Car insurance for young drivers

bbc news story

Any young drivers here...?   or parents of young drivers?

Are insurance premiums, even for basic small cars, really that expensive thesedays..?

(I feel so old now.........!)

If so..  what are the cheapest cars to insure...?

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Comments

  • true.my 17 year old son assed his test..but can't drive around yet as my insurance company want to increase the premiun from £220 to around £2500 for my fabia to put him on............

     He's looking to buy a 12 year old corsa and the cheapest quotes for him are around £2500image

  • Yes DV, you'd better start putting a bit aside!

    It raises a big question...

    In what other field would an institution be allowed to behave like this?

    You can smoke 50 a day and drink 10 pints a night but you still get free NHS treatment for your cancers just like the vegetarian teetotaller.

    Just because a lad up the road takes his son's car and kills himself and 3 of his mates, why does my son have to pay for it?

  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    teenage boys are generally statistically have the highest amount of accidents so simply have to pay the highest premiums. It's just the way it is.

    Over time their premiums will naturally drop, dependent on careful driving. Can't say fairer than that really.

    I saw my price go down from about £1,000 at 22, to £330 or so aged 29 in the spring for the same (cheap) car off 7years no claim.

    Obviously If I'd started at 17, you'd see a much steeper reduction still.,

  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭

    When i passed my test it was £1500 to insure a 1.2 vauxhall nova (18 years old) with third party insurance. As i'm over 25 now, it's suddenly gone to £800 for a similar priced car. In Europe, i'm now being charged 1700€ for a peugeot 206 and it's beyond a joke image

    If i could take public transport - I would in an instant.

  • Mr Puffy, it isn't a question of an "institution" being allowed to behave like this. Insurance companies are businesses and owe it to their shareholders to make money. They have no way of working out which 17 year olds drive like idiots and which ones don't. That means they work to an average, and the average 17 year old boy will have lots more accidents than the average 40 year old so they have to charge a lot or they'd lose money.

    You should be pleased that they're looking at technology that can separate the good drivers from the bad and it will reduce insurance premiums for sensible drivers, as I assume your son is.
  • Raise the minimum age for driving to 21 or restrict anyone under 25 to a car with an engine no bigger then a 1.2.

    If you get caught with no insurance it's 6 points and £200.......so some will take the chance of not getting caught and if they do then it's still cheaper then £2500 insurance.......and with police budgets getting cut ANPR/traffic units will see a reduction in man power/equipment so the chsnces of getting caught are going to be less.

  • The average 17 year old has more expensive accidents than other people.  Pensioners (for example) are often not the best drivers once their health starts to go, but they generally have minor accidents that don't involve anyone else, whereas teenagers often hit other people or take out crash barriers that cost a lot of money to replace.
  • MrsK8MrsK8 ✭✭✭
    I got my renewal through the other day with my current insurer & was pleasantly surprised.

    Although I have gone from a 1.6 Astra to a smart car in the last few months with all this '40% increase' since I last renewed, I was expecting it to still cost the same to insure the smart as it did the Astra but it was the cheapest it's ever been.

    I don't envy teenagers or the parents of teenagers as it is so expensive to insure nowadays but we all know the statistics when it comes to accidents, it's just a shame people are paying for other people's mistakes before they've even had a chance to (potentially) make their own.

  • Teenagers are really bad drivers. I know I was bad to begin with. Hence the high insurance - they're very risky. You cant argue with the statistics.
  • What about classic car insurance for young drivers - if it's significantly cheaper it might pay to look at something like a Mk2 Cortina or an old mini ?

    Out of interest are motorbikes and scooters really expensive for teenagers to insure now too ?
  • I new a 20 year old who changed to a van for his work and his insurance dropped like mad.................I welcome the black box techknowledy for young drivers........................maybe it will be made compulsory in a feww years for all drivers

     they need to do sometging to deter young drivers without insurance though..............and charging £2000 doesn't encoutrage them...............as I said befreo my son only earns £3 odd an hour  and there is no public transport near his work on top  of a mountain....................so thats a hell of a lot of hours he has to work for insurance

  • £2000 for a 17 yr old is cheap! Had a lad in the other week who had had quotes of between £4500 and £8000 on a group 1 insurance car. Insurance has gone up by at least a third this year. Was told the other day that for every £ ins company's take it's costing them £1.20. That's down to professional claimers.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    There must be something more to the story than that Madlot. No normal 17 year old is going to be charged that much for a group 1 insurance surely.

