Don't know what to do about young driver insurance after accident

Kinggie

Hi
My daughter has only been driving for 4 months. She's been driving an old (15 years) but reliable car that we have from time to time. She is on as an additional driver on my insurance policy.

Unfortunately she has had a collision where she was at fault. Thankfully everybody was ok however due to the age of the car, the car is being written off.

We are getting quotes to get the car repaired as it's only metal work that would be needed (about £1800). Due to her not having her licence for long we want to keep her driving to get her confidence going. Ive done a quote to insure her on my car through our insurance and the cost is astronomical (£450 per month probably due to her accident and my car being more recent) so its a no go.

I am not sure what to do as even if we get the old car repaired it would still be a "write off" category so would probably be difficult to insure. 

Also we can't afford the cost of insuring her on my car so really at a loss. she is also starting uni in September so wouldn't be driving much anyway.

Just looking for some guidance from people who found themselves in the same situation and what you did. Not sure if there is any point fixing the car if we can't insure her on it then.

The head is scrambled

Thanks

CliveOfIndia

Would it be possible to buy her another cheap runabout?  Last month we bought a 2010 Micra for my daughter to learn in, paid £1600 for it and - thus far - it seems to be a cracking little car.  Despite the high prices of used cars at the moment, there are still some good cars out there for fairly reasonable money if you take your time and look around.

Insurance is, unfortunately, likely to be fairly steep - new driver with a claim.  But there's not much you can do about that short of shopping around for quotes and doing what you can to buy a car that's in the cheapest insurance bracket (which is not always as obvious as it sounds).

You could also do a "dummy" quote on one of the aggregator sites to see how much it would cost to insure her on the existing car, if you were to get it repaired.  The fact that it's a write-off may or may not make a huge difference, but at least you'll be able to get an idea.

Aretnap

A write-off marker will not generally cause any major problems insuring the car - that is something of an urban myth. A very small number if insurers are reluctant to insure cars which have previously been written off (so read the questions and assumptions carefully when you get quotes) but the large majority don't ask and don't care. In most cases the only real difference it makes is that were the car to be written off a second time, the payout would be reduced to reflect the fact that the write-off marker would have an effect on its value. Also it might make selling the car more difficult in future, but if it's an old car that you plan to keep until it falls apart that's not a major concern.

She would still have to declare the accident and the claim if course which could push her premium up quite a bit as a new driver. Not really any way around that. Have you checked (a) what it would cost to insure her on the current car if you got it repaired and declare the accident and (b) what it might cost to insure her on another cheap, cheerful, old, small car that you might buy rather than repairing her current one?

facade

I'd get her off your policy and onto one of her own. Get a cheap runabout, ( we used to say fiat Punto or Panda, as no young driver would be seen dead in one so they were cheap to buy and insure, but it looks like they are starting to change their minds about only having a mini/Fiat 500), and insure it for her with you as a named driver which will reduce the premium a bit.

.

As it is, you have a claim to declare now, and she's had an accident. As an inexperienced driver, her chances of having another are quite high, which is why insurers are charging so much.

Kinggie

Aretnap said:

A write-off marker will not generally cause any major problems insuring the car - that is something of an urban myth. A very small number if insurers are reluctant to insure cars which have previously been written off (so read the questions and assumptions carefully when you get quotes) but the large majority don't ask and don't care. In most cases the only real difference it makes is that were the car to be written off a second time, the payout would be reduced to reflect the fact that the write-off marker would have an effect on its value. Also it might make selling the car more difficult in future, but if it's an old car that you plan to keep until it falls apart that's not a major concern.

She would still have to declare the accident and the claim if course which could push her premium up quite a bit as a new driver. Not really any way around that. Have you checked (a) what it would cost to insure her on the current car if you got it repaired and declare the accident and (b) what it might cost to insure her on another cheap, cheerful, old, small car that you might buy rather than repairing her current one?

Thanks for that. I did assume that insuring the write off car would be more costly but thinking about it I have never been asked if any of my cars have been written off.

We did declare the accident to the insurance but I haven't asked them yet what it would cost to insure her again on it if we got it repaired as we are still waiting for the "expert" to let us know it's a write off. 

