I am not but car insurance companies are being VU!

[t0lk13n]

My 17 yr old is learning to drive and will sit his theory test v soon. I started to look at insurance prices. What an absolute joke and a rip off! How do people afford it. I will cost me more to insure him per month than I pay for the whole year for my insurance....I only have a 1.2 Hyundai! Insurance companies make a bomb!
I am lucky that both of us work but I am not sure that that price is affordable! I have heard horror stories but didn`t realise I would be one of them!

But seriously, how does any young driver afford the kinds of premiums insurance companies want? When I passed my test at 17 my dad added me to their insurance and then I bought my first car at 19 because I needed it for work. I know I'm going back many, many years but my insurance was £250 and I earned £82 a week...so roughly 3 weeks wages for a year's insurance. My son at 18 has just got a job 100 miles away from home and does actually need transport to get to work. He is bringing home about £800 a month and has to pay rent/bills/food on that. How the hell is he supposed to manage insurance for car on top?

Insurers pay out in claims as much as they take in premiums for under 21's. Alas, young drivers have high speed accidents with other young people in the car, and the cost for them suffering a permanent injury is then based on damage over the next 50 or more years.

I managed to get my DS onto my insurance quite reasonably when he passed his test last February. DD1 was already a named driver on the policy and both she and her brother were included as learner drivers at no additional cost until they passed their tests. Having said that, I have deliberately down graded to a 1.1 litre Suzuki Alto until all three DCs have passed their tests and had a couple of years experience. (Trying to persuade DD2, just turned 17 to get her licence sorted pdq, but she is nervous of driving) I am with Quinn.

When DS (21) passed his test, earlier this year, the only way he could get insurance that he could afford was to go fully comprehensive, with myself as additional driver and he has had to have the black box fitted to his car.
He also has to adhere to certain restrictions.

His insurance is close to the 3K mark!!

I know many young people who have given up taking lessons altogether, or who pass their test, then can't afford to drive.
Where I am, only about a quarter of young people I know of take driving lessons and then go on to actually drive a car after passing their test, and that number is falling every year.

I'm not sure how this bodes for the future.

I found co-op young drives with the box the cheapest for my ds and it made it cheaper when he put me, my dh and his grandad on the policy as named drivers. Also having a high voluntary excess helps lower the premium.

Whatever insurance you take out make sure you take out legal cover and/uninsured loss cover (this isn't expensive), but it covers the cost of your excess if an accident isn't your fault. We learned this to our detriment and thus had to launch a personal injury claim to get the excess back.

Good luck with insurance for young drivers it's s minefield that I like to call the great insurance swindle

SugarPasteMonkey

"That's why the black box technology is a good idea - helping to reward responsible drivers. "

When the black box is fitted, the insurance premium tends to be lower, before the driver has even got into the car and driven it yet. After 3 months, if the driver has been a good driver, they continue to pay the same premiums, whereas if they have driven badly, they can have a further 10% added to their premium. After a further 3 months, the good driver still pays the same amount, while the bad driver can have another 10% increase on his premium, and same again after 9 months.

This means that if by having the black box fitted, your premium is reduced from £4500 to £3000 per year, and you pay installments monthly over 10 months of £300 a month...a bad driver will pay £300 a month for 3 months, then £330 a month for 3 months, then £363 for 3 months and finally £399.30 per month for the remaining 3 months...hence the year has cost the bad driver just over £4k.

This is a punitive measure against bad drivers, not a reward for good driving, and imo, reward tends to encourage better driving more than the fear of punishment.

Car insurance at his age can be very expensive, but there are a few things you can do to save money. For instance, listing him as a driver on your policy. Now that might increase your rates, but it will still be a lot cheaper than getting him individual insurance. Now for affordable car insurance, I?d advise you to shop around for insurance rates, ask companies about the discounts they offer young drivers and then settle on one. Discounts are offered for being a good student, installing security and anti-theft devices to your car and enrolling in a defensive driver?s class. Look into it.

That's a good idea about putting a young new driver on my policy as an additional driver, but for me, I don't really want DS driving my car around, especially not just yet, plus if I put him on my insurance, wouldn't it be me who is liable for the extra premium?

'I don't really want DS driving my car around, especially not just yet'

Why ?? Don't you think he is safe to drive it ? Perhaps this is what the insurance companies think too.

Same reason as I don't want my mother (who's been driving over 25 years) or my sister (who's been driving 23 years) driving my car.

It's my car and I don't want to share. Is that wrong?

FWIW I think DS is a good driver, but he wouldn't share his car with me either.

I am 35. My husband is forces and we have just moved back to the UK from overseas. We have both been driving about 18 years. He has had points and I have had an accident in the last 2 years. We bought a Volvo s60. I got quotes that varied between £1,200 with a 3k excess to £600 with a £250 excess. To me it makes NO sense whatsoever.

Agree with whoever said it was cheaper when they added more people to the insurance. My insurance was expensive, but went down when I added experienced drivers as named drivers on my insurance (not a swizz, they did drive my car very occasionally) and at one point I had 5 extra drivers on, and it lowered the cost!

Might be worth looking in to?