Why is car insurance so ridiculously expensive!

Unimaginativeusername

I'm 29 years old and I really want to drive, I've got my provisional, passed my theory test and had some lessons. I stopped my lessons because I got some example insurance quotes for after I'd passed my test.

I've tried small cars, large cars, big engines, small engines and the quotes all come back at over £2500 a year or a £4-500 deposit and £250+ a month. It's ridiculous, the only way I'd be able to afford that is if I lived in the car!

Is there anyway I can (substantially) bring the price down? Otherwise I'll never get on the road. :mad:

motorguy

Unimaginativeusername wrote: »

I'm 29 years old and I really want to drive, I've got my provisional, passed my theory test and had some lessons. I stopped my lessons because I got some example insurance quotes for after I'd passed my test.

I've tried small cars, large cars, big engines, small engines and the quotes all come back at over £2500 a year or a £4-500 deposit and £250+ a month. It's ridiculous, the only way I'd be able to afford that is if I lived in the car!

Is there anyway I can (substantially) bring the price down? Otherwise I'll never get on the road. :mad:

Have you read through and applied the process from the MSE Board Guide on insurance for young / inexperienced drivers?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-insurance/young-drivers

Ectophile

Rather than giving up, an alternative would be to carry on learning and pass your test. At the end, if you still can't afford insurance, just wait (which is what you were going to do anyway).

In a few years, you will have several years "experience" since passing your test, even if you haven't actually driven anything!

Edit: Better, that will be several years experience with not a singe accident!

loskie

if you don't really need a car all that often which may be the case as you say you are 29 and haven't yet got a licence. Then get your licence (it will only get harder and costlier) and hire a car when you need it. You are over 25 which is what car hire co's want. It may be cheaper than owning a car for infrequent use.

Mercdriver

loskie wrote: »

if you don't really need a car all that often which may be the case as you say you are 29 and haven't yet got a licence. Then get your licence (it will only get harder and costlier) and hire a car when you need it. You are over 25 which is what car hire co's want. It may be cheaper than owning a car for infrequent use.

Most car hire companies do stipulate a minimum of 1 or 2 years experience in their Ts and Cs, but in my experience it is to quote Shakespeare and Sir Humphrey Appleby 'observed mainly in the breach'. I drove a car around the South Island of NZ and specifically asked the question of Enterprise, and they said they cared more about the age of the driver than the experience.

loskie

yes but what proof can they ask for for experience? There is none.

phill99

You need to pass you test first. Then you need to get a policy with restricted mileage and with a black box fitted.


People always think that they are insuring the car. You are not. You are insuring YOU to drive the car. The biggest risk and hence the biggest loading in the premium is YOU. You have no driving experience at all, so how can the insurers assess whether you are a good risk or not? They can't so the premium is loaded.

zagfles

Mainly because of ambulance chasing scum, also things like the discount rate which is now negative (this is the assumed rate of return for large payouts - if it's low or negative the payout has to be bigger as there's less assumed return from it). See https://www.hilldickinson.com/insights/articles/government-sets-negative-discount-rate-what-means-insurance-industry

There are legislative changes coming up which may help, eg:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/insurance/car/fake-whiplash-claims-crackdown-makes-queens-speech/

But as above read the MSE guide, a few good tips there, and waiting a few years after passing is likely to help.

I'm getting our kids to try to pass at 17 before going to uni, where they won't need a car, so hopefully by the time they actually need one it'll be a few years after they passed the test and so cheaper insurance. Plus some penalities are far more severe for people who passed their test within 2 years - so they avoid that too.

panika

If I was you I would carry on with driving lessons and driving test. You've spent already a few hundreds on it (lessons plus theory test) so stopping it would be a waste of money and time.

Looking at your age, don't expect insurance be less than £1200, even for small car. You can lower monthly payments by increasing excess in first year of driving and pray, that your car won't be written off for any reason. My excess was £450 for 10 years old Yaris, it lowered my insurance by £300. Also you can add experienced driver as named driver on your policy, but you have to be main driver (otherwise policy may be not valid). Like it has been said before, black box is an option.

As for the cars - it was a bit cheaper to insure 13 years old Yaris than few years old Aygo. Aygo/c1/107 are driven mainly by young drivers and that's something to do with insurance price. Maybe going for "older people cars" is better option - Honda Jazz, Nissan Micra/Note.

Mercdriver

loskie wrote: »

yes but what proof can they ask for for experience? There is none.

Your driving licence has the date you passed on it. They quantify it by the time elapsed since you pass the practical test.

loskie

that is no proof of experience though is it? I could have passed my test 5 years ago but never driven since, conversely I could have driven 60 000m per year since. Who's to know?