Car insurance: new, but older driver

patrick1971

Hello, at the age of 44 I have just passed my driving test. A friend of mine who lives locally and has a car has suggested that she could add me to her insurance as a second driver (I would only be driving on the occasional weekend to the supermarket, vet, etc.). She is a similar age, a driver of long standing, no accidents, etc.

My question is, I've heard that insurance premiums can be horrendous for young new drivers. Does being older, but still a new driver, make a difference? Are my friend's premiums likely to skyrocket? I would of course be paying the extra, and also going halves on bills to do with the car.

Any guidance from late learners would be welcome, it seems really hard to find stuff out online, most stuff for new drivers is for younger people.

Aretnap

The only way to know for sure what it will cost to add you to her policy is for her to ask her insurer. You can also get an idea of what it would cost for you to insure your own car by looking at a price comparison site and getting a quote or two for the sort of car you think you might end up buying.

As a rule of thumb though it will probably be more expensive than it would be to insure an experienced driver of your age, but still cheaper than a newly qualified teenager would pay. Young people have a high accident rate for two reasons: lack of experience, and the tendency of young people (especially young men) to overestimate their abilities and to take risks which older wiser people would regard as insane. Newly qualified older drivers still suffer from the inexperience, but by and large they've calmed down and are less likely to do risky things for the sake of it, so their accident rate is somewhere in between that you'd expect for teenagers and that you'd expect for older drivers of many years experience.