AIBU to think >£800 is a crazy car insurance quote for a new driver??

[Badbird]

Hi all,

I am a newly qualified driver over the age of 25. I expected insurance to be expensive but I'm being quoted online between £818 (with a tracker box) to well over £1000! I would understand if I were 17-18 or even under 25, is this really normal? Should I phone some of these companies and try to haggle it down or is that not done?

Normal. I'm 22 and looking at buying a car (I passed my test at 20 but don't actually need a car however may be moving and will do) I'm looking at paying about £1500 for 1.2!

I was 34 when I passed and paid £1200 in the first year.

Mine was £1520 when I passed in March, admittedly I've got a biggish engine as needed a biggish car, I'm 24. I'm hoping it'll drop to about £800 at renewal

I was 27 when I passed my driving test and my insurance was just under £130 a month.

Snap it up! My son's was £2,000.

Have you put anyone else on your insurance, maybe a parent because that can bring the cost down.

That's mega cheap for a new driver! I started driving at 18 and mine was approx. £2000 then. I'm 26 now, no accidents or claims and it's just over £900 at the moment.
The lowest it's been it's around £650.
So yours is cheaper than mine!

£800 is pretty reasonable for a new driver. That's about £66 a month. It'll soon come down after a year or so with no claims.

I'd argue that the price you've been quoted is actually rather cheap, given your circumstances. I'm 24, been driving 5+ years and I pay £800 insurance. Admittedly I do have a 2L chipped A3 SLine but still. I don't actually think being over 25 makes much odds anymore.

It goes down when your 30. 🤷🏼‍♀️
I paid over £1200 when I first passed at age 20, 12 years ago!
Take the pass plus course - it's helps slightly.

Think it's illegal to have them down as main driver if they are not but you can have them as a named driver.

Other things to try are to increase your excess, take off windscreen cover and legal cover, reduce your mileage estimates.

All bad ideas.

A new windscreen can cost £200 or more. Cover costs a few quid.

Legal expenses can be vital and cover things that no-win no-fee won’t.

And reducing mileage is likely to increase cost - you’re not driving enough to be any good at it.

Sounds very cheap. You should count yourself lucky. I pay £400 a year to drive a 12 year old car fully comp (car is soon to be scrapped), drive 22,000 miles a year, and have 10 years no claims.

Given I have seen various figures for what that discount means (anything from 40% off to 70% off), and given I've been driving for over 30 years, you're probably getting a better deal than me.

Not a bad price. Mine was just over £1200 when I first passed. I was 30 and my car was only worth about £400! Now I have a few years of driving experience it’s only about £300 a year, so it does go down quickly if you’re a safe driver.

Yes, YABU. Both my dc (with some years more experience than you) would bite your hand off for quotes that low.

For a whole year that's really good. Mine is about £500 now and that's 7 years no claims, living in city centre postcode with a driveway.

titty they are all good things to have, but touch wood, in my 40plus years I have never used legal cover, and have used glass cover twice. OP wanted ways to reduce her insurance costs, as others have said, after year 2 things will get easier and she can add stuff on again.

Yes it is normal.

You have to suck it up for the first year then it should go down after that as long as you have no accidents and look to move to a different insurer.

I wouldn't chuck off the legal cover and wind screen cover either. Also don't front like suggested as it can prevent you getting insurance easily for the rest of your life if it is uncovered.

That really doesn't sound bad to me for a new driver. Mine for a Toyota Aygo is just over £200, but l've been driving for 26 years. lt's a good thing you're not under 20, the prices for some are eye watering!

I was paying £100 a month for the first two years after passing at 25. It came down eventually!

That is extremely cheap, young people crash a lot... hence the high costs.

I did a quote for a young lad back in 1996 @£2k when I worked at a bank. Always been expensive.

Windscreens are not cheap, don't skimp there.

Insurance is based on a lot of logic calculations...
One of them is age - you do well, > 25 is good
One of them is length of time as a driver - you do badly as a new driver

but combining them is particularly poor as the logic can't determine why you are a new driver at 25+ and therefore has to allow for the possibility that you took 8 years to pass and are generally really bad (even if the reality is totally different :))

so the first year has to allow for those possibilities - but as soon as you are a year + into insurance, the system / logic can make better calculations, so it should come down sharply - esp. after 2 - 3 years of insurance with no claim (and no points on your licence)

Having a parent as main policy holder and then say you as the named driver is not a good idea as named driver you are only insured as third party, fire and theft and not as fully comp as main listed driver would be.
A lad I know passed his test and to avoid high insurance he put his dad as main policy holder and himself as named driver, the lad crashed his car damaging 2 others also (neighbours), insurance company uncovered the fact it was the lads car and dad hardly ever drove it (we assumed neighbours offered this helpful info!), and the policy was null and void as what they did breaced the terms.

Mine was £4,600 don't know what they thought about me 😂😂