Car insurance for stepdaughter

grumpyfuttocks

Hi,
This subject might have been covered before so apologies if it has, but I would be grateful for anyones views on the following.

My 17y/o stepdaughter is learning to drive with a provisional licence and has been given a car (lucky girl!). However, she's getting very high insurance quotes, which are I guess understandable.

I've been trying to insure the car for myself and either get her on that insurance policy (comes in at around £1200 for the year), or as a temporary driver for 3 months (comes in at around £330 for me only with extra £100 or thereabouts for her).

The latter is just about affordable for her with a bit of help from us. But assuming she passes her test in the next three months we are struggling to know how best to get her insured as cheaply as possible from then on, if she was temporarily insured for those three months. I understand insurance companies only offer 3 months out of the year for temporary drivers to be added. What can we do from thereon in?

I'm sure this must have been discussed before-is it a case of shrugging shoulders and stumping up £1200 or is there a better way round this for her?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

impy78

Hi there,

With regards to the above - could you possibly let us know what type of car it is, please?

(the make, model, age of car, engine size, any modifications etc etc)

With regards to your taking out a policy and adding her as a named driver, I don't know if you're aware of this, but this is known as "fronting" and is illegal, as it is classed as insurance fraud, so what you need to do is to keep on looking for a reasonable price with her as the main driver.

You also need to ask at the outset how much the premium will rise once she passes her test (this usually happens with young drivers, as they are seen as a higher risk as they will be driving without supervision).


Let us know the above, and we can have a look at helping you.

grumpyfuttocks

Hi impy78.... God!!!!!!!!

Didn't pick up that what I was thinking was illegal!!! :eek: Thanks for that!

You asked about the car she's inheriting from her dad. It's a Toyota Yaris, registered about 2002: think it's a 1.3L but could be a 1.0L, with no mods.

Happy to go down the route of her as main driver but the premiums will crucify us. One last thing, if you can advise: I've got a VW Passat with a 1.8 turbo 20v engine which is apparently too powerful for her to drive until she's 19, according to Direct Line. Is there any scope there?

Thanks again.

impy78

Righty-ho, the car is a good choice, smallish engine... not associated with boy racer types. The only problem I can envisage is the value of the car, but I'm sure it's not going to be an issue for everyone.

Is there any possibility that the car can be garaged at all? This will reduce the premium. Make sure you look at fully comp quotes if you haven't already, as these can often be cheaper on a newer car.

Will she be using the car to go to and from school/college? Remember to put commuting use down if so.

The best thing I can advise is to try Direct Line to see if they can do anything with you being the policyholder, but her being the regular driver using your existing no claims on it as a second car.

If not, try Quinn Direct Insurance, and local brokers.

When I first got my scooter most companies wanted to charge me £1500 ish, but I went to a local broker and they gave me a policy for £500, with a £500 excess.

Look at a higher excess, as especially on younger driver policies, this will reduce the cost of the premium.

Also take a look at this thread, which has other tips on money saving on car insurance.

I hope this was of some help to you.

Mrs_pbradley936

With young drivers you just have to pay up! With girls the premiums come down much quicker (there was a thread on here about the legality of that) because they have few accidents. Confused.com can give good rates but do be aware that many quotes start off cheap then by the time you add in legal cover (please included that) and courtesy car etc the cheapies come up to a quote which is all inclusive. Do shop around my son had quotes on confused from 750 to almost 3000. He went with Marks and Spenser and I paid it all up front and he is paying me monthly because I did not want him to miss a payment and not be insured.

its_okay

When I was 17 (2 years ago) I was in a similar situation to your stepdaughter, although the car I had been given was a 93 1.0l Nissan Micra, so much older! The cheapest insurance I could find anywhere was £800 3rd party fire and theft. That was through Churchill. The next year my insurance dropped to £468 on a Y reg 1.2l Fiat Punto fully comp. Unfortuanlly high premiums seem to be more or less unavoidable when you're 17.

Some tips I can reccomend though, as some others have said try and keep the car in a locked garage this will dramatically cut the cost. If any of her parents or close relatives have a good clean driving licence you could try & add them as a named driver, this worked for my friend it brought her insurance down by £400 by having her Mum, Dad and Boyfriend on the insurance (she used elephant.co.uk). Has she researched how much the pass plus course will cost? I know churchill offer a 25% discount for this, but she would have to be the policy holder, and you need to weigh up the pros and cons.

grumpyfuttocks

Thanks all for your replies. Oh well, there goes the plasma TV for another year!!