Young drivers first insurance.

[Doshy]

Hi All,

Rather than spending hours searching the web and talking to call centres, can anyone recommend a good insurer for my daughter (17) who has just passed her test ?
I shall now go and look down the back of the sofa to see if there's a spare couple of grand down there.....

Thanks.

Phil.

[Ullevi]

I found putting my kids onto an Admiral Multicar policy worked well. They can start the policy for her car then add your other car(s) when its/their renewal time comes.

I've done this with a total of 3 cars. If you have more cars at your address you may get even bigger savings. 2 cars are in my name and the third is the family runabout under my daughter's name with the rest of us as named drivers.

[Doshy]

Ullevi said:

I found putting my kids onto an Admiral Multicar policy worked well. They can start the policy for her car then add your other car(s) when its/their renewal time comes.

I've done this with a total of 3 cars. If you have more cars at your address you may get even bigger savings. 2 cars are in my name and the third is the family runabout under my daughter's name with the rest of us as named drivers.

Thanks, that may work for me.

[siwil1]

Doshy said:

Thanks, that may work for me.

This,

With a total of 4 cars now my sons insurance (17) isnt bad compared to his friends (Bloody ridiculous compared to mine !!)

It has just worked out better for his girlfriend and her family so definately worth looking into the multicar. We just had the whole lot renewed and I could have saved a little bit on our 3 cars but the saving on his more than made up for it, Works well for his NCB and no shouts of fronting as its obvious that its his car his policy etc etc

[Lanxx]

Admiral, Bell or Elephant seem cheapest for young drivers.

[HappySilver]

I'm not having a go at you personally OP but these questions pop-up frequently and demonstrate a certain naivety about how insurance works. Each company (or brand) has a risk profile i.e. what they want their customer base to be made up of, and will adjust prices constantly to ensure their customer portfolio remains consistent with this. As such, one day they may be short on 70 year old women so they reduce the price for them but have too many 18 year old males so they increase the price for them. When they have enough 70 year women the price for that group will shoot up etc. so that they retain their balanced portfolio

The idea that certain companies are consistently better for a fixed group is just wrong. I'm sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me this is nonsense and that they have always found company X cheaper for them or their kids, what they don't get is that their buying has just coincided with when that company has been looking for customers with their profile. That said, there are some companies that will always quote high for young driver, this is because they do not want (m)any in their customer base.

So the short answer is shop around and keep looking, absolutely do not limit yourself to companies that other people have said they got a good deal from - but this can be a good start because you know they need young drivers in their portfolio.

[B4rker]

Doshy said:

Ullevi said:

I found putting my kids onto an Admiral Multicar policy worked well. They can start the policy for her car then add your other car(s) when its/their renewal time comes.

I've done this with a total of 3 cars. If you have more cars at your address you may get even bigger savings. 2 cars are in my name and the third is the family runabout under my daughter's name with the rest of us as named drivers.

Thanks, that may work for me.

Works fine until your son or daughter wishes to insure with a different insurer when they move out for example and the new one doesn’t accept the named driver bonus.

Just something worth bearing in mind.

Not sure if it would work but might be worth adding her on the multicar this year and then next year insure it on Admiral’s single car policy with the 1 years no claims bonus they give her then in year 2 she would have 2 years in her own name and would give her the flexibility to shop around.

[Justin S]

Admiral for our daughter when she was 17. Was 'only' £1400 when she had passed her test ( it goes up after they pass) third party f&T on a £500 Polo !!!
Just sorting her 3rd year with 2yrs no claims and although now a student living away from home its £370 TPF&T, as the car is with us.
One of our apprentices drives a Volvo V40 Estate. Given to him by his mother. At 18 , he pays £500 TPF&T , which is unreal. He was looking at £3k for a Corsa ( hence thinking out the box on what car). Thinking about getting one for my daughter, as a T reg Polo travelling 200 miles each way to uni doesnt make me feel confident in it and the size of it etc compared to a Volvo.

[crofty1984]

She could get it a bit cheaper with you on as a named driver (NOT main driver unless you actually are!)
The idea being that in their eyes, rather than the car being driven 100% of the time by a high risk driver, maybe 10% of the time it will be by someone that's a safer bet, insurance wise.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Direct line are also worth a try.

• They will tell you what cars they put in very low insurance groups and that keeps the premium down.
• Put yourself on as a named driver (as said above)
• If you put 2 cars with Direct line they give 10% discount. Big saving on, say, a £2k premium.

[Doshy]

B4rker said:

Doshy said:

Ullevi said:

I found putting my kids onto an Admiral Multicar policy worked well. They can start the policy for her car then add your other car(s) when its/their renewal time comes.

I've done this with a total of 3 cars. If you have more cars at your address you may get even bigger savings. 2 cars are in my name and the third is the family runabout under my daughter's name with the rest of us as named drivers.

Thanks, that may work for me.

Not sure if it would work but might be worth adding her on the multicar this year and then next year insure it on Admiral’s single car policy with the 1 years no claims bonus they give her then in year 2 she would have 2 years in her own name and would give her the flexibility to shop around.

