Student Cars

nige

All my insurance quotes for next year are over £1000 on pretty much any car, this is a male aged 18 no NCD but with Pass Plus + 1 years driving exp. Insured under my dads name for this year. But the funny thing is the two cheapest I have found, one has yet to be mentioned, are Co-op and Norwich Union, Co-op are slightly better in my opinion because they allow any mod to your car except ones that increase performance without having to declare it and pay more (so alloy wheels, etc can be added and covered without an increase in premium). My sister who is 25 and not a student recommends Co-op or Liverpool Victoria, but my Liverpool Victoria quote was too high, but some of you girls might find it alright.

Savvy_Sue

It would be worth looking on the Insurance board as there have been questions about good deals for young drivers there.

And it would be worth lookin at Honest John, especially in The Back Room, where if you can't find your question answered you can register and ask yourself.

But essential to check whether a car is going to be any use or not: campus universities never have enough parking, charge for it, fine if you don't have a permit. And any street parking nearby is likely to be short term bays as well.

And even more essential is to BE HONEST ABOUT WHO THE MAIN DRIVER IS and where the car is kept! If a student is insured in their parent's name and at their parent's address and the car is damaged or stolen on a university campus, do not expect to be able to claim.

deedums wrote:

Hi, I'd be interested to know about quotes as well. We've just been getting a few for my son who's 18 this month & passed his test 6 months ago. At the moment he's on my insurance, all the quotes we've got for R reg fiesta 1.3 have been around £1450 for tpft which we simply can't afford and is probably all the car is worth anyway :eek:

What you have to remember is that you are not just insuring against potential damage done to your son's car, you are insuring for all the potential damage done BY your son's car. For that reason, whether the car is worth £1500 or £50 may not make that much difference! I think what's important is that it's in a low insurance group. (We were until recently driving a large Saab, insurance co. just laughed and said "No" when we asked about adding our son!)

deedums

Savvy_Sue wrote:

What you have to remember is that you are not just insuring against potential damage done to your son's car, you are insuring for all the potential damage done BY your son's car. For that reason, whether the car is worth £1500 or £50 may not make that much difference! I think what's important is that it's in a low insurance group. (We were until recently driving a large Saab, insurance co. just laughed and said "No" when we asked about adding our son!)

Thanks, you are right of course, I was just being flippant because the car is losing value the more he drives it!! Slight dent above the back wheel arch, broken cigarette lighter (used for charging phone!), new tyre, handbrake (don't you pull it through the sunroof to put it on?!)- not that he knows how all this happened:rotfl: Anyway the most important thing is that he is safe and so are other road users, he is a very good driver if a little over enthusiastic. You should see all the additions to my little car - people must be wondering if I'm having a mid life crisis!

firespire

Example question -
If you both live at the same address and you put a better (in the eyes of the insurance company) driver on your policy (eg partner or parent) to decrease premiums and share the car ie . I assume the order matters? Best put the 'better' driver in first then the other 'second'?

student100

With insurance policies there is usually one "main driver" (the Policyholder) and there can be additional named drivers who are also entitled to drive the car.

It is possible for a young driver to be insured as an additional driver on a policy in, say, their mother's name (for instance, at the moment I sometimes drive mum's car when I am home and I'm insured on it in this manner). This often works out cheapest, BUT there are problems. Technically, the policyholder must be the person who drives the car most often, so if a young driver were insured as an additional driver on Dad's "second car" (which in fact dad never drove), it's technically in breach of the policy agreement and they could theoretically not pay out in the case of a claim. Also, if the young driver is insured on someone else's policy, he/she won't be able to build up their own no claims bonus.

The other option which for some reason results in lower quotes from some insurance companies is for the young person to have a policy in their name (they are the policyholder and main driver, which allows them to earn their own no-claims bonus), but to name Mum and Dad as additional drivers on their son/daughter's policy. As far as I can tell, mum and dad don't ever have to drive the car (although it might be useful if they could occasionally) but for some companies just having them named can save money.

From my research so far, it does make a difference with Admiral (the cheapest I've found), but not with Direct Line, Tesco, Endsleigh and most others I've looked at so far.

Trying2Save_3

Wow, thanks for all the advice, ideas etc. :beer: Think I found a really good buy! We went to look at a car that unfortunately was already sold (the dealer's wife got them muddled up). But, he had just bought a Peugeot 205 GL 1.1 from an elderly lady who had owned it from new, mileage only 67006. Managed to negotiate £450 plus he put it through the MOT, although no tax. Nothing wrong with the bodywork - so absolutely ideal. Telephoned elephant.com and got insured for £410 3rd party fire and theft (she's 20 with ncb). Didn't think to phone Asda to see if they could do a better deal!

Savvy_Sue

student100 wrote:

With insurance policies there is usually one "main driver" (the Policyholder) and there can be additional named drivers who are also entitled to drive the car.

AFAIK the "main driver" does not have to be the policyholder, but the main driver does have to be the person who drives the most miles. If in doubt - not many of us record who drives which miles! - the 'highest risk' driver would be a sensible option. And in the context of the OP's question - about insuring a student car, then it would be daft not to name the student as the main driver, even if you wanted to argue that parents would drive more miles than offspring for some unfathomable reason. Because if the car is involved in an accident, a theft, or any incident and you then try to claim and the car was on a student campus or 100 miles from registered address and being driven by the student - well, you can guess the rest.

I have recently checked this with my insurance co (Direct Line) because I will at some point be having surgery and won't be able to drive for AT LEAST 3 months afterwards. The insurance is in my name, always has been because I learned to drive several years before he did and he then had a company car. They have said that we just have to notify them if/when he becomes the main driver but the insurance can stay in my name.

When you tax the car, the registered keeper has to be named on the insurance document you show. That caused us problems with our first car, because he was the registered keeper, I had any 'any driver' policy, and he wasn't specifically named at that point - we weren't long married, IIRC. That was a long time ago, since then he has always been a named driver, and our next car was registered in joint names. Went wrong this time though ... the new car is his!

Darren21

I disagree - I've claimed for a break in on a student campus 100 miles away with no problems at all. Maybe if you claimed 2 or 3 times this may be a problem but not for one claim. There's no way they could prove anything or would be bothered to try to for one claim

Savvy_Sue

Darren21 wrote:

I disagree - I've claimed for a break in on a student campus 100 miles away with no problems at all. Maybe if you claimed 2 or 3 times this may be a problem but not for one claim. There's no way they could prove anything or would be bothered to try to for one claim

I think it would vary from insurer to insurer.

antoniomontana

i cannot beleive ho cheap Liverpool Victoria are, i saved £200 compared to tesco