    Did he have a previous conviction or something hugely affecting it?

  • Nope, just passed his test. It's common now.
  • Popsider, I was told that if a 16yr old gets insured on a scooter, once he passes his test, he will have no claims and will be cheaper. Again this is only what I've been told but apparently parents have bought scooters for their kids and insured them without the kids knowledge so that it's cheaper in the long run.

    I have no idea how much it is for scooters or motor bikes though.
  • Those insurance premiums are just crazy.....

  • Price does depend on address too.
  • I've insured my offspring because I think it's important that they gain driving experience whilst under my care (and supervision)

    The cost  is pretty prohibitive however.

    I'm pondering whether I can justify insuring them this year ...but I do want them to get experience. I don't mind paying for increased risk. I do mind paying for lots of uninsured drivers and people who claim for a whinjury just because they can.

    After a car accident last year I was called repeatedly from firms trying to get me to make a claim. It was a year ago and I had another call just recently. 

  • GertieGertie ✭✭✭
    There was a discussion about insurance premiums on 5Live a few months ago.  The rep from the insurance companies was asked why the UK premiums were so high. His responce was that the UK had the weakest necks in europe and had the most claims for whiplash.
  • My 18 year neice had a driver hit her from behind.................whilst she was shaken up she was unhurt,,,,,,,,,,rthe other insurers paid the couple of hundred to put her car right but also offered her £2000 for personal in juroes if she dindn't make any further claims....................she hadn't made any claimfor personal injuroes but of course accepted the offer of the money  in lieu of the fact she wouldn't make any other claims....

     if insurers are paying out when nothing ios being claimed...........imaqgine how much they are paying out when people are trying to claimfor non existing injuries

  • I was back ended on my bike a few years ago it took six months to settle because the ambulance chasers would not accept that I didn't want to make a medical claim for a bit of bruising and a two days of a slightly stiff neck and the insurance company was nervous about letting it go

    I know a 20 year old Lithuanian who if he uses his british car has to pay something ridiculous, nearly £1K per month he said but if he uses his Lithuanian car his mother sorts his insurance out back home and it costs an additional £15 per month for it to be valid over here and they send him a certificate every month so its up to date
  • Maddy, we had an Irish guy in yesterday who was buying a car, registering it in Ireland and putting Irish plates on it. Said it would cost him in insurance a fifth of what it would here.
  • Yep its nuts isn't it

    I suspect a similar thing if not to the same extent exists for house insurance where the victims of theft hike up their insurance claim or is some cases claim for things they never had in the first place.

    A friend of mine is still technically under arrest for handling stolen goods - it was a track bike which came into his possession - but as soon as we realised it might be dodgy we got a friend of mine to post a photo on facebook and within hours I was talking to the father of the girl who owned it and they got it back the next day. The reason the police gave for arresting him?? anyone with as much knowledge of bike as he had should have known that a 1500 quid bike must be stolen if he is offered it for 100. It was worth 300 tops me man made a fraudulent claim on his insurance and someone else paid the price for his deceit
  • As a foreigner, i have to pay more for insurance too. To add insult to injury, insurance companies don't take into account the years I spent driving back home either.
  • Stevie  GStevie G ✭✭✭✭

    Little Ninja, I heard that from a French woman i knew too! She had something like 8 years no claim back home, yet is paying about £600 a year for a small car, at the age of 28.

    Good job she's not a bloke, or that'd probably be a few hundred higher (until the new rules!)

  • I think a lot of kids these days have worked out its cheaper not to be insured against the risk of being caught and getting a fine of £150.00 and some points. They buy cars for £500 drive it until it stops or they get caught. So making the insurance so prohibitive the insurance companys are putting more dangerous cars on the road uninsured. It crazyimage
  • Flat Foo.ted wrote (see)

    Raise the minimum age for driving to 21 or restrict anyone under 25 to a car with an engine no bigger then a 1.2.

