£4,000 plus for car insurance?

krazee.eyez

I'm a relatively new driver.. in my 30s!

I was put off driving in my 20s because of the costs, and it being unnessasry living in London. I finally decided to learn so I can hire, and eventually buy a car when the time is right. Now the time is right...

I've held my licence for over a year, I'm 31, married, no criminal history, no driving accidents, not a bad area - residential, zone 3 in London.

I thought I would be set up to get some decent car insurance.. nope!
I just got off the phone to Aviva.. £4149.00.

I've tried following all the rules and tips - estimating a low annual milage, picked the right way to describe my career.. but it's still ridiculous..

I can't afford more than £2000, had hoped to pay less than £1000 and it seems waiting for my advancing age to bring the insurance down doesn't help a bit!

Has anybody had better luck with other insurers, who were in a similar position to me?

Aretnap

Is Aviva the only company you've tried? A single insurer might just not want people of your particular risk profile at the moment. Try a few price comparison sites - moneysupermarket.com, gocompare.com and confused.com for example. That'll give you a good idea of the going rate.

If it's still coming out upwards of £4K that's very high unless there's something unusual about you or the car. What's your occupation, and what type of car are you looking to insure? And what sort of mileage are you talking about - very low mileage can sometimes result in a higher price than a normal sort of mileage.

daivid

Aviva seem to preffer drivers with a bit more history, I got my first car two years ago, having held a licence for 8, avivas quotes that year and last were massively more than I ended up paying, this year they are much more competative. Put your details through the price comparison sites and I think you'll find a much better deal!

Hollypop_2

Aviva & direct line are always one of the most expensive insurance companies for me I find. (I'm 28 been driving 11 years with full no claims no accidents etc)

Use comparison websites online like confused.com or moneysupermarket I bet you'll be really surprised at the difference!!

krazee.eyez

Thanks for your advice. I have tried the price comparison sites a few times, which got the insurance down to £2,000. I thought that was high, so I decided to do a phone quote, in case I was getting something wrong. That's when I was hit with the £4,000 quote.

You must be right about Aviva preferring older drivers.. I wish they could have told me on the phone, they said it was down to my area, which is surprising.

Aretnap, I'm looking to insure a ford focus, 5 door. No mods. I estimated I'd be driving less than 6,000 miles a year.

I finally found a more affordable quote with Bell. They would need me to install their monitoring device for 3 months, but can give me a years no-claim after 10 months. Perhaps that's the way forward. Thanks for your help!

Gloomendoom

I would try a couple of brokers that specialise in new drivers. In my experience, comparison sites and big name call centres are rarely the best option if your circumstances (or car) are little out of the ordinary.

ACG

It must be your address.

I passed my test at 26-27. My insurance was £1500ish in my first year (that was only 3 years ago in October).

marlot

I insure three cars with Aviva for less than £450 (multicar). They obviously prefer drivers with a little more experience!

bristol_pilot

I have been driving for 30 years with no accidents or claims and Aviva usually give me the highest quote, someone has to pay for all those TV ads!

It can't be your age, so it must be either your address or occupation. Try a broker.

InsideInsurance

Read the advice on here and shop around is really the only advice that can be given. Every insurer has its preferred target market and so its too "random" to be able to say that every new driver should go with X

For example, my wife fairly recently passed her test in her mid 30s living in the south east. Both Admiral Group and Tesco were about £800 for insuring her on her Fiat 500 with me as a named driver. Admiral wanted an extra £100 to add her as a named driver to my Mercedes whereas Tesco wanted an extra £5,500

No area of London is cheap for insurance, I moved from Zone 5 to 20 miles outside of the M25 and all of my insurances dropped

krazee.eyez

again thanks for all the tips!

I'm much more confident I can find a cheaper insurance! :T