Advice for a new driver please!

cheese_2

I passed my driving test today, yippee!!

I'm being given a car, and I believe it's an 'H' reg Polo, so not very new. Is it worth getting fully comp insurance as it's so old? Would I be better to stick to third party and save money?

Any other advice on car insurance, or breakdown services would be fab!!

Thanks.

maclean2

Hi - hope I'm right in thinking that you are over 25 as from previous posts you have a mortgage.At 17 it would cost you a mint so at least if I'm right it will only cost you 50% of a mint.Try confused.com and elephant.co.uk and quinn-direct.com and insuresupermarket.com.A car of this age is definitely not worth comprehensive insurance.

For breakdown insurance try insuresupermarket and you will find rates from around £40.00 per year.Mine is with First Call GB and that's all they charge.

Congratulations on passing your test and best of luck.

BenL

3rd Party cover.

The car is 14/15 years old and will be worth £200 ish retail.

Your excess will be more than that and they wouldn't value the car as that much.

The trade value for a car that age will be £50.

I don't know how much the difference is between covers but its the cost of repairs to the BMW/Mercedes that people run into that the insurance company is worried about.

I used to do price testing for Abbey National Insurance and we had instances of TPFT costing more that Fully Comp because some people are judged to care less about their car on TPFT cover and therefore more likely to claim.

Crazy but it happened.

Ben

cheese_2

Thanks very much for this advice.

How much excess do you think I should offer to pay?? I obviously want to bring the cost down as far as possible.

maclean2

Hi - with third party fire and theft insurance there is no excess on third party claims so if you hit another car you pay nothing towards the damage to the other car.

The standard excess for fire or theft damage to your car is £100.00 and it might be a little cheaper if you increase this to £250.00.

cheese_2

You're a marvel! Thanks!

Savvy_Sue

The other reason you may find that TPFT is not a lot less than fully comp is that you are being insured for the damage you might do to anyone else, not just the damage you might do to your own car.

But I agree in your situation TPFT is all you need.

Taking PassPlus may also bring the cost down with some insurers.

And adding an older, experienced driver may bring the cost down - some find it does, others don't. That person doesn't ever have to drive the car, but it can be useful say if family come to visit and you want to go out and they can drive your car. Although not if they've got a nicer car than yours!

telly-addict

Savvy_Sue wrote:

And adding an older, experienced driver may bring the cost down - some find it does, others don't. That person doesn't ever have to drive the car, but it can be useful say if family come to visit and you want to go out and they can drive your car. Although not if they've got a nicer car than yours!

But ensure that you make it clear that you will be the main driver. Otherwise this would be a classic case of "fronting", which can lead to the policy being voided.

Savvy_Sue

telly-addict wrote:

But ensure that you make it clear that you will be the main driver. Otherwise this would be a classic case of "fronting", which can lead to the policy being voided.

Absolutely. Sorry, I should have spelled out that the named main driver must be the main driver, and if in doubt make the least experienced driver the main driver to be on the safe side!

cheese_2

This sounds like a fab idea to me. Do you mean that if I put down my lovely "been driving safely for 20 years" mate as a secondary driver, the insurance company will lower my premium? Even if she never drives the car? This sounds too good to be true! will all insurance companies do this? How can I judge this when doing a search of quotes?

I'm sorry to sound like a thick person, but this is a totally new area of life for me and one I didn't explore much before I passed my test!

someonehadmyusername

21 year old female
micra 1 ltr
cheapest i found (tpft) was endsleigh
£715
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