My Guide to Cheap Young Driver Car Insurance
Discussion
Hi all,
As you may know Bell, Admiral, Elephant and Diamond are one and the same. Here is the advice I've collated over many hours trying to get cheap quotes:
First of all, they all use the same quote engine, so expect all the options to be the same for each site in terms of the information entering process.
The top tips
The information below was tried using a number of cars including: Peugeot 106 Rallye, VW Golf Mk2 Driver, Ford Fiesta Zetec S, and Mazda MX-5. All of these cars have (for me) turned out quotes of around £1500. All figures below will be based upon this premium cost.
Mileage – The cut-off for the cheapest bracket was 5000 miles per year. Reducing this further did not have any effect on the quote.
Car Parking – Leaving the car in a garage overnight accounted for a £250 increase over the cheapest option of a Residential Car Park. Next most expensive was on a Drive, followed by parked on the Street.
Use of Other Vehicles – If you’re insured on your parent’s car or anything, this can lead to another £100 or so of reduction.
Registered Owner – Being the registered owner, saves £150 over your parents owning the car.
Cover Type – Going Third Party Fire and Theft is probably wise if the car is worth less than £1500 or so: Fully Comp cost £600 more, and includes a compulsory excess of £350, so you’ll be paying an extra £950 on the off chance that you might fully write the car off.
Cover Length – It’s obviously up to you, but I will probably choose the 10 month bonus accelerator when I come to insure my next car. I could do with some no-claims, and I’ve run a few tests concluding that the Bell/Admiral/Elephant group will provide the cheapest quote for a good three years, up to the age of about 21 so I have no qualms about having a NCD I can only use with them. And remember that you will still get a proof of insurance for the duration you are insured with them for use with other insurers.
Car Description – I’ve often found that selecting a different option on the ‘description’ drop-down can have a dramatic effect. For example, say I wanted to insure a 1995 Peugeot 106 Rallye. The two options in the drop-down are:
1294cc 3 DOOR 1993-----
And
1294cc 1994-----
Remember, these are the same car, but by choosing the latter, I saved £200.
Adding drivers
Here is where the big savings are to be made. Now, I mentioned at the beginning of this article that my quotes were all around £1500 – continuing with the 106 Rallye, the cheapest quote I could find was £1744.19. It sounds a lot, but not compared the quote without adding named drivers. By adding both my Grandmothers (one retired, one a physiotherapist) to the insurance policy as named drivers – remember, this is not fronting as you’re not purporting them to be the main driver – I made a total saving of £1258.43. Yes, the quote with only me on the policy was £3002.62.
There are further specifics for the separate insurers when it comes to adding named drivers:
Bell – Bell give the cheapest price when no other named drivers are added. This is useful if you have no low-risk family members who you could add.
Admiral – Admiral give the cheapest price when adding female drivers of low risk (older, retired, safe occupations etc.) The prices tend to increase when you add male named drivers.
Elephant – Whilst giving a slightly pricier quote for myself and the two grandparents, the cost stayed the same when adding my dad. This would be useful if another member of your family of a slightly higher risk needed to be added to the policy for practical reasons.
Diamond – They’re for girls, and I’m a guy – no data!
I hope this helps clear up some of the confusing and collates the scraps of useful advice that are given every hour of the day in this forum.
Also, I should probably mention that I’m not in any way affiliated with the above companies – I just thought that I should pass on my cheap insurance findings to those who would benefit from it most!
All the best,
Ben
As you may know Bell, Admiral, Elephant and Diamond are one and the same. Here is the advice I've collated over many hours trying to get cheap quotes:
First of all, they all use the same quote engine, so expect all the options to be the same for each site in terms of the information entering process.
The top tips
The information below was tried using a number of cars including: Peugeot 106 Rallye, VW Golf Mk2 Driver, Ford Fiesta Zetec S, and Mazda MX-5. All of these cars have (for me) turned out quotes of around £1500. All figures below will be based upon this premium cost.
Mileage – The cut-off for the cheapest bracket was 5000 miles per year. Reducing this further did not have any effect on the quote.
Car Parking – Leaving the car in a garage overnight accounted for a £250 increase over the cheapest option of a Residential Car Park. Next most expensive was on a Drive, followed by parked on the Street.
Use of Other Vehicles – If you’re insured on your parent’s car or anything, this can lead to another £100 or so of reduction.
Registered Owner – Being the registered owner, saves £150 over your parents owning the car.
Cover Type – Going Third Party Fire and Theft is probably wise if the car is worth less than £1500 or so: Fully Comp cost £600 more, and includes a compulsory excess of £350, so you’ll be paying an extra £950 on the off chance that you might fully write the car off.
Cover Length – It’s obviously up to you, but I will probably choose the 10 month bonus accelerator when I come to insure my next car. I could do with some no-claims, and I’ve run a few tests concluding that the Bell/Admiral/Elephant group will provide the cheapest quote for a good three years, up to the age of about 21 so I have no qualms about having a NCD I can only use with them. And remember that you will still get a proof of insurance for the duration you are insured with them for use with other insurers.
