Teen car insurance

[watfordmummy]

So DS eventually passed his driving test, and we have gone to insure him in his own car (small Peugeot bought with his money).

Finished sixth form and waiting to hear from uni (relative to story), works a couple of shifts a month at local football club bar.

Got a quote and black box installed , as it's in his name they wanted to talk to him to verify his details. 1 hour later...

They couldn't work out what he was as not school pupil and has only conditional offer for uni, asked about part time work - honestly replied about his as hoc work.

They have now said won't insure him, and he has had to cancel policy or they would and he would get insured in future. Won't insure him as he works as hoc in a bar!!!

So now we have to find new insurance for him!! Is it me or does this just sound ridiculous!!!

Alexander some do yes. You really need to read the small print before signing up.

We have a co-op young driver policy with a black box and there's no curfew. However it's Mr Elbows' policy, Mr Elbows owns the car and Mini Elbows 1 is only a named driver. It's about £950 and she's had her licence two years. We're about to look at her buying her own car now she's in full time employment so God knows what the insurance will be. I'm not looking forward to Mini Elbows 2 & 3 learning to drive as they're both male. There will be no buying cars for them, we'd need to sell kidneys to cover the insurance!

Thanks for the warning.

I drive a company car on a fleet policy which has no drivers under 23.

Dh has voluntarily surrendered his licence for medical reasons.

Daughter's insurance was Admiral with named (parents) additional drivers with no accidents or poins bringing the cost down. No black box, no restrictions.

Officially they can't penalise drivers for being male

DS passed his test at 17. His insurance was in his name but I had to co sign the contract due to his age. He's paid £160 a month for his. Black box. He gets scored out of ten for his driving but he gets a low score because he works late in a pub too.

We renewed our insurance this month. Ds1 is also waiting to hear about university. We put him down a a school student as my understanding is that the school year continues until the end of August.
I suspect we may have to pay the fee to change some details in September.

cost him £1200 the car only cost £450
Most of the time you aren't even insuring the actual car as young people will choose TPFT cover so cost of the car is utterly irrelevant.

What the insurance company is thinking about is the chance of your son hitting a crowd of people and having to pay out compensation in the millions.

Usually third party fire & theft insurance is the same price (or was when we looked for DD). I don't know anyone who has it.

Both my kids paid about £1200 for 1st years insurance on an 02 peugeot with tesco black box, no curfew. Sure we put them down as students and DS would have been working as a waiter
Deffo cancel it rather than have it refused and might be worth going with a broker?
Having a car that is worth not a lot can sometimes go against you as the assumption is that it might not be looked after or driven carefully.

Usually third party fire & theft insurance is the same price
You are right and sometimes CC is cheaper than TPFT but sometimes when you take the young driver excess into account, there is no point in claiming for damage to your car.

Op have you tried shopping around? The restrictions in place with policies for young people vary greatly. DS1 has just turned 18 but was 17 when we paid his insurance, his has a box and a mileage limitation but no limitation on driving times. he can earn more miles if he doesn't drive late at night though.

Being declined insurance is different from not meeting the criteria for cover which is what your son falls into. He's not been declined due to anything he has done, he just simply does not meet their restrictions and it will be a combination of his age, job and likely driving times.

DS1 was still in school when we took the policy and i'll update it to Uni student when he starts there, this time in limbo is a bit weird though and we don't have the complication of him working.

I'd like to point out though that not all teenage boys have risky driving behaviours. DS1 has been awarded the full bonus miles every month so far based on his driving. Statistically though it's not a great category for insurers.

DSs policy was £750ish with Insurethebox and gives him 6000 miles a year (the minimum) he doesn't drive very far and he's earned full bonus miles (100 a month) every month so in reality he'll not use anywhere near 6000.

6000 miles per year isn’t very much is it. That sounds very restrictive. Seems I have a lot to learn. Just to college & back will be 500 miles per week.

you can select more Alexander but DS was only using it to go back and forward to school for exams or picking up his brother, he'll use it to go to and from the train station for Uni but has barely used it at all in the holidays so far. He's really not that bothered tbh. I think even at peak he'll be luck y to do 100 miles a week. DS2 starts lesson in a couple fo weeks though so he'll have competition for the car soon enough!

Oh, there were also 10 month accelerated NCB policies where you'd qualify for a full year bonus after 10 months and that was cheaper overall but slight more expensive on a month by month basis. No use for us as we'll need to insure DS2 on the same car when he passes so DS1 having a years NCB would not save anything as we'll be back to square one with a 17 year old new driver. I might investigate getting DS1 as a named driver on my car then though just to give us more flexibility.

Will you be happy with a new driver doing 50 miles each way to college and back?

Of course. She will go the non motorway route to start with.

They get extra points on DSs policy for driving on the motorway as it's perceived as the statistically safest option. 50 miles each way on A or B roads is quite far for a new driver with no experience, will she have time to get some miles under her belt before that daily commute?

It’s 40 miles each way. The motorway is fine on some days but when it’s gridlockec it’s better to go the old road.

We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen yet. For one thing we don’t know how long it will take to pass her test or if dh will get his licence back. It’s just a shame the train times are not good.

40 miles each way? To college??? Hope it’s a good course.

It is. It’s also the closest college to us that offers that course (funded there is a slightly closer one without funding).

Yep, it's hard to predict how long it will take and also how much they will enjoy it. We thought ds1 would love it and take to it like a duck to water and be keen to be out in the car all the time. He ended up having to change instructors and vehicles many times due to circumstances beyond our control but he is a good driver. I'm not convinced he particularly enjoys it and doesn't proactively go out in the car but he is happy enough to go if asked.DS2 doesn't think he'll be any good so we are hoping he takes to it better than we all ex pect.

Oops sorry this moved on quickly

I did say he was a student, they wanted to speak to him to confirm details.

They couldn't get past that he wasn't a school student, wasn't at university, couldn't say where he was going to university (cause we don't know).

Asked if he had a job and because he is honest he said he had an ad hoc job in a bar.

Yes I understand that young boys are statically more likely to be involved in incidents, but not all are bad. He had a black box.

Will you be happy with a new driver doing 50 miles each way to college and back?

This is funny. The one thing I want my DC's to be able to do when they pass their test is drive.

None of this 'oh you shouldn't go too far/that route/in he dark' nonsense.

I know someone who recently did the same to their DD who still lives at home and she passed her test at 32!! She now feels nervous to drive anywhere but work and town because her parents came over all 'oh are you sure you should be doing that'

The single most important thing a new driver needs is encouragement. Encourage them to be free, to explore, to build confidence, to learn.

Yes A.Ham's DD will be absolutely to drive 50 miles to college and back.

My 18 year old son does bar work and drives home at 3 am. He is on a gap year. The first year insurance has been quite extortionate ( even with a black box), but we have just renewed and it has come down a lot. I don't t remember them asking about work.