Young Drivers' Car Insurance Discussion

Loucas63

Hello there, just insured my 20 year old as main driver on his own policy, in his own car for the first time. He had previously been named driver on my car. Added his big brother in too to the policy (22 yrs old). Neither had any speeding or other driving convictions.
Did a search via Confused.com. Best quote I got was with Diamond. Great phone service, compared a couple of ways of doing things and I came away paying just £580 for the year.
After years of looking at quotes that were more than treble that, what a relief.
So not all bad news at the moment, did I have a lucky day or are prices dropping for others too?
:T:T:T

cra001

i went with a company called insure the box, they install a smart box in your car to monitor your driving, i was driving a 1.6 fule injected 3 door stilo the thing was a machine! my insurance went from £3500 to £700

benifits

• you think carefully about your driving!
• reduced fuel costs due to thinking about driving
• massive saving on insurance
• if you do have a accident they call you and if they cant get you on your mobile and the car doesn't move they send out emergency services
• if your car gets stolen it has a tracker fitted

downside

• stuck to either 8000 or 6000 mile policy but can topup miles by buying on your web portal where you monitor your driving! and you get 80 miles extra a month for free if you drive safely
• if you sell your car or change insurers within the 12 month contract you have to pay £50 to remove the box.

i had a discussion with many of my young friends and they where all like "no way would i let them put a box in my car" even my girlfriend who is a safe driver said that!


my view is..... if you have nothing to hide then why not and if you do have something to hide then give your license up!


on the motorway i am bad for speeding so i usually lost out on 20 miles a month from my 80 excess miles, other than that i always stayed within the green section classified as being a "safe driver"


don't get points for something stupid like using your phone, spend 150 on a special Bluetooth parrot system or radio with built in hands free! my partner had to pay her fine, got 3 points and had to pay £250 extra on her insurance because she had her phone in her hand because it was about to fall, not actually using it





craig

cra001

Kathy.cox wrote: »

When sourcing car insurance for my 17 year old son a year ago, the cheapest and most appropriate appeared to be through the AA with a small black box device. We paid the premium and have access to an Internet portal which records daily driving scores and provides an overall score. We have found this extremely helpful and were very pleased initially.

However, the system works on a GPS satellite system, unfortunately, we live in rural Lincolnshire and discovered quite by chance, that many of the roads he uses are set at a default 40 miles an hour on the system, although the actual speed limit is 60. Consequently, his scores have not been accurate. The AA have re calibrated some of the roads but it has become a real nuisance to have to keep contacting them to check any new roads he travels on!

Whilst these boxes can help keep the costs down, they are no use if they do not record accurately, be warned, it is a real faff to have to keep updating the company.

I myself didnt have that problem with "insure the box" they signal was gr8 and i live in a deep Vally with terrible phone signal, the roads where all calibrated at 60mph, mine didn't monitor things like hitting potholes and g-forces either which most do, i found them amazing and i will use them again!!!

forgotmyname

Shame its a crap company to deal with.

Although i suspect when you getting paid to post the spectacles are rose tinted.

The_AA_Company_Representative

Kathy.cox wrote: »

When sourcing car insurance for my 17 year old son a year ago, the cheapest and most appropriate appeared to be through the AA with a small black box device. We paid the premium and have access to an Internet portal which records daily driving scores and provides an overall score. We have found this extremely helpful and were very pleased initially.

However, the system works on a GPS satellite system, unfortunately, we live in rural Lincolnshire and discovered quite by chance, that many of the roads he uses are set at a default 40 miles an hour on the system, although the actual speed limit is 60. Consequently, his scores have not been accurate. The AA have re calibrated some of the roads but it has become a real nuisance to have to keep contacting them to check any new roads he travels on!

Whilst these boxes can help keep the costs down, they are no use if they do not record accurately, be warned, it is a real faff to have to keep updating the company.

Hello Kathy.cox, we're sorry to hear you're unhappy with this, we welcome all feedback. Please email the details to chat@theaa.com including your full name, address and your Son's policy number with Reference FOR42284. We look forward to hearing from you, Regards The AA

stevethegreek36

Hi, can anyone give me any advice on how to find the cheapest car insurance for my 17yr daughter. She has just passed her test 4 weeks ago, just bought her a renault clio 1.2 S plate (98-99), tried everywhere and every option, but the cheapest quote is £3200

thank you

forgotmyname

Do ALL the online comparison websites. Phone all the local brokers, Then find all the companies not on the comparison websites.