Car Description – I’ve often found that selecting a different option on the ‘description’ drop-down can have a dramatic effect. For example, say I wanted to insure a 1995 Peugeot 106 Rallye. The two options in the drop-down are:
1294cc 3 DOOR 1993-----
And
1294cc 1994-----
Remember, these are the same car, but by choosing the latter, I saved £200.
Adding drivers
Here is where the big savings are to be made. Now, I mentioned at the beginning of this article that my quotes were all around £1500 – continuing with the 106 Rallye, the cheapest quote I could find was £1744.19. It sounds a lot, but not compared the quote without adding named drivers. By adding both my Grandmothers (one retired, one a physiotherapist) to the insurance policy as named drivers – remember, this is not fronting as you’re not purporting them to be the main driver – I made a total saving of £1258.43. Yes, the quote with only me on the policy was £3002.62.
There are further specifics for the separate insurers when it comes to adding named drivers:
Bell – Bell give the cheapest price when no other named drivers are added. This is useful if you have no low-risk family members who you could add.
Admiral – Admiral give the cheapest price when adding female drivers of low risk (older, retired, safe occupations etc.) The prices tend to increase when you add male named drivers.
Elephant – Whilst giving a slightly pricier quote for myself and the two grandparents, the cost stayed the same when adding my dad. This would be useful if another member of your family of a slightly higher risk needed to be added to the policy for practical reasons.
Diamond – They’re for girls, and I’m a guy – no data!
I hope this helps clear up some of the confusing and collates the scraps of useful advice that are given every hour of the day in this forum.
Also, I should probably mention that I’m not in any way affiliated with the above companies – I just thought that I should pass on my cheap insurance findings to those who would benefit from it most!
All the best,
Ben
Edited by Ben Hughes on Friday 11th June 00:50
my advice would be to use the quote finder as a guide, then find yourself a knowledgeable broker. at 18 I had the advantage that my best mate's dad was a broker who would always find a better deal.
my most recent insurance was for my BMW. cheapest online was 600quid, which I managed to halve after moaning about it on here and being given the contact no. for a man in the know. the policy he got me was less than the price quoted by the underwriter when I called them personally.
my most recent insurance was for my BMW. cheapest online was 600quid, which I managed to halve after moaning about it on here and being given the contact no. for a man in the know. the policy he got me was less than the price quoted by the underwriter when I called them personally.
TVR Sagaris said:
Excellent topic. Your point about going TPFT isn't always true, though: it will vary from car to car and company to company. When I was 17, it was actually cheaper for me to get fully comprehensive insurance for some strange reason. A year later, and I'm on TPFT.
Yes, you're quite right, I found that too. It doesn't seem to work that was with Admirabellephant though; the world of insurance is a strange place!Oh, and while I'm here - how much do you pay for the insurance on your Mini, are are you 18/19 now, as I read your post to imply?
Ben Hughes said:
Yes, you're quite right, I found that too. It doesn't seem to work that was with Admirabellephant though; the world of insurance is a strange place!
Oh, and while I'm here - how much do you pay for the insurance on your Mini, are are you 18/19 now, as I read your post to imply?
I've just paid £720 for 12 months' TPFT. That was about a third of the cost of every other policy I found; for some reason, Footman James manages to offer extremely cheap premiums. The only catch is that the car has to be over 20 years old and be insurance group four or lower. Luckily, the Mini fits that.Oh, and while I'm here - how much do you pay for the insurance on your Mini, are are you 18/19 now, as I read your post to imply?
I was hoping to get rid of it and buy something else, but with a quote of £720 vs. £2000 for anything else I was interested in, I couldn't afford to.
Edit: forgot to say, I paid £2400 for my first year's insurance (on the same car), with Direct Line - and that was the cheapest quote I found. With a year's no claims, I was expecting a considerable drop in my premium this year, but I didn't get one. Direct Line quoted me c. £2000 again.
The biggest factor is address: my postcode has one of the worst ratings for insurance in the country. When I put an address in Shropshire in, my quotes immediately halved.
The weirdest thing I found was that engine size didn't affect premiums very much. For instance, the quote on a 1.4 106 was hardly higher than that on a 1.1, even though the 1.4 was much quicker.
So as long as the car wasn't badged as a performance version, you could get away with having something much quicker than the average first car without paying for it.
Edited by TVR Sagaris on Friday 11th June 02:27
Edited by TVR Sagaris on Friday 11th June 02:40
Would have thought parking in a garage would be the cheapest option... Live and learn and all that.
ETA: For me looking to insure something like a £1000 prelude, £2000 Puma or fiesta etc with 5 years NCB, I have found that I make no saving what so ever by using 3rd party over fully comp.