You are right may look into buying another v cheap car but the car that got damaged only got 60 000 miles to the clock and has been really reliable all that time so don't really want to get rid.

Thanks for your help though

Kinggie

CliveOfIndia said:

Would it be possible to buy her another cheap runabout?  Last month we bought a 2010 Micra for my daughter to learn in, paid £1600 for it and - thus far - it seems to be a cracking little car.  Despite the high prices of used cars at the moment, there are still some good cars out there for fairly reasonable money if you take your time and look around.

Insurance is, unfortunately, likely to be fairly steep - new driver with a claim.  But there's not much you can do about that short of shopping around for quotes and doing what you can to buy a car that's in the cheapest insurance bracket (which is not always as obvious as it sounds).

You could also do a "dummy" quote on one of the aggregator sites to see how much it would cost to insure her on the existing car, if you were to get it repaired.  The fact that it's a write-off may or may not make a huge difference, but at least you'll be able to get an idea.

I am going to talk to the other half about getting a cheap runaround maybe. The car she is insured on is a 1.6l so may be cheaper to insure a lower engine. I'll try doing some dummy booking and get some quotes. I am glad I posted on the site and got some advice as last night I was thinking she was never going to be driving again for at least 5 years! Thanks for your response

Kinggie

facade said:

I'd get her off your policy and onto one of her own. Get a cheap runabout, ( we used to say fiat Punto or Panda, as no young driver would be seen dead in one so they were cheap to buy and insure, but it looks like they are starting to change their minds about only having a mini/Fiat 500), and insure it for her with you as a named driver which will reduce the premium a bit.

.

As it is, you have a claim to declare now, and she's had an accident. As an inexperienced driver, her chances of having another are quite high, which is why insurers are charging so much.

I'll have a look at maybe getting her her own insurance on a cheap car, it's such a minefield. We have declared the accident to the insurance. I think i am now veering towards getting her a cheap car. Apparently we may be able to buy the old car back from teh insurance (my husband's friend seem to think we could get ok money just by reselling the engine alone but I am no mechanic so who knows. Also the excess is £500 so by the time we pay that + rebuying the car it probably doesn't make financial sense to buy it back off the insurance. We are still waiting for the insurance to officially write it off at the moment. Thanks for your response

DullGreyGuy

Kinggie said:

Aretnap said:

A write-off marker will not generally cause any major problems insuring the car - that is something of an urban myth. A very small number if insurers are reluctant to insure cars which have previously been written off (so read the questions and assumptions carefully when you get quotes) but the large majority don't ask and don't care. In most cases the only real difference it makes is that were the car to be written off a second time, the payout would be reduced to reflect the fact that the write-off marker would have an effect on its value. Also it might make selling the car more difficult in future, but if it's an old car that you plan to keep until it falls apart that's not a major concern.

She would still have to declare the accident and the claim if course which could push her premium up quite a bit as a new driver. Not really any way around that. Have you checked (a) what it would cost to insure her on the current car if you got it repaired and declare the accident and (b) what it might cost to insure her on another cheap, cheerful, old, small car that you might buy rather than repairing her current one?

Thanks for that. I did assume that insuring the write off car would be more costly but thinking about it I have never been asked if any of my cars have been written off.

We did declare the accident to the insurance but I haven't asked them yet what it would cost to insure her again on it if we got it repaired as we are still waiting for the "expert" to let us know it's a write off. 

Technically you wouldnt need to be asked as the insurer can look it up for themselves using the registration. A car with a total loss marker is generally worth less than one without on and so in principle it should be cheaper to insure it not more expensive or more difficult as the max 1st party payout is lower.

She will hopefully be able to just continue the existing policy so the real pain will come next year when the policy renews.

Mr.Generous

If they write off a car as a total loss I'm pretty sure the policy ends - but the full years premium has to be paid.

lordmountararat

If she's off to university soon, does she really need a car at all? I appreciate that it is important for her to keep her confidence after an accident, but with the cost of university being what it is, she might be better putting her money into her tuition fees and living costs. My grand daughter passed her driving test a couple of weeks ago, at the age of 17, and she is also off to university in the autumn and is delaying buying a car until after she graduates. Owning a car when a student can be a real pain.

hildasmuriel

If all else fails, put the money aside for some refresher lessons when she is home from university and ready to drive again.