyone got any recommendations for good companies?

 

[Simster]

Just be thankful you have an 18 y/o daughter. According to a colleague a couple of days ago in the pub, he said that'll set you back £1,000 for a one year insurance on a 1.4L Honda.

You can double that for 18 y/o lads!

 

[Uncle C]

The sad truth is that teenagers are an insurance liability. I have lost count of the number of young friends that had accidents within 1 year of passing their test.

 

[Zamora For England]

I'm 20, and in nearly four years driving I have been with four different companies, getting the best each time, which were:
eCar Insurance
Direct Line
Swift Cover
Admiral

First year I paid £1,400 on a 1999 Peugeot 306 1.4l, now I have a 2005 Citroen C4 Coupe 1.6 VTR and pay £600

 

[Jam The Man]

Quinn:

Cheap Young Driver Car Insurance - Young Persons Motor Insurance Quote | QUINN-direct UK

 

[nwgull]

Insurance is expensive for everyone these days. I'm 35, have never had an accident and with 9+ years no claims, yet the best quote I got this year was for £760, although I do live in a postcode with high car crime. Only real solution if she can't afford it is to put off buying her own car for a few years :-(

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Slaughtering the kids when they get into their late teens is surely a sensible option - they'll have had a good innings, and not only do you save on car insurance costs/university fees, you also don't have to have them living with you until they're 35 paying a nominal monthly rent that'll just about cover a bag of oven chips and a 2 litre bottle of Tizer.

 

[drew]

Make sure the car she buys is just an old runaround with small engine. The key is to build up the no claims bonus over the first few years. I had heard there is one company (maybe Direct Line) that allows named drivers on your policy to build up their NCB so you could consider that for a couple of years before she buys her own car. Will still be expensive though.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Fact of life really isn't it, they are many times more likely to have to make a claim so it's reasonable IMHO that they should pay high premiums as a result.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Make sure the car she buys is just an old runaround with small engine.

Make sure it has all the airbags and safety stuff. As Simster says - be thankful you have a daughter. Good point - well made by Cheeky Monkey.

 

[bhaexpress]

I must confess that I was one of six friends who passed our tests within five months of our seventeenth birthdays. I was the only one who hadn't had an accident within three months of passing and that was purely by luck.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

And if you do have a son: make sure you buy him the crappest, most embarrassing car available. That way he (a) wouldn't be able to thrash it even if he wanted to, and (b) he'll be too ashamed to take his mates out for a ride in it, which in my experience is when teenage lads drive even worse than they normally do: when they've got mates to show off to.

 

[Kendo3]

My Son aged 19 his first car is a Classic Mini £1200, ok, not every bodies taste. He went to a classic car insurer (They normally say over 25's, but thats advertising speel they will do youngsters if you phone and ask), he had to join a local miniclub, fit an alarm and has mileage up to 15k, he pays £450 per year can't remeber if TPFT of Fully comp. Anyway two of his mates also run old classics, Triumph Hearld and MG, both are paying similar amounts. There is a trade off with reliability, but at least he's learning how to maintain a car and cheap insurance.

 

[BLOCK F]

Agree with all the above comments especially the point made by Simster.
My daughter is now 22 and drives an old Nissan Micra;she now has 3 years NCB and her 3rd Party insurance is approx £350 p.a.Not bad at all,but every year we go onto the comparison sites to get the best deal.
The eldest boy ,however,is 19 and doesn't even want to contemplate running his own car.....the quotes are just off the scale.At least he's not skint all the time though!

 

[bhaexpress]

And if you do have a son: make sure you buy him the crappest, most embarrassing car available. That way he (a) wouldn't be able to thrash it even if he wanted to, and (b) he'll be too ashamed to take his mates out for a ride in it, which in my experience is when teenage lads drive even worse than they normally do: when they've got mates to show off to.

Expert advice there and I agree 100%. In fact maybe teenagers should be banned from having anybody under thirty in their cars until they have been driveing for two years accident free.

 

[BLOCK F]

My Son aged 19 his first car is a Classic Mini £1200, ok, not every bodies taste. He went to a classic car insurer (They normally say over 25's, but thats advertising speel they will do youngsters if you phone and ask), he had to join a local miniclub, fit an alarm and has mileage up to 15k, he pays £450 per year can't remeber if TPFT of Fully comp. Anyway two of his mates also run old classics, Triumph Hearld and MG, both are paying similar amounts. There is a trade off with reliability, but at least he's learning how to maintain a car and cheap insurance.

Wow,that is a good result!

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Expert advice there and I agree 100%. In fact maybe teenagers should be banned from having anybody under thirty in their cars until they have been driveing for two years accident free.

Have thought that for a while, as there is no doubt whatsoever that young male drivers are particularly susceptible to showing off when they have others in the car.

I think they may operate something like this in Australia- could be wrong on the country but I know somewhere does. New drivers have to display P plates for the first two years of holding a licence, which then identifies them as drivers that cannot have passengers on board. Of course you could always remove the P plates to try and get round it, but then that would constitute an offence itself for which you could be prosecuted.

I have a feeling some countries prohibit young drivers from being on the road between certain times of day as well (I guess in the evenings/nights).

 

[Badger]

One tip is to add both parents as extra drivers on the insurance, that often pushes the price down slightly.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

One tip is to add both parents as extra drivers on the insurance, that often pushes the price down slightly.

Be careful how you go about that though.

I've seen cases where the parents have got the car insured in their name to push the price down and added the new driver as a named driver.

Insurance companies tend to expect the policyholder to be the main driver and are wising up to this by voiding policies or declining claims because they've found out the policyholder never drives the car.

So long as you do it the way you've suggested, ie having the new driver as the policyholder then adding Mum or whoever as a named driver, some companies will accept it and reduce the cost a bit, but the other way around is considered dodgy.

 

[pasty]

One tip is to add both parents as extra drivers on the insurance, that often pushes the price down slightly.

Is it legal to insure the car in her mothers name (I don't drive) then add the daughter as named driver? Or does that not keep the premium down?

Edit: posted at the same time as Edna's post above