ETA: For me looking to insure something like a £1000 prelude, £2000 Puma or fiesta etc with 5 years NCB, I have found that I make no saving what so ever by using 3rd party over fully comp.
Edited by Colin 1985 on Friday 11th June 02:35
Good write up OP.
Now for the Mazda Baiter advice.
Here is how you get the really cheap deal when you are a new driver.
Prices quoted correct in 2001, it will still be substantially cheaper than any othe insurance deal going.
Car:
Buy a Morris Minor.
Club:
Join the Morris Minor Owners Club. £22 per annum (2001)
Insurance:
Phone up Footman James on the number in the back of the "Minor Matters" Owners club magazine. Fully comp insurance for a 17 year old driver was under £300.
Under £300!
Get a couple of years NCB, look after the car well (or decide to keep it as you feel the amount of sex you are getting warrants it
) then sell it for what you bought it for. Seriously, it will be the best 2 years crossplied, oversteery, RWD experience that a young driver can get.
Oh, and if you are handy with the spanners and decide to upgrade anything, the insurance company are very good and don't adjust their premiums that much.
Keep Mazda Baiting!
Now for the Mazda Baiter advice.
Here is how you get the really cheap deal when you are a new driver.
Prices quoted correct in 2001, it will still be substantially cheaper than any othe insurance deal going.
Car:
Buy a Morris Minor.
Club:
Join the Morris Minor Owners Club. £22 per annum (2001)
Insurance:
Phone up Footman James on the number in the back of the "Minor Matters" Owners club magazine. Fully comp insurance for a 17 year old driver was under £300.
Under £300!
Get a couple of years NCB, look after the car well (or decide to keep it as you feel the amount of sex you are getting warrants it
) then sell it for what you bought it for. Seriously, it will be the best 2 years crossplied, oversteery, RWD experience that a young driver can get.Oh, and if you are handy with the spanners and decide to upgrade anything, the insurance company are very good and don't adjust their premiums that much.
Keep Mazda Baiting! "say I wanted to insure a 1995 Peugeot 106 Rallye. The two options in the drop-down are:
1294cc 3 DOOR 1993-----
And
1294cc 1994-----"
It is just a convenient (intitial) quoting facility to have a pull-down list with abbreviated descriptions.
It is still up to you to check that you arrange insurance for your EXACT model of car.
Even going by my reg. when doing a quote, the trim level/engine power of my car is wrong on their database (but same car/engine). It is several insurance groups higher (as would be the 'sporty' 'Rallye' probably), and I have to manually correct it.
You cannot 'hide' a special edition or high performance version of a car just because another description is also true, and thus you select that instead! That is fraud.
1294cc 3 DOOR 1993-----
And
1294cc 1994-----"
It is just a convenient (intitial) quoting facility to have a pull-down list with abbreviated descriptions.
It is still up to you to check that you arrange insurance for your EXACT model of car.
Even going by my reg. when doing a quote, the trim level/engine power of my car is wrong on their database (but same car/engine). It is several insurance groups higher (as would be the 'sporty' 'Rallye' probably), and I have to manually correct it.
You cannot 'hide' a special edition or high performance version of a car just because another description is also true, and thus you select that instead! That is fraud.
shirt said:
my advice would be to use the quote finder as a guide, then find yourself a knowledgeable broker. at 18 I had the advantage that my best mate's dad was a broker who would always find a better deal.
my most recent insurance was for my BMW. cheapest online was 600quid, which I managed to halve after moaning about it on here and being given the contact no. for a man in the know. the policy he got me was less than the price quoted by the underwriter when I called them personally.
share the wealth!my most recent insurance was for my BMW. cheapest online was 600quid, which I managed to halve after moaning about it on here and being given the contact no. for a man in the know. the policy he got me was less than the price quoted by the underwriter when I called them personally.
i'm 21 with a modified grp16 car, neeeeeed to bring my renewal quotes down to the 1k mark...
Arese said:
Thanks for the post, Ben.
I'm currently trying to convince my 17-year-old sister-in-law to get an MX5. Does anyone know how old a car has to be to qualify for 'classic' insurance? Or does it vary with each insurer?
Depends on the insurer. Some insurers also do 'modern classic' policies too.I'm currently trying to convince my 17-year-old sister-in-law to get an MX5. Does anyone know how old a car has to be to qualify for 'classic' insurance? Or does it vary with each insurer?
GTO Scott said:
Arese said:
Thanks for the post, Ben.
I'm currently trying to convince my 17-year-old sister-in-law to get an MX5. Does anyone know how old a car has to be to qualify for 'classic' insurance? Or does it vary with each insurer?
Depends on the insurer. Some insurers also do 'modern classic' policies too.I'm currently trying to convince my 17-year-old sister-in-law to get an MX5. Does anyone know how old a car has to be to qualify for 'classic' insurance? Or does it vary with each insurer?
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