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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to not expect a £7000 jump in insurance by naming my son on policy!!!

122 replies

cricketballs · 02/04/2011 10:35

my eldest ds is 17 in a few months. He has asked for driving lessons for his birthday and we thought this was quite reasonable.
Whilst I have heard about the stupid insurance quotes for young drivers insuring their own car, I have just run a quote on my 5 year old Focus with him as a named driver (increased his dob by a year so it looked normal) just to have a look....

My premium this year with myself and dh, fully comp, 8+ NCD and £0 excess was £250. The cheapest quote I have found so far this morning with adding ds as a 17 year old who passed his test last month is £7000!

Is there any wonder so many young drivers have no insurance? There is no way we could afford to pay that a year so how is he supposed to gain the driving experiance needed in order to lower his premiums?

OP posts:

DilysPrice · 03/04/2011 17:46

I didn't say it was OK, very far from it. Uninsured drivers are statistically the very people who should not be behind the wheel of a car at all, IMO they should be fined extremely heavily, with the option of much heavier penalties for repeat offenders - licence removal, car crushing etc. (fortunately the law is changing in this direction, the ludicrously low fines of recent years are being changed and central databases will make it much easier to catch offenders).
But Helen's unspoken implication was (as I read it) that the victims of uninsured drivers would not receive compensation, and I just wanted to put the record straight on that.

HelenBaaBaaBlackSheep · 03/04/2011 17:58

Sorry I wasn't clear, I was just shocked to read something so irresponsible.

DilysPrice · 03/04/2011 18:02

I should probably have been clearer too - I assumed that Driving Uninsured Is Very Wrong went without saying, but actually it's always worth spelling out.

Original poster

cricketballs · 03/04/2011 19:47

no one on this thread has said that driving uninsured is ok - but with these sort of costs some of us can see why it happens....

OP posts:

FrumpyintheFrost · 03/04/2011 20:26

I've just been talking with friends who live in London. They were very clear that friends sons & daughter drive uninsured with their parents because it costs so much to insure these young drivers.
My friiends were not in any way condoning this, but commenting honestly on what friends of theirs do - and yes these are middle-class, generally law abiding people.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but disproprtionate insurance premiums seem to be making the problem worse.

Ponders · 03/04/2011 20:56

I'm a bit that anybody who lives in London feels it's necessary for their teens to drive at all - out in the sticks with shit public transport it saves the parents from providing constant taxi service, but surely in London they can get about easily enough without a car?

Parents condoning uninsured driving is criminal

thefirstMrsDeVere · 03/04/2011 21:00

Agree with you there Ponders. Driving is not a right. I live in an outer borough and there are loads of buses and tubes. Ok you would have a job getting home after about 1am but I wouldnt want my DS driving home after a night at a club, besides if he did drive to a club there would be nowhere to park.

Different if your teen is working nights or lates though.

katocat · 04/04/2011 13:10

The sad fact is that young/ inexperienced drivers are more likely to be in a car accident and much more likely to injure themselves or other people. More injury claims on average in a group of people are what really push up prices for that group.

I agree with the postings about shopping around for different makes of car. Car insurance companies know that young people in low power cars with good safety features are the best bet. Don't make the mistake of buying a cheap old banger and thinking that means cheap insurance. Shop around first.

Definitely worth checking out some of the new types of insurance out there like those NetworkGuy recommends. Insurethebox even feeds back how the young person is driving and rewards them if they drive safely (has to be a good thing given my first paragraph...). The insurance market is responding to the fact that young people can't afford bog standard insurance by finding new ways of giving them cover.

mumblechum1 · 05/04/2011 11:04

I just called i-Kube with fictional date of birth and passing test. Even with the GPS thing which woulod stop ds driving late at night, and assuming he'd got the pass plus, the premium for a six yr old Nissan Micra worth bugger all would be £5,977, Third Party Fire and Theft.

pingu2209 · 05/04/2011 12:41

As someone with an insurance knowledge, the comparison websites are purely for 'normal' risks. They will deliberately give an unreasonable quote as they don't want your business. Your best bet is to go to a broker who will know the insurance markets, such as Lloyds syndicates, that will insurer you for a more reasonable price, but don't be surprised if it is around the £1000 mark.

FellatioNelson · 05/04/2011 12:49

Don't be surprised? I'd be highly delighted!

mumblechum1 · 05/04/2011 13:07

£1k??

FellatioNelson · 05/04/2011 13:11

Yes! It's 3k less than I could find!

iskra · 05/04/2011 13:12

Blimey.

So what's the cheapest car for 2 adults without any insurance history to get insured on? DP & I are probably buying our first car this summer, we've had licenses for 9 yrs & 12 yrs but never owned a car before... Are we going to be treated like 18 year olds?

mumblechum1 · 05/04/2011 13:13

No, because you're presumably in your thirties so a much lower risk.

I passed at 18 and don't remember insurance being that much and I paid for it myself but that was a loooong time ago.

iskra · 05/04/2011 13:16

Not in our thirties! Well, DP will be thirty this year. I am 27.

FellatioNelson · 05/04/2011 13:17

Well I was talking specifically about insuring 18 year old boys with their own policy - don't know about anything else.

LisamumtoJake · 05/04/2011 13:28

It is a nightmare this...

I''m 27 female obviously, but i only passed my test in January. My DH bought me a 1.4 Citroen C3 XTR with the built on roof bars (so rather uncool i would suggest) but a gorgeous car, its an 04 plate so not so bad, i insured mine for £600 for the year with Directline, but other than them when i did comparethemarket there were a good few around that price, so try a rather uncool car with a 1.4 or lower and you may just be lucky!

Ponders · 05/04/2011 13:54

yes, but you're a 27-year-old female, Lisa, not a 17/18-year-old male

I tried a 52 plate Ford Ka (1.3) for an 18-year-old & just under £4K was the best I could find - I don't think a Ka is particularly cool?

mumblechum, can you suggest any company names to approach, please?

mumblechum1 · 05/04/2011 14:03

They're all expensive, but so far Young Marmalade have been the cheapest as you combine buying a second hand car with insurance. So for two yr old Fiat Panda I'd be paying £5,640 including one years insurance.

Some others have quoted more than that for the insurance without the car!

I was going to buy a car for ds's 17th but it's just going to be far too expensive so he'll have to wait till his 18th at least.

Ponders · 05/04/2011 20:55

oh, OK - I did contact Young Marmalade, but we don't want to buy a car, & don't even want to put DS2 on our insurance for a whole year, so I think we're stymied again

LisamumtoJake · 05/04/2011 23:10

well my DH passed his test at 19 and i remember well that he phoned up for some quotes on a 4yr old 973cc car at the time, and was give some astronomical ones, the best one he got in the end was about £1600 but that was Arnold Clark finding him one of theirs literally cause they wanted to sell said car! :)

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