Car insurance for a 17yr old boy

hcb42

both area and age contribute to these higher premiums, as well as of course lack of NCB of course. SO the wide difference between premiums here could be comparing a 17 yr old in London with 1 in rural ayrshire for example - they could be huge differences between the two - likewise difference between a 17 yr old and a 19 yr old would be quite a lot, the age discounts built into our premiums as we get older are barely noticeable any more unfortunately

I worked in insurance until about 1994 and the easiest way to get premium down back then was by having held licence one year - at the time most insurers (I worked for a large well known broker) offered 35% intro discounts. No idea if they still exist though, not been in that industry since, and have had full NCB myself all this time

Personally, I think the only choice is waiting unless the young person is particularly wealthy, it is such a waste of money, (I know insurance is important, I am not advocating dont insure!!! - but I mean it is a huge expense just for the privilege of having a car)

midnightoiler

Hi, thanks everyone for all the replies, this sure is a problem for lots of us.
We have already bought the "chav chariott" (we thought buying a cheap car and him learning to drive in it would work out cheaper) He has been learning and has had it isured with collinwood for 6 months, but this doesn't seem to have helped.

Has anyone found a broker who can help

There are lots of comments about inexperience, but how on earth do young drivers get this if they can't afford to drive.

DCFC79

midnightoiler wrote: »

Hi, thanks everyone for all the replies, this sure is a problem for lots of us.
We have already bought the "chav chariott" (we thought buying a cheap car and him learning to drive in it would work out cheaper) He has been learning and has had it isured with collinwood for 6 months, but this doesn't seem to have helped.

Has anyone found a broker who can help

There are lots of comments about inexperience, but how on earth do young drivers get this if they can't afford to drive.

they get experience by being a named driver on the parents policy and drive either the parents car or a car the rents bought for the son/daughter to practise in

midnightoiler

DCFC79 wrote: »

they get experience by being a named driver on the parents policy and drive either the parents car or a car the rents bought for the son/daughter to practise in

This is what we have done, but the original question was - now he has passed his test does anyone know how he can get his own insurance for less than £6.5k.

No we don't live in the Bronx
No we haven't had any claims, convictions, medical problems
No we're not high risk professions.:mad:

bouncydog1

Have you tried contacting any insurance companies direct - Co-op, NFU or Aviva for instance, as they do not quote online. Some people have had lower premiums offered for young drivers.

However at the end of the day it all comes down to age/sex of driver, occupation, postcode, driving experience, no claims bonus etc. No, you might not live in a high risk area in your view, but if insurers have experienced heavy claims in your area, then the premiums will be higher.

There is not an automatic rate for any driver and insurers can rate their business how they wish - underwriting scenarios change all the time and it may just be that the insurers that you have tried do not wish to insure young male drivers, so they charge high premiums rather than refusing to quote terms. The insurers may have had a recent accident notification where a third party has received severe injury in an accident with a young driver. As they do not know at this stage what the outcome/cost of the claim will be, they may have simply decided that they don't want to be in this risk area at the moment. Some well publicised claims for this type of injury have run into £ms, and when compared to a £6.5k premium, the premium is cheap!

Best advice is to have a look at Parkers, find out what the lowest rated vehicle is - probably a Skoda or Perodua or similar - add parents to the quote (provided they are accident/conviction free) and see what you get. If the quote is a lot lower than £6.5k then the answer is obviously to sell the saxo and get an uncool vehicle. If your son doesn't want to have an uncool vehicle and you can't afford the higher premiums then he will have to make alternative travel arrangements.

DCFC79

midnightoiler wrote: »

This is what we have done, but the original question was - now he has passed his test does anyone know how he can get his own insurance for less than £6.5k.

No we don't live in the Bronx
No we haven't had any claims, convictions, medical problems
No we're not high risk professions.:mad:

its possible as other people on the forums have got it lower than that,

bouncydog1

DCFC79 wrote: »

its possible as other people on the forums have got it lower than that,

Sorry, but your statement is not quite correct. How do you know it's possible as you don't know every individual set of circumstances and from all of the different posts here none are quite the same - they all differ in vehicle type, postcode, etc. etc.

For this particular individual there may be changes needed to his risk profile in order to get the premium down.

Alternatives that might reduce the premium have been suggested by many, but it is a bit misleading to say it is possible without knowing all of the facts in all cases, which we dont.

downshifter98

Just discovered the same problem with 18 year old son who has just passed test - hopes of going to uni means a car is not really likely but we thought we would check insurance anyway; cheapest with a KA is £6500! Adding Dad to the policy as a named driver (full ncd) brings this down to £4500 but is still far from viable - just another example of how scary things are for youngsters nowadays, I guess. Now I know why there seems to be far less boy racers than there used to be (or is that just my imagination?).