MPs to debate £1200 insurance cap for under 25s.
Discussion
My own personal view is that insurance could (not necessarily SHOULD) be capped however it would have to be done on a certain insurance group of car
For example, Citroen C1 / Aygo type vehicles or other vehicles generally up to say 1.2 or 1.4L and say around 100bhp.
Insurance prices are ridiculous for young people, £2000+ in most cases even with a black box so it would be a good idea.
The other suggestion someone made of a partial refund of a policy in the event of no accidents isn't as stupid as it seems.
For example, insurance policy for £2500
Maybe for the first 2 years of driving you get a percentage back, not 50% as that's too high IMO, but say, 25%?
There is a lot of pressure for young people to be independant - Move out young, get a job, etc, but often you need a car to get to work.
An apprentice at my company has a Moped currently and also a 1.2 Corsa which is currently looking to be around £1700 with a black box for the year. Still a lot on a car barely worth £1700! Yes I get the risk is of third parties as well, but still..
For example, Citroen C1 / Aygo type vehicles or other vehicles generally up to say 1.2 or 1.4L and say around 100bhp.
Insurance prices are ridiculous for young people, £2000+ in most cases even with a black box so it would be a good idea.
The other suggestion someone made of a partial refund of a policy in the event of no accidents isn't as stupid as it seems.
For example, insurance policy for £2500
Maybe for the first 2 years of driving you get a percentage back, not 50% as that's too high IMO, but say, 25%?
There is a lot of pressure for young people to be independant - Move out young, get a job, etc, but often you need a car to get to work.
An apprentice at my company has a Moped currently and also a 1.2 Corsa which is currently looking to be around £1700 with a black box for the year. Still a lot on a car barely worth £1700! Yes I get the risk is of third parties as well, but still..
Yipper said:
US car insurance for youths is considerably lower than the UK. The market is def a rip.
I drive a lot in the US and I would say there are less accidents the roads are bigger, less congested, and drivers are generally much less aggressive. Police are pretty hot on speeding as well.I also know a few ex-pats in they say their insurance is cheaper, but not by much (roughly dollar = pound). In addition state minimum insurance could see you still liable for some pretty big bills. They also have a habit of quoting 6m, so if someone says they pay $600 dollars for car insurance, they often mean for 6m.
It would be good to hear from the other side of the pond.
Also if our market is a rip off as you say, why haven't you started your own business offering cheap insurance to young drivers?
menguin said:
14 years ago it cost me £1200 to insure my first car - a 1.3l Polo from 1989. People can either afford to drive or not - imposing an artificial and arbitrary cap on a market that should be defined by risk and cost is stupid especially when if anything insurance costs adjusted for inflation may have even gone down!
I do wonder whether expectation has a lot to do with it. Are kids today driving newer, more expensive, more powerful and more desirable cars and at a younger age than our generation? When my step daughter passed her test aged 18 - she was handed the keys to a 3-4 year old Fiesta (though she really wanted a more desirable Renault Clio like her mates had)I couldn't afford to buy a car for 3 years after I passed my test I was 21 before I had a job that paid enough - even then I had to settle for a relatively battered 10 year old 1.1l Fiesta and it still cost over £1300 to insure in today's money. Had I bought a newer more desirable car - I bet my premiums would have been much higher.
I have to question whether like for like premiums actually increased for young people?
I just did a quick experiment on a price comparison site. I entered my details as if I were 21 again and living at the address I had when I bought my first car, same occupation, parking on the drive etc. I found a car on auto trader that would in todays terms, be broadly equivalent to the one I had (if a little better) i.e. a 10 year old 3 door 1.2l Fiesta worth around £1300.
The two lowest insurance premiums for TPFT came in at £1062 (which is £635 in 1997 money) and £1326 (which is about the same as I payed in 1997).
Edited by Moonhawk on Thursday 23 March 09:21
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Yipper said:
US car insurance for youths is considerably lower than the UK. The market is def a rip.
