Great 'Young drivers car insurance savings' Hunt 7 March 2011 at 1:07PM edited 8 March 2011 at 7:56PM in Insurance & Life Assurance 69 replies 123.3K views

Former_MSE_Penelope

Great 'Young drivers car insurance savings' Hunt

The average car insurance for 17-22 males is £2,750 and £1,682 for females (and the latter's likely to rise soon - EU ruling). We've lots of tips in the cheap car insurance guide but even so it's rarely cheap. Have you ever (legally) cracked it, cutting young drivers' premiums to a reasonable level? Tell us your successes, to help other MoneySavers.

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rev_henry

19 Y.O. male, I paid £600 at my last renewal, with 2 years NCB. 3 things I did really:

1. Use an Admiral Multicar policy, shared with my mother for her car.
2. Got them to give me a year's NCB for my 1st year's named driving experience (hence the 2 years already, but the proof of no claims they gave me gives no mention of this and just says 2 years )
3. Add my mother as a named driver, and, bizarrely, my OH who is 18 and on a provisional.

hoverton

I insured my son on my policy last year, and paid an extra £1,200 for this. Recently my son had an minor accident and since then it has been a nightmare. I've been without my car for over two weeks and they haven't even started or agreed to repair it.

What the insurance companies don't tell you when agreeing to take your cash, is that in the event of an accident there will be a detailed investigation by a fraud detection company. I was asked copies of my log book my licence my mot, my son's licence, my husband's licence and both myself and my son had to have a detailed telephone interview (which I've been told by people is some form of lie-detector). Even though it is my car and I already had the same policy for a long time, I feel like I've been treated like a criminal. These questions should be asked before agreeing to insure someone, not as a result of trying to legitimately claim on a policy.

Parents - if you do this, make sure you don't sign the car over and make sure you are the main driver, otherwise what you will get is MoreThan a lot of hassle, and you are left having to prove that you have a right to claim, MoreThan ever.

queline

I got quotes through all the usual comparison sites for my 20 year old daughter to drive my car on occasions when she is home from University. She wouldn't be driving it very often however as I need it and would be the main driver of course. Direct Line came back with a reasonable quote considering her age, she has been driving for 3 years, but with a total excess for her of £550! I phoned Direct Line to arrange the insurance but was refused point blank to do it in my name even though I would DEFINITELY be the main driver and I own the car! I was told it was because of this 'fronting' business because people have been dishonest in the past about who actually is the main driver and insurance companies are now refusing to pay out if the young driver has an accident. I didnt proceed as was told that the premium would be very high but people like us are being penalised because there are dishonest people out there. However, I did question why I had been able to get a reasonable quote online and was told they would have changed the policy holder anyway when they discovered the age of my daughter as named driver, also that the web prices are just a way of getting you to take out a policy and more often than not things will have to be changed when you get down to the nitty gritty. So beware, comparison sites are not all they are cracked up to be and be prepared for further changes to your premium. My daughter did have her own car until recently but so expensive to run for the little use it got we decided to get rid of it and thought she would be able to drive my car, ha ha! Result: my daughter cannot be insured as we can't afford it! Any advice would be welcome if there is any way to get over this (legal and honest of course)

Hello_follow_me

My experience seems to differ from the above posts. My son is 19, I am 51 and this is his second year of driving my car. Last renewal I saved several hundred pounds by putting him as the main driver. This was at the suggestion of the Aviva sales person, who assured me it was fine with them. The reasoning is that the main driver is getting more driving experience and therefore less of a risk. It also makes it clear that we are not 'fronting' and thereby risking an investigation, which would happen if my son had an accident on my policy. Currently I pay about £600 for a Nissan Micra, which will certainly change this November as he will be at university, however my 17 year-old might have passed his test by then......

jackonet

Got my (then) 17 y.o. step-daughter on an Admiral 10 month NCB accelerator policy fully comp with £650 excess (the value of the car - a recommendation from the MSE guide IIRC) for £620 when she was on a provisional. No change when she passed. My wife and I are also named drivers.
When we took the policy out, it actually was £20 less than originally quoted!
We were advised against putting her on our multi-car policy as it was too expensive.

It's due for renewal this month actually....

MatthewGaskin

I drive a kitcar (looks a bit like a Mazda MX5) which is insured via a special deal arranged by the owners' club. The prices are guaranteed (as long as no accidents or convictions) and are not postcode dependent. This deal is for club members only (so add twenty quid for membership).

A 17-20 year old, prepared to drive no more than 3000 miles a year, can get fully comp under this scheme for under £451 (£318 for third party fire & theft). The excess is £350.

This is because kitcars tend to have been lovingly hand-built by the owners, sometimes over many years. So they're not the types to risk bending them; the premiums reflect this!

I'd have loved to get insured in a convertible at 17 and there's no cheaper way to do it. Older kitcars come in far cheaper secondhand than 'normal' cars and, if you get one with a good reputation, are often stronger/safer as they're over-engineered.

It's actually cheaper for me to insure my convertible kitcar, with a 2 litre engine (v quick!) than it is to insure my 'normal' Citroen 1.4 diesel!

SammyS1987

As others have said adding an older person (mum,grandma,dad etc) brought the price down for me when I was 20 and insuring a 2.0i Clio 182. It can also be a good idea to add the maximum voluntary XS, particularly if the car is worth very little and you are unlikely to claim on the policy anyway. Matts post makes for some quite interesting reading.

Jenna_of_Usk

It might only help a few people... but we belong to the NFU & their car insurance is good value. We drive an old Ford (1.4L). We pay £220 a year fully comp for me & my husband. We paid £200 extra (again fully comp) for our 20 year old son to drive it. Last summer he bought his own car (old Polo) & pays £1000 a year fully comp. it includes 3rd party for him to drive any other car.

MiniKidsXe

My renewal in August was bout £600 for the year and that's fully comp. I'm 22, female and shopped around. Admiral sent me quote through at something stupid like £1000+ for 10000 miles a year. I've cut it down to just 8000 miles a year (may even be less than that next renewal) and checked on comparison sites.

It's got me as the main driver, my partner who is 23 on it and my mum who is 62 on the policy. She doesn't drive the car, but has got a full license and used to drive (plus the option is there if we ever needed her to drive it). I changed our occupations as they were listed as other things and I found more suitable options and then phoned admiral with my elephant quote reference (cheapest I found online), they were going to price match elephant as it's one of the companies they price match (but for £12 more I got a courtesy car from admiral so actually stuck with them), but overall was about £633 for the year fully comp and with a courtesy car.

It just pays to shop around and check the occupations and information that's already on your policy (i followed the steps on the guide on the MSE website).

I also then paid for the year straight up with a 0% credit card as it meant I had 10 months to pay it off monthly (like i would've done paying to admiral), but without the interest. Saved a lot of money doing it this way, just make sure you pay the credit card in full before the 0% offer is up

Hadrian

MSE_Penelope wrote: »

Great 'Young drivers car insurance savings' Hunt

The average car insurance for 17-22 males is £2,750 and £1,682 for females (and the latter's likely to rise soon - EU ruling). We've lots of tips in the cheap car insurance guide but even so it's rarely cheap. Have you ever (legally) cracked it, cutting young drivers' premiums to a reasonable level? Tell us your successes, to help other MoneySavers.

View past Great Hunts.



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