Good advice. Got a quote from admiral for all the cars which was cheaper that a single policy for my daughter! So going to do that and then do the Admiral single policy after a year.
Thanks all for the advice.
Phil.

[Wacky Racer]

What a lot of people seem to forget when they say "wtf!... they want £4000 for insuring a £400 car" is it's not just the car they are liable for, in other words if a 17 year old kills/maims someome or demolishes an expensive house wall, the potential claim could run into £50,000 plus.

The fact is, insurance has never been cheap for young drivers and never will be.

Who would you rather insure, a 17 yr old who had just passed their test, or a thirty five year old with no claims bonus going back for over fifteen years?

Sad state of affairs, but there it is.

[McSam]

HappySilver said:

I'm not having a go at you personally OP but these questions pop-up frequently and demonstrate a certain naivety about how insurance works. Each company (or brand) has a risk profile i.e. what they want their customer base to be made up of, and will adjust prices constantly to ensure their customer portfolio remains consistent with this. As such, one day they may be short on 70 year old women so they reduce the price for them but have too many 18 year old males so they increase the price for them. When they have enough 70 year women the price for that group will shoot up etc. so that they retain their balanced portfolio

The idea that certain companies are consistently better for a fixed group is just wrong. I'm sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me this is nonsense and that they have always found company X cheaper for them or their kids, what they don't get is that their buying has just coincided with when that company has been looking for customers with their profile. That said, there are some companies that will always quote high for young driver, this is because they do not want (m)any in their customer base.

So the short answer is shop around and keep looking, absolutely do not limit yourself to companies that other people have said they got a good deal from - but this can be a good start because you know they need young drivers in their portfolio.

Well, that's a valid point for some areas of the marketplace. However, it's impossible to dispute that the Admiral Group have consistently been the best option for almost all young drivers (and younger drivers in higher-performance cars) for the last three years, and really, it seems unlikely that their portfolio is still balanced. They simply target that market. My buying hasn't coincided with particular market fluctuations, I've been watching it for myself and friends regularly over years, and that's just how they pitch themselves

[The Nur]

McSam said:

Well, that's a valid point for some areas of the marketplace. However, it's impossible to dispute that the Admiral Group have consistently been the best option for almost all young drivers (and younger drivers in higher-performance cars) for the last three years, and really, it seems unlikely that their portfolio is still balanced. They simply target that market. My buying hasn't coincided with particular market fluctuations, I've been watching it for myself and friends regularly over years, and that's just how they pitch themselves

The admiral group were always good for me when I was younger and I've always had relatively high insurance group cars for my age. I'm now 25 and while the aforementioned admiral group is still making me good offers, other insurers are beginning to edge ahead in the price stakes.

[Justin S]

Weirdly Admiral are now not the cheapest for my daughter this year, actually twice the cost on maybe 4 or 5 companies I have asked for a quote for. Some wont give you a quote until you have 2 years no claims or she is actually 19 yrs old, which is a mare, as I cant get prices to sort out before her 19th birthday, rendering her car uninsured for her birthday.
When it comes to insurance and I asked her, how many boys have crashed their cars, she can tell you more that have than havent. So statistics are correct in insurance young males as being a more than probability of being a tit when driving.

[Doshy]

I was listening to an article on R4 the other day about the under 17 drivers club where's kids as young as 11 get started behind the wheel. You take your own car and I think there's a hire option and the kids drive around cones etc on an airfield. Anyway, the stats are that 1 in 4 new drivers will have a crash of some sort but the kids that started messing about in cars from age 11 (as I did actually) it falls to 1 in 20!

I do understand the risk for insurers but some of the prices that you hear parents are paying are huge.

[dapearson]

Doshy said:

I was listening to an article on R4 the other day about the under 17 drivers club where's kids as young as 11 get started behind the wheel. You take your own car and I think there's a hire option and the kids drive around cones etc on an airfield. Anyway, the stats are that 1 in 4 new drivers will have a crash of some sort but the kids that started messing about in cars from age 11 (as I did actually) it falls to 1 in 20!

I do understand the risk for insurers but some of the prices that you hear parents are paying are huge.

We had a 10 acre field. One day my dad's mini failed its MOT. He handed me the keys. I was 12.

I think having been "driving" for 5 yrs before i was 17 made my first few years better than they otherwise would have been. In terms of car control at least.

I passed my test 2 weeks after my 17th birthday. A few lessons to learn the test route. That was it. I'd been doing parallel parking and reversing (along with J-turns and various fun things!) for years by that point.

I had one prang when i was 17, but that was a low speed bump in a car park and 50:50 between me and the other party because we didn't see eachother.

So. Thumbs up from me. I will be doing the same for my lad when he's a teenager.

[littlebasher]

When my spud passed her test 2 years ago, Admiral were by far the cheapest

And on a 10 month bonus accelerator policy it was about £1150, which was better than i expected.

Don't hang about though, as once that EU gender nonsense goes through insurance for new female drivers is going to skyrocket