Young Driver Insurance (car written off)

Timmo28

I would really appreciate any advice regarding my son’s insurance issue. He’s a young driver and was insured on his own car in April last year, unfortunately he’s had to make two claims both of which were not his fault the first being a car malfunction and the second was an attempted car jacking (this resulted in the incident being reported the police and the car was subsequently written off).

He is now trying to find a new car and the insurance quotes he is receiving make the eyes water, his previous premium was £1.2k whereas now he is being quoted £5.7k which is simply unaffordable.

Could anyone suggest a way around this as he is keen to own his own car and keep driving. We were thinking of insuring myself or my wife as main driver with our son as a named driver, however he will not accumulate his no claims insurance. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Emmia

Timmo28 said:

I would really appreciate any advice regarding my son’s insurance issue. He’s a young driver and was insured on his own car in April last year, unfortunately he’s had to make two claims both of which were not his fault the first being a car malfunction and the second was an attempted car jacking (this resulted in the incident being reported the police and the car was subsequently written off).

He is now trying to find a new car and the insurance quotes he is receiving make the eyes water, his previous premium was £1.2k whereas now he is being quoted £5.7k which is simply unaffordable.

Could anyone suggest a way around this as he is keen to own his own car and keep driving. We were thinking of insuring myself or my wife as main driver with our son as a named driver, however he will not accumulate his no claims insurance. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

You would be "fronting" as neither of you would be the main driver, your son would.

If caught (your son seems to be unlucky in this respect) this could have serious repercussions for your own ability to get insurance (and your son), and could land you with a criminal record, and potentially being treated as uninsured (and liable for the costs etc.) in the event of an accident.

Brie

If you or your wife insure the car with one of you as main driver when it's actually your son who's the main driver then this is illegal, known as fronting.  If you (or wife) ARE the main driver then you could have him as a named driver but I don't think they will accrue any no claims allowance for him.  

Fronting would invalidate the insurance which given how unlucky he has been would not be a good thing.  

If he only got insurance last April then there is still time on that policy presumably but I guess there's an increase due to the change of car.  

Does adding a black box (I think that's what it's called) and adding one of you as a named driver help at all??

Aretnap

Declaring yourself to be the main driver when actually your son is the main driver would be insurance fraud. Potential consequences could include a lifetime of high premiums due to having to declare a cancelled policy, a criminal conviction, and even losing your home (if the policy is voided after he writes off a Ferrari or causes someone a life-changing injury).

You could of course try to insure it in your own name provided you were upfront with the insurer about the fact that your son will be doing most of the driving, but it might not reduce the premium much, if at all, and not all insurers would allow the arrangement.

You can also put yourself and/or your wife down as secondary drivers quite legally and this might reduce the premium a bit - probably not four-fold though.

Unfortunately an accident caused by a mechanical defect and a theft will both be treated as "fault" claims - regardless of culpability "fault" in insurance jargon means that there was no other (identifiable) person to blame who could be made to pay the costs rather than the actual insurer. Two fault claims in quick succession are going to put him in a high risk category by any measure.

Sorry to be bleak but beyond shopping around as much as possible, considering black box policies etc, the options are probably to find a way of paying the premiums or to go without a car for a couple of years until the accidents start to fade into the past, and his premium starts to come down anyway with age and a longer-held licence.

DullGreyGuy

Timmo28 said:

I would really appreciate any advice regarding my son’s insurance issue. He’s a young driver and was insured on his own car in April last year, unfortunately he’s had to make two claims both of which were not his fault the first being a car malfunction and the second was an attempted car jacking (this resulted in the incident being reported the police and the car was subsequently written off).

He is now trying to find a new car and the insurance quotes he is receiving make the eyes water, his previous premium was £1.2k whereas now he is being quoted £5.7k which is simply unaffordable.

Could anyone suggest a way around this as he is keen to own his own car and keep driving. We were thinking of insuring myself or my wife as main driver with our son as a named driver, however he will not accumulate his no claims insurance. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Those both sound like fault claims from the limited information given... have you been declaring them as fault or non-fault when getting quotes?

Your last suggestion is fraud which would ultimately result in your premiums going up to his level if you were caught but not only for Motor but the other classes of insurance you buy