Millions of people in the UK pay sub £250 for comp cover. That doesn't sound like a rip off to me. Middle aged, experienced driver, sensible car, no points, haven't crashed in decades = cheap insurance....who would have thunk it!
When I started driving my insurance was £750, which is more like £1500 now. We have all been there.
xjay1337 said:
My own personal view is that insurance could (not necessarily SHOULD) be capped however it would have to be done on a certain insurance group of car
For example, Citroen C1 / Aygo type vehicles or other vehicles generally up to say 1.2 or 1.4L and say around 100bhp.
Insurance prices are ridiculous for young people, £2000+ in most cases even with a black box so it would be a good idea.
The other suggestion someone made of a partial refund of a policy in the event of no accidents isn't as stupid as it seems.
For example, insurance policy for £2500
Maybe for the first 2 years of driving you get a percentage back, not 50% as that's too high IMO, but say, 25%?
There is a lot of pressure for young people to be independant - Move out young, get a job, etc, but often you need a car to get to work.
An apprentice at my company has a Moped currently and also a 1.2 Corsa which is currently looking to be around £1700 with a black box for the year. Still a lot on a car barely worth £1700! Yes I get the risk is of third parties as well, but still..
£2000 isn't ridiculous, it's the right price. That's why lots of different firms who are in competition with each other are charging those premiums.For example, Citroen C1 / Aygo type vehicles or other vehicles generally up to say 1.2 or 1.4L and say around 100bhp.
Insurance prices are ridiculous for young people, £2000+ in most cases even with a black box so it would be a good idea.
The other suggestion someone made of a partial refund of a policy in the event of no accidents isn't as stupid as it seems.
For example, insurance policy for £2500
Maybe for the first 2 years of driving you get a percentage back, not 50% as that's too high IMO, but say, 25%?
There is a lot of pressure for young people to be independant - Move out young, get a job, etc, but often you need a car to get to work.
An apprentice at my company has a Moped currently and also a 1.2 Corsa which is currently looking to be around £1700 with a black box for the year. Still a lot on a car barely worth £1700! Yes I get the risk is of third parties as well, but still..
And if you give 25% back for the claim free drivers, where's the money going to come from to pay the claim for the driver who paid £2000, and had a £20K claim? Don't you see that by refunding 25% to claim free drivers, you are going to have a massive shortfall in the money needed to pay the claims of the drivers who have accidents? So that £2000 you are moaning about will have to go up.
Christ, it's not rocket surgery!
98elise said:
I drive a lot in the US and I would say there are less accidents.........
You are kidding right?The US has over 3 times the number of road deaths per capita than the UK has.
According to the US 'Fatality Analysis Reporting System' in 2010 there were an estimated 5.4 million crashes.
In the same year in the UK, the DFT recorded 281,401 crashes involving all vehicle types at all severity levels.
Given the US population in 2010 was 309.3 million - whereas the UK population at that time was 62.8 million (from Google), it means the number of crashes in the US was 4 times higher per capita than the UK.
Edited by Moonhawk on Thursday 23 March 09:22
So many people citing that they paid the equivalent of £1200 in today's money 10-20 years ago don't seem to get that THAT IS THE PROBLEM. If your 17-20 insurance for £1200 on your first car is almost entirely unobtainable. When I passed 5 years ago I was quoted £3.4k at 17 for a 1.0 Micra, and £1700 at 18. I would strongly support a cap, with limitations of course. However I would be interested in seeing the logistics that companies come up with around implementing it.
Although in my personal opinion the whole civil claims system needs revamped as the whole industry is spiraling out of control.
Although in my personal opinion the whole civil claims system needs revamped as the whole industry is spiraling out of control.
Puddenchucker said:
How about another suggestion:
Keep the premiums for young/inexperience drivers the same as now but with, say, a 50% refund if they go the year without any (at fault) claims/accidents or convictions.
i.e. a tangible financial incentive to drive sensibly.
