Astronomical car insurance for 19 year old!

mark_dumpleton

Hi to all.

I'll go through the facts first.

1. Passed test May 2007
2. Have 1yr NCB
3. 19 year old male, no claims etc.
4. Renewal price with Quinn in Feb 09 - £800 TPFT
5. Car is Fiat Brava, 1.2l 16V, 2001, valued £600. Factory fitted Thatcham Cat 2 immobiliser
6. Safe area of the country in Lincolnshire

I had a policy with Quinn Direct under a TPFT since Feb 07, which I cancelled at the end of September 2008 when I went to university as I would not need my car for the first year.

It's now come round to the time where I am going to take out a policy for the coming year, from the start of April onward.
First port of call was Quinn, who quoted me £955.92 TPFT. Asked why this was such an increase when i'm a year older and was only charged £800 last year, he said "oh something to do with taxes and us generally putting prices up".

All other quotes are nearly at £1000, with the cheapest so far being £814 with Adrian Flux.

I do not understand how the cost for my insurance for the coming year for a 19 year old with 1 year NCB who has been driving for 1 year and 11 months is so high on a Fiat Brava 1.2l, 2001, valued at £600.

Anyone got any help or ideas, or places I can look?
Got quotes from: Elephant, Quinn, Premium Choice, More Th>n, Endsleigh, Adrian Flux and Direct Line - all charging over £900 barring Adrian Flux.

Any help appreciated, student in need here!
Mark

dacouch

Are you insuring it on a different address than when you had your original car?

mark_dumpleton

Nope, insuring it on the same address. I'm going to be living at home from April until the start of October so i'm insuring it on my home address until October and then changing it to my uni one - when getting quotes separately anyway for the uni address that was actually turning out cheaper than my home address!

rev_henry

Erm, £800 sounds about 'right' to me. Sorry. I'm in the same boat as you!

dacouch

Its probably that Quinn have simply put their rates up for young male drivers as they were really competitive for them so attracted lots and lots of young male drivers and when ou Insure young male drivers you get lots of very big claims. These have probably filtered through so they have had to adjust their rates.

Your best insuring with a different Insurer than them anyway

masterkay

I'm sorry to say but I think that sounds about right and that Quinn who are known to give pretty good deals to young inexperienced drivers may be starting to put their rates up.

daveyjp

Anything less than £1000 for a young driver is a bargain. Try adding a parent as a named driver, this sometimes reduces the premium.

rev_henry

Those last 2 posts reminded me, I remember a couple of years ago Quinn were VERY competitive, but a friend (who's 18 and with them) mentioned to me recently that they're not as cheap as they used to be. I'm with Zurich btw, although I'm only a named driver; they were cheapest by quite a way.

worried_jim

name a female on the policy - sister perhaps ? this will bring it down a liitle bit, when I was 18/19 I was paying approx £500 per year and that was 15 years ago ! £800 seems fair game to me I am afraid, welcome to the world of motoring, it only gets cheap in your 30's and beyond. At least you have the internet for prices, I remember getting the yellow pages and calling every broker for the best price- happy days !

LeeSouthEast

Wish my 2nd year was the same. I was still paying £1,300 TPFT then with a 10 year old Fiesta... It does get better though. 7 years later my last renewal was £202 fully comp on a very nice car!! The "it all changes at 25" still holds true.

Insurance is a daft game, but sadly prices are generally going up and the young are a good market to target, and the insurance companies know it.

cajef

LeeSouthEast wrote: »

the young are a good market to target, and the insurance companies know it.

It is nothing to do with being a good market to target, it is based on the fact that statistics prove that young drivers are a far higher risk as they are more likely to have an accident than older more experienced drivers, and premiums are loaded more for that age bracket because of this.