Just 17 - Car Insurance

Froggitt

No not me, my daughter turns 17 in August. The plan was to add her to Mrs Frogs Direct Line insurance - she drives a 1.6 Vauxhall Meriva.

I did a dummy purchase yesterday of Mrs Frogs details, with and without daughter, and roughly its gone from £250 to £1,250 a year. :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:

Does that sound right/in line with what you would have expected it to be? Has anyone been "creative" e.g. buying insurance for the daughter separately by the day, if that's possible?

Any other bright ideas?

System

Is she a learner, or has passed her test?

That's cheap if she's qualified, expensive if a learner.

Froggitt

Will be a learner. How much would you expect for a learner on someone else's policy?

InsideInsurance

Whatever you do you need to be careful about "fronting", ie setting up a policy in yours or another adults name with your daughter as a named driver when in reality its your daughter that is the main driver of the vehicle.

Even if this isnt what you are doing then any claim with her as the driver is likely to raise these questions.

You can buy either learner driver insurance or day insurance that adds ontop of the existing policy which avoids these issues but can be expensive. A lot will depend on how frequently she will be driving, the downside of learner insurance is that it immediately terminates (with no refund normally) the day she passes her test.

Froggitt

No fronting involved - its the missus' car, and has been insured/driven by her for years.

Any recs for learner insurance? Is that done thru an insurance co different from the co my missus is with? I did a dummy purchase of day insurance which came out at £167 per day........surely no-one buys that? She is likely to drive only at weekends.

Froggitt

Fronting question. Maybe the insurance is so high because its a 1.6 engine? If we buy another car, a one litre Corsa, that my missus is insured as the main driver for, and she really is i.e. she does half her driving in the 1.6 Meriva, and half in the 1.0 Corsa, and the daughter does say 50% less mileage than the missus, and we keep logs of who is driving and where, does that count as fronting?

InsideInsurance

Froggitt wrote: »

Fronting question. Maybe the insurance is so high because its a 1.6 engine? If we buy another car, a one litre Corsa, that my missus is insured as the main driver for, and she really is i.e. she does half her driving in the 1.6 Meriva, and half in the 1.0 Corsa, and the daughter does say 50% less mileage than the missus, and we keep logs of who is driving and where, does that count as fronting?

It is only fronting if you intentionally miss declare who the main driver is. The challenge with these things is always proving who the main driver is and this is likely to be more difficult if your wife is basically saying she has 2 cars and your daughter has none but does drive one of hers.

Insurers for mass market products price based on statistical evidence not logic. Whilst in theory with a large enough population of data you can calculate purely the effect of changing only a single variable (ie vehicle) the reality is that rarely is there a large enough population with diverse enough tastes to create 100% accurate models. Inevitably any car that is "typical" for a young driver will receive disproportionately high premiums because such a high proportion of drivers of that vehicle are also other young inexperienced drivers.

Do a few dummy quotes before buying anything but you will probably find a very uncool non-typically teenager car is going to be cheaper than a 1.0 Corsa even if it actually is more powerful.

Hadrian

I'm afraid all car insurance quotes are based on many years statistical experience. For example "One in four teenage drivers have a serious accident in their first year of driving". Car insurance company's know darn well who are 'good bets' and who aren't. That's a fact of life. they are in the business to make money, surprise surprise! Do you expect them for a pittance to take on the risk (1 in 4) of a new teen age driver? That's why the premiums seem high, it's the RISK the company's have to shoulder. Lower the risk and the premiums will come down. One thing stands out in the letter above is why has the chosen car to be 1600cc? There are plenty of 'old bangers' of less than 1000cc that will do the job at a smaller premium. I'd say wait a few years as running cars are an expensive business. Unless, which is unlikely, that this person does a big mileage it will definately be much cheaper to hire taxis everywhere.

Froggitt

Its 1600cc as that been the missus car for 9 years. That's why I asked whether getting an additional smaller car would be classed as fronting if she also drove that car. Would the second car benefit from the NCB? If not might be cheaper for daughter to be the main driver on the small car, rather than a named driver on the bigger car.

forgotmyname

A corsa is not a cheap car to insure.

Its not just the engine size. I can insure my daughter on a 1.7 L volvo cheaper than a 1.2 corsa.

Statistics say they have less claims on a volvo.

bouncydog1

When you go to insure the corsa in your wife's name, she will have to declare if she has access to any other vehicle. She will have to declare that she has and insurers will assume that your daughter is the main driver if the corsa and charge accordingly. Further there will be no bonus on the corsa as it's being used on the Meriva.

buy a learner policy to cover your daughter until she passes her test or do what everyone else has to do and pay the premium for the risk. Also be aware that your daughter will also have a young driver excess as well as any compulsory excess.

Alternative is to buy the corsa, insure in daughter's name and let her earn her own bonus.