And again, if you keep the premiums as they are now, but refund 50% to claim free drivers, then that's a huge gap in the finances, which is money needed to pay the claims of those who do have accidents.Keep the premiums for young/inexperience drivers the same as now but with, say, a 50% refund if they go the year without any (at fault) claims/accidents or convictions.
i.e. a tangible financial incentive to drive sensibly.
Where will that money come from?
caelite said:
Although in my personal opinion the whole civil claims system needs revamped as the whole industry is spiraling out of control.
No it isn't it's just fine. I'm old. I pay f
k all for my car insurance. Love it.Life insurance, now that's out of control. They charge a bloody fortune for people of my age. And I've never died before, so it's really unfair. My sons pay a fraction of what I pay. Because they're 21 & 18. Bloody youngster, getting dirt cheap cover. I reckon we should have a cap on life insurance premiums for the over 50s, to be funded by people in their 20s. How's that for a suggestion.
caelite said:
So many people citing that they paid the equivalent of £1200 in today's money 10-20 years ago don't seem to get that THAT IS THE PROBLEM. If your 17-20 insurance for £1200 on your first car is almost entirely unobtainable.
The point that's being made is that the whole furore about young people's insurance being high is a relatively new thing and it's made to sound like young people have it so much worse today - yet insurance for young people has always been high (at least for as long as I have been driving).From my own experiment it would appear that a young person today in similar circumstances to myself when I bought my first car - would pay about the same as I did (possibly less).
TwigtheWonderkid said:
No it isn't it's just fine. I'm old. I pay fk all for my car insurance. Love it.
Life insurance, now that's out of control. They charge a bloody fortune for people of my age. And I've never died before, so it's really unfair. My sons pay a fraction of what I pay. Because they're 21 & 18. Bloody youngster, getting dirt cheap cover. I reckon we should have a cap on life insurance premiums for the over 50s, to be funded by people in their 20s. How's that for a suggestion.
k all for my car insurance. Love it.Life insurance, now that's out of control. They charge a bloody fortune for people of my age. And I've never died before, so it's really unfair. My sons pay a fraction of what I pay. Because they're 21 & 18. Bloody youngster, getting dirt cheap cover. I reckon we should have a cap on life insurance premiums for the over 50s, to be funded by people in their 20s. How's that for a suggestion.
BlackLabel said:
PositronicRay said:
If they cap ins premiums the ins companies will just decline cover.
Stupid debate, waste of public money.
They are only debating it because an e-petition on this subject got the required number of signatures to trigger a debate. They're just going through the motions.Stupid debate, waste of public money.
Moonhawk said:
98elise said:
I drive a lot in the US and I would say there are less accidents.........
You are kidding right?The US has over 3 times the number of road deaths per capita than the UK has.
According to the US 'Fatality Analysis Reporting System' in 2010 there were an estimated 5.4 million crashes.
In the same year in the UK, the DFT recorded 281,401 crashes involving all vehicle types at all severity levels.
Given the US population in 2010 was 309.3 million - whereas the UK population at that time was 62.8 million (from Google), it means the number of crashes in the US was 4 times higher per capita than the UK.
Edited by Moonhawk on Thursday 23 March 09:22
98elise said:
Gargamel said:
If they limit it to say 2.0 litre cars or below then I see no reason not to. Insurance is mandatory after all. some premiums are just outrageous.
we have all kinds of market interference I don't see what is different here
Insurance prices are based on how much your risk group costs the insurance company. For it to be caped someone else needs to make up the difference. we have all kinds of market interference I don't see what is different here
Kermit power said:
98elise said:
Gargamel said:
If they limit it to say 2.0 litre cars or below then I see no reason not to. Insurance is mandatory after all. some premiums are just outrageous.
we have all kinds of market interference I don't see what is different here
Insurance prices are based on how much your risk group costs the insurance company. For it to be caped someone else needs to make up the difference. we have all kinds of market interference I don't see what is different here
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