Sharing tips/our experience for young driver insurance!

NikNox

Hi folks,

I thought I would post to share our experience with insurance for my 18 year old son. He passed his test in May last year, but had been riding a motorcycle until recently as he sold it because he really wants a car. As you are all no doubt aware, insurance for young male drivers is ridiculous, but, we seem to have managed to get reasonable insurance. As I said, he's had his licence for 11 months now, and bought his first car today (a Ford Ka, 1.3, 1999). It's not the prettiest of cars, but it was very cheap. So, I devoted the whole afternoon to finding insurance. I found Confused.com the best, and we got insurance, in his name, TPFT for £1515.00 (Elephant). He's got 2 named drivers on the policy, his father and his uncle, and before I added them the cheapest I could find was Admiral at £2283, so it really is worth adding drivers to the policy (adding 3 doesn't make any difference to the quote).

We enquired about monthly instalments, but to be honest they were ridiculous at £183 per month (deposit of £183), and instalments would have cost him an extra £687 over the year. So, his father and I dug deep and we have paid for a year's insurance in one go. He's going to pay us back by instalments with no interest of course, and the direct debits are already set up for that (he's a male, I have to be 10 steps ahead!!!).

I know it's still £1515, but it's not too bad in the scheme of things, and it means that in a year's time he'll (hopefully) have a year of no claims, be a year older and insurance should come down to around £800 (based on what some of his older mates are paying now).

I hope these tips help those of you who are entering into the world of insurance for young drivers!! I have to say that the fact he's had his licence for 11 months already has brought the premiums down by at least £800, so if you can get your young driver to hang fire for a few months after they've passed their test (perhaps ride a scooter in the interim ... very cheap!), then their first insurance doesn't hit quite as hard.

bouncydog1

Yes but please remember that a lot of the enquiries we see on here are from drivers who live in very high risk postcodes - so although adding older drivers will often bring down the cost, many will still see quotes in excess of £3-£4k because of where they live.

NikNox

bouncyd!!! wrote: »

Yes but please remember that a lot of the enquiries we see on here are from drivers who live in very high risk postcodes - so although adding older drivers will often bring down the cost, many will still see quotes in excess of £3-£4k because of where they live.

Absolutely, but every little helps and I just thought it would be helpful to post about our own experience and how the tips on here for getting young driver insurance costs down actually do work!

nibs

Hi NikNox, we have exactly the same story here - DS is 18, passed his test 11 months ago, owns a 6yr old corsa. elephant is also the cheapest quote (with me and his dad on the policy).
His quote is £2055 TPFT.
I think its like bouncyd!!! says, it also depends on postcode.
Btw, the most expensive quote we had was £11,500.00 although that was comprehensive!:eek:

NikNox

nibs wrote: »

Hi NikNox, we have exactly the same story here - DS is 18, passed his test 11 months ago, owns a 6yr old corsa. elephant is also the cheapest quote (with me and his dad on the policy).
His quote is £2055 TPFT.
I think its like bouncyd!!! says, it also depends on postcode.
Btw, the most expensive quote we had was £11,500.00 although that was comprehensive!:eek:

Did you go via Confused.com? We found that the different comparison sites differed on the insurance, even with the same Provider (which I think is mighty strange), but Confused.com seemed to give the cheapest prices. Also toggle with where the car is parked, as some go cheaper if you say it's on the road! We also put the voluntary excess up to £500, which seemed to help too (should have put all these tips in my original post)!!

But, you're right, it does come down to post code. However, it may be worth your son waiting until he's had his licence for a year before buying insurance. Have you got quotes for when he's had his licence a year, as you should see quite a difference.