Young Drivers' Car Insurance Discussion

Former_MSE_Rose · 21 March 2011 at 4:34PM

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ab__3 · 23 March 2011 at 10:27AM

Another means of saving money on car insurance that hasn't been mentioned in this guide is to do some advanced driver training. Many insurers take this into consideration when determining premiums. My own experience when I was about 24 was that it reduced my quotes on a 2.0 litre Megane Coupe (without no-claims) from £1200 down to about £650 (this was about 9 years ago). At the time, the course cost was about £75, so it's a bit of a no-brainer (I think it's about £139 now). The benefit (in terms of insurance, not in terms of road-safety) tends to reduce as more no-claims is built up, but IAM Surety will give free no-claims protection to IAM drivers and will usually match anyone else's quote, so it works out cheaper even for people with a lot of no-claims discount. Not all insurance companies take advanced qualifications into account, but even those that don't put it on their website will often consider it if you ask specifically.

There are three advanced courses I'm aware of: PassPlus (which is a fairly basic level of post-test training but does give some insurance discount), the Institute of Advanced Motorists (aka IAM) and RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders (aka RoADA or RoADAR). The latter two are very good advanced courses and involve a similar initial outlay. The IAM's £139 gives you a book on the techniques, the test fee and as many lessons as you need to get you up to the standard (the people doing the coaching are volunteers so you don't pay for their time). RoSPA's advanced driving course works in a similar way and last time I looked it was a little cheaper than the IAM, although they're a smaller organisation so probably have less bargaining power when it comes to insurance.

Gorgeous_George · 27 March 2011 at 10:19AM

This story got me interested (Salford teenager...)

The BBC report...

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), 12% of drivers are aged 17 to 24 - but they are responsible for almost 30% of accidents.

... and then goes on to say...

In that age group, drivers are 10 times more likely to be involved in an accident than drivers aged over 30.

The first quote talks about drivers aged 17 to 24 but the second compares them to drivers aged over 30.

I did some maths and it seems that drivers aged 17-24 are 3.14 times more likely to be involved in an accident than drivers aged over 24.

You may recognise 3.14 as pi. It gets better, I checked and the maths worked out at 22/7 exactly (the non-decimal representation of pi).

I'm sure many readers would have read it as young drivers aged 17-24 being ten times more likely to have an accident.

GG

MALTINGS · 18 June 2011 at 2:23AM

If you have a claim against you for motorcycle accident do you have to declare it when applying for car insurance?

mikey72 · 18 June 2011 at 11:48AM

Yes, any accidents and claims must be declared.

malc_b · 13 July 2011 at 10:54AM

My Suggestions:

1. When getting quotes don't give real name, email, car, etc. if you are thinking about cash back, otherwise your cashback might be claimed by someone else. (Or accept that you very well might not get the cashback).

2. Consider an older, common, car, insure it full comp with max excess. My comparisons in the recent year or 2 have found that Ford Escort 1994 1.6i (that's double overhead cam, fuel injection) for a new driver is cheaper than more recent 1.2 Punto, or 800cc Matiz. I think that is down to Fords, etc. being cheaper to repair and older cars have a lower upper repair limit. With an older car and new driver compulsory excess an old car is always going to be a write-off as it's trade value will be <500, a typical new driver compulsory excess. So in that case you may as wind the excess to maximum which reduces the price. Note excess only applies to your car repairs not any other party. I find this is cheaper than TPFT.

3. Look at multi-car policies which AFAIK comparison sites don't cover.

4. If you must pimp your ride check out sites which give online quotes for modifications (Admiral is one I know of). If you add on planned pimp features when you renew you won't incur the admin fee. WARNING, many (all?) insurers take a very strict line on additions such that you might not consider it a mod but they do. Factory fitted optional extras for example need to be declared (e.g. leather seats instead of cloth), unless standard for that variant.

JK2260 · 15 August 2011 at 1:27PM

Hi im 17 years old and 18 in 5 weeks, ive just passed my test on the 12/08/2011, and im getting ridiculus quotes on any car and any car insurance, the cheapest ive got is from the co-op insurance!! that was like 3000k!!!!

Can anyone help me ? Neeed to get this down, and dont know how!!

samwsmith1 · 24 August 2011 at 1:26AM

JK2260 wrote: »

Hi im 17 years old and 18 in 5 weeks, ive just passed my test on the 12/08/2011, and im getting ridiculus quotes on any car and any car insurance, the cheapest ive got is from the co-op insurance!! that was like 3000k!!!!

Can anyone help me ? Neeed to get this down, and dont know how!!

Try Aviva, they were cheapest for me!
Also try adding a parent on that's been driving several years claim free - it can make a difference.

experience08 · 24 August 2011 at 9:28AM

Swift was very competitive :money:

AlisonCVS · 25 August 2011 at 10:07AM

My son passed his test and as with many others the cost of insurance was prohibitive.

Under discrimination law it was deemed that car insurance companies could not differentiate between male and female.

Surely then the same principal should be apllied to ageism. I assume there must be laws around this as employers are no longer allowed to ask date of birth in application forms.

I know statistically young drivers account for 30% of accidents but statistically women were safer drivers but this was not taken into account when deciding upon this change to insurance.

Surely if we are talking about inexperienced drivers then insurance premiums should surely take into account just the number of years of driving - new drivers / drivers in recent accidents paying a higher rate than experienced driver with a cleaner record - hence NO CLAIMS bonuses.

What does anyone else think - is the current method of calculating insurance Ageist just as it was Sexist not long ago? European legislation surely cant argue the case for one and not the other - then of course there are disabled drivers ... and it goes on.

thenudeone · 25 August 2011 at 1:25PM

The argument with gender was probably it was unfair to discriminate because of something that you are born with, and you cannot change.

Age, on the other hand, affects everyone. No section of society is treated any differently. They all pay more for car insurance when they are young (to reflect risk), less in middle age, and pay more again when they become pensioners, so no-one is discriminated against. It's just a question of timing.

If one of the other main predictors of accident risk (age) is removed from the pricing of insurance, two things would happen:
1) The overall cost of paying insurance claims will rise significantly because people who currently don't drive because their accident risk is so high that it's too expensive to get insurance (eg: the very young) will then be able to drive. So almost everyone will have to pay a great deal more. Only the risky drivers will pay less. This will undoubtedly happen when gender rules come into place, but its effect will be limited to young women as long as age can still be used for insurance pricing.
2) a separate private testing / assessment system will arise (a bit like pass plus or IAM) and insurers will use the results for pricing. I'd happily pay £50 for a test every 5 years if it meant I could save 20% off my annual car insurance bill.

Young Drivers' Car Insurance Discussion

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