Car Insurance, feel conned!

[Dreamlight]

My DH and I have each been driving for over 35 years and have full no claims. My son has been learning to drive so we had him as a named driver on our insurance. We paid the insurance upfront at renewal. He has now passed his test (yay) so I informed our insurance company who said it would cost an extra £600 for the remaining 3 months of the insurance term plus a £20 admin fee.

If we take him off the insurance altogether, we have to pay £20 admin fee plus an increase in insurance of £17.95 for the remaining 3 months.

WTAF? Why do we have to pay more when we remove a 19 year old newly qualified driver. Can anyone explain that to me because the insurance company couldn't?

I know it's less than £20, but really? Why am I having to pay extra? when I did a quote for full renewal in the next 30 days to get an idea of costs my annual insurance is £80 less than we paid last year .

So long as your son doesn't drive the car I don't believe you would be doing anything wrong by leaving him on as a learner. I'd check if that's correct and just leave it be then shop around for insurance in 3 months time. As you say doesn't sound fair!!

The whole sector of car insurance is a cartel, ripping people off.

I added my son as a learner to one of our cars last summer. Cost an extra £92. Sadly, that car was scrapped just after Christmas so we wanted to add him to the other car. Nothing special. 14 years old. The minimum extra now is £400. Why?

Because insurance is a legal scam. They can do what they want and don’t appear to have to be accountable to answer.

Obviously not the actual answer, but they are a business, and the business is taking your money.

You're removing a learner rather than a newly qualified driver.

It's probably all down to statistics, and maybe the rate of payout on "cars insured for married couple plus learner driver teen" is slightly lower than "cars insured for married couple". We can speculate as to why - possibly the former is more likely to be a second/third car which is not actually driven that much.

When I passed my test, having not been on the insurance at all, adding me to our insurance brought the premium down. Statistics are better for cars with two named drivers are better than those with only one, and nobody cares if you've just passed your test when you're 40.

It's based on risk. I can see how the risks will increase a lot with him driving solo. Charging to take him off seems a bit tight though. I can't see how having an inexperienced driver on reduces risk

Same experience here. I left her on but she didn't drive the car after passing until I renewed the insurance with another provider. I refused to pay more for less cover. You're correct, it's a scam 😡

Is it to do with the fact that you are changing your insurance and it is now being regarded as a new quote. As insurance costs have gone up across the board, maybe that accounts for it. Or maybe adding or removing people from a policy is a general red flag.

Having a learner driver on the insurance means that for some of the time the car is being driven in what is probably a low risk way. The learner won't be driving fast and will have someone supervising him/her all the time. Two sets of eyes on the road. When you take that learner off the insurance, potentially the car is being driven more by the other two people. Hence slightly higher risk. That's my guess.

What Ianthemum said.