Sell the Clio and get something cheaper to insure.

Insurance is odd sometimes A bigger car can be cheaper to insure. I found an older Volvo 340 with the 1.7L petrol engine cheaper to insure than a KA for a female 17 year old.

Small hatchbacks favoured by those that just passed their test are usually quite high insurance.

Pick some oddball cars.

Poppie68

Loucas63 wrote: »

Hello there, just insured my 20 year old as main driver on his own policy, in his own car for the first time. He had previously been named driver on my car. Added his big brother in too to the policy (22 yrs old). Neither had any speeding or other driving convictions.
Did a search via Confused.com. Best quote I got was with Diamond. Great phone service, compared a couple of ways of doing things and I came away paying just £580 for the year.
After years of looking at quotes that were more than treble that, what a relief.
So not all bad news at the moment, did I have a lucky day or are prices dropping for others too?
:T:T:T

Am i being guillable for believing this post? I am trying to insure my 21 year old daughter who has been driving for 3 years on her own insurance and the cheapest i can find is £1870..Diamond came back as £2020.. she has 3 years no claims, even if we put me on it with 10 years plus no claims it's £1048. Were am i going wrong?

forgotmyname

Probably down to the car and the postcode.

Tinkering with the systems saying you have 3 years then 10 years no claims will trigger the fraud detection systems.

Be prepared for questions when you renew it.

FreddieFrugal

Hey, just in case it helps anyone:

Age 21

1st Year insurance Quinn Direct - £1400 - fully comp - £500 excess - no additional drivers - 2005 (06) Fiesta 1.2

I took out car insurance for myself whilst still learning - meant I built up no claims.

2nd Year Quinn Direct - renewal c £500 - same details with 1 years NCD
Half way through the year I got my Full Licence - so they added on £360. I got this down to a low amount by comparing prices for the equivalent amount of time left on policy with other providers based on my details. Told them that if the amount was any more than £400 then I'd be better cancelling policy and taking out a brand new policy. So they quoted me that amount.

3rd Year Quote me Happy - £750 - same details but a lower excess and now with 2 years NCD - Girlfriend (one year older and had licence for longer) as additional driver - brought price down quite a bit.
Original price good, however had bad experience when I changed my car - only a few days into policy from (06) Fiesta 1.2 to a 1.6 diesel Focus (59). They charged me far too much to make the change. It SHOULD have been nothing - as other insurers and themselves quoted lower for the new car than the old by a couple hundred quid. The day before the change I checked online and it was a £39 cost to change the car. Fair enough I thought, not going to moan over that amount. However on the actual day, had sold old car and was sitting in new one changing insurance over so I could drive back the 50 miles to home and was told to pay £150. Because insurer does not have call centres I had no choice but to pay or risk being stopped on the way back and being found uninsured. I complained but had no response.

4th Year - 3 years NCD - being quoted around £500 (excluding current insurer which I will not be renewing with!) but comes down to about £400 if I take out a multicar deal with partner's car.



So based on my experience my tip would be - add older/more experienced additional driver/s - Mum and/or Dad or girlfriend in my case.

Get insurance as soon as possible - Provisional insurance isn't expensive compared to the cost of Full insurance straight from gaining licence, but the extra no claims makes a big difference. My first 2 years of insurance cost me about £2200 - so average of £1,100 per year? much cheaper than the £3000 one year quotes some people have found.

Play with online settings - sometimes prices go down unexpectedly - like for actually LOWERING your voluntary excess - the systems are quirky

If you're living at home with parents or partner - try multicar and see if it gets you a lower quote - if you're happy for all cars to be on one policy - not always cheaper though!

Avoid insurers that look cheap to start off with but end up being more expensive because you can't actually contact them to haggle etc.

Age quickly - looking forward to next year when I'll be over 25 and (hopefully) have 4 years NCD

- oh also! - all sites differ - but every year I've tried - moneysupermarket has always given the cheapest quotes with exactly the same details as used on other sites. It also recognises that it IS possible to have 3 Years no claims, even if you've only had a FULL licence for just over a year. The other systems can't get their heads around it. Aviva is also smart - it asks for number of years you have held a licence - dating back to provisional licence. Not just how long have you held the current one.