New Driver Insurance

[jmspec]

My son passed his driving test yesterday.

He is 17 years 1 month.

Because I have a company car and the wife has a Megane 225, we bought him a 2000 Punto 1.2 worth £600 to learn to drive.

The insurance was £1198 which I thought at the time was expensive.

Yeasterday I phoned the insurance with the happy news to be told "congratulations, that will be an aditional £2089.

I have since phoned, emailed, onlined and faxed every insurance company I have ever heard of, only to find out the original from Quinns was by far the cheapest by at least £1500.

We have had quotes up £8500 for TPFT for a £600 car.

So last night I thought I would go to the pub and try to forget all about it and maybe the answer would come to me.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I still need to find £2089 for the insurance and £50 which I borrowed off the wife to go out with.

 

Jez

[nicko]

Hi, A friend of mine insured a car for his son at a good price by insuring in his name with the son as the main driver and his wife as a named driver also. Before anyone says this is wrong.... please note... the insurance company said it didn't matter if he only drove the car one or twice, because the son was named as the main driver.

 

Nick

[Guest jasonmorris]

As I understood it, the main driver should always be the policy holder????

 

Jason

[jmspec]

I did ask about this, but the car is in my sons name and he is the main driver, I was told that he would have to be the policy holder.

 

Jez

[Guest old_timbo]

I've done that thing! Car insured in my sons name with him as main driver. Putting me or my wife's name on as another named driver reduced the premium by 50%. I used confused.com to try the different permutations and find the best deal. Fortunately he is 21 now so rates have dropped a bit to £600 TPF&T with discounts on a Peugoet 106 diesel.

Cheapest insurance for a 17 year old is on a classic car with limited mileage clause through a specialist broker. My eldest son still insures his Mini that way. Trouble is, do you want your 17 year old in an old car? We bought and installed a rollcage to give him half a chance. All new drivers seem to have an accident in their first year. So you have to grit your teeeth and wait for the call. The boys have accidents due to xs speed (end up in ditches), the girls due to lack of spacial awareness (knock all the corners off in parking incidents).

 

Tim

[Guest Stuartl]

Obviously insurance companies have calculated that going out alone after passing a test makes a young lad 3 times as likely to crash his car. Sadly statistics often reflect this. I passed my test in 1988 and three weeks later hit someone up the back, a minor prang but still a prang none the less.

[Guest bob13]

And they wonder why there are so many uninsured drivers!! The thing is it has nothing to do with the car, it is more to do with the compensation claim. New bumper £200, whiplash £3000

 

You see people in the local paper getting fined for no insurance etc, fine about £200 plus costs etc. Cheaper to get caught then pay for insurance !! Not so good if they hit some poor person though.

[Guest Matt_wood]

As I understood it, the main driver should always be the policy holder????

 

Jason

 

 

Nah you dont, my misses is the main driver on my car even though im the policy holder. i have a company vehicle so only uses the car really at weekends.

 

guess the need is for the policy to be in the name of the person that owns the car.

[ibrooks]

There's nothing wrong with you insuring a car for your kids to drive so long as the insurance company are informed that they are the main driver. Where it becomes fraud is if you just add them as an additional driver and either tell them or allow them to assume that you are the main driver with the kid just driving it occasionally.

 

I managed to knock £100 off the insurance price for my daily this year by adding my mother to the policy. The insurers are aware that we don't live in the same house and that she doesn't have a car of her own but so be it. I doubt that she'll ever even sit in the drivers seat. I suppose it might come in handy if I leave it with her to take for the MOT whilst I use another to go to work.

 

Iain

[baj25]

Congrats to the lad Jez, it all sounds doom and gloom but passing your test is a big milestone!

A subject dear to my heart this one... Saved up 3k for each of our kids to buy cheapo first car + first years insurance. Daughter got £2100 Yaris and ins for 900. Looked to do same for son (17) in the last couple of weeks as he is close to doing his test- on virtually any car it was 2700 insurance with a provisional licence! I thought it may be cheaper if we waited until he had passed his test- WRONG!, 4500 with full licence. Just don't know what to do about it. Thought of a cheapo classic car, but Mrs isn't happy because of reliability/safety, and I don't think you get NCB on those specialist policies either. Bri

[Les Welsher]

When my son passed his test a few years ago I looked around for the lowest group insurance car (group 1)and came up with a fiat seicento, cost £1200. Then he took the pass plus which cost a hundred and something pounds which was offset by over £200 reduction in insurance. He was then insured on the car as the only driver with e-car insurance for a cost of £790 which included breakdown cover (they don't include this anymore).

Most other insurances were between £1300-£3800.

Insurance group finder

 

Les

[jmspec]

I checked e-car and they were £4800.

All the quotes we tried for already included myself and my wife who have both got no convictions.

I tried to lean on the broker today who does our company insurance. All I got was a cup of coffee but no discount.

In fact he couldn't get any where near the Quinns quote.

It looks like we will just have pay up.

 

Jez

[ibrooks]

Buy him a bicycle and insure him to use yours on occasion so that he can keep his hand in behind the wheel. So long as people keep just paying up they'll keep adding zeros on to the quotes.

 

Iain

[Les Welsher]

Did you try a quote with pass plus as this can knock 20-30% off premiums with some insurance companies and gives them invaluable road experience thats why insurance companies give reductions. I know he's itching to get behind the wheel but at what cost.It's only 6 lessons and can be done quickly.

 

Les

[stevedohc2b]

RE You see people in the local paper getting fined for no insurance etc, fine about £200 plus costs etc. Cheaper to get caught then pay for insurance !! Not so good if they hit some poor person though.

My mate who on the bench can confirm that and if under 18 will get told off twice before a fine as well then only £200

 

stephen