    If you get caught with no insurance it's 6 points and £200.......so some will take the chance of not getting caught and if they do then it's still cheaper then £2500 insurance.......and with police budgets getting cut ANPR/traffic units will see a reduction in man power/equipment so the chsnces of getting caught are going to be less.

    Tommygun2 wrote (see)
    I think a lot of kids these days have worked out its cheaper not to be insured against the risk of being caught and getting a fine of £150.00 and some points. They buy cars for £500 drive it until it stops or they get caught. So making the insurance so prohibitive the insurance companys are putting more dangerous cars on the road uninsured. It crazyimage

    Is it still true that for the first 2 years of passing your test you can only have half as many points, so get 6 and you lose your license.  I think most young people would at least be concerned about that side of it, if not the points.  I got my first car at 22, a 1.1 106, I think my first years insurance was around the £900 area.

    i have another question about young people and driving?  Who do you think are the worst for drink driving?  I have known one lad in his twenties who was was terrible for it, and would go for about 10 pints then drive home, which is awful, but other than that I think all my friends, (i'm 28) have the same attitude as me, where if i'm driving, it's generally nothing, or if i'll be out for a long time, or am having a meal i'll have 1 small drink.  I see a lot of friends of my parents, however, who think nothing of driving after a  couple of pints/glasses of wine, and often more.

    I think it's unfair that the younger generation are made out to be the worst culprits for drink driving, when I think we have been better educated to the dangers, and with some extreme exceptions, just don't do it.

  • I think that's the problem Angel, with youngsters its either all or nothing.  The 'all' people give the rest a bad name, particularly as they haven't learnt how to handle their drink so they are obviously drunk.

    Whereas the older people I know tend to drink a more moderate amount, or at a more steady rate.  They might still be over the limit, but they look in control of themselves so they get away with it.

  • NessieNessie ✭✭✭
    Flat Foo.ted wrote (see)

    Raise the minimum age for driving to 21 or restrict anyone under 25 to a car with an engine no bigger then a 1.2.

    If you get caught with no insurance it's 6 points and £200.......so some will take the chance of not getting caught and if they do then it's still cheaper then £2500 insurance.......and with police budgets getting cut ANPR/traffic units will see a reduction in man power/equipment so the chsnces of getting caught are going to be less.

    The new technology will make it easier for the police to catch uninsured drivers.  Number recognition cameras can pick up car info via the DVLA, which now have insurance and MOT details linked to them.  One example of Big Brother technology being used for good......

    Madge. wrote (see)

    I've insured my offspring because I think it's important that they gain driving experience whilst under my care (and supervision)

    The cost  is pretty prohibitive however.

    I'm pondering whether I can justify insuring them this year ...but I do want them to get experience. I don't mind paying for increased risk. I do mind paying for lots of uninsured drivers and people who claim for a whinjury just because they can.

    After a car accident last year I was called repeatedly from firms trying to get me to make a claim. It was a year ago and I had another call just recently. 


    Love the term "whingery". <stores away for future use>

    I get calls from firms trying to get me to make a claim too. Even though I haven't had an accident...............

    I don't know the current stats, but certainly it used to be middle aged men who were statistically more likely to drink and drive, although young men who did D&D were likely to be much more over the limit. 

  • It is ridiculous. Yes the youngsxters are more at risk of an accident BUT these amounts are insane and often a years insurance is ten tiems the value of the car. Of course they are not insuring themselves but the people they hit.

    Part of that problem is fraudulent crash claism. My dad (76 but no problems driving) had a 4x4 just break in front of him the other day and although he almost stopped not quite. His car, a very old Astra was write-off. The others are claiming whiplash. No way. The insurance company know it is a scam but can't prove it !!

    Back to the kids though I agree with the point above. The sensible kids are also the law-abiding ones. The ones having the crashes are also the ones that will risk driving uninsured.  My son is 17 next year and already has done some off public road lessons and is a natural according to the instructor and is also very sensible but wil get hammered by the insurance companies, He'll also then get hammered bu the government if he wants to go to University.

     Who'd be a youngster today !image

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