Car insurance for 17yo

[helpmum2003]

I'm looking at getting my 17yo insured on my car (1.5l engine.) Aviva want to increase premium from £35pm to £177pm. I've done a comparison on moneysupermarket and there are plenty of cheaper options but not companies I'm familiar with.

Hastings direct are only £60 pm and much cheaper than anyone else. Is this too good to be true? Could be a poor policy? Other cheaper ones are GoGirl, Be Wiser, RightSure, City Insurance, brightside. I've not heard of them.

Can anyone shed any light for me? Many thanks.

Is your 17yo a learner or have they passed? If a learner you can buy a separate policy specific to them, from companies like Marmalade, Adrian Flux (? Might not be the right name) the RAC etc. if a newly passed driver we did find the best thing was to cancel the existing policy for the driver and buy a new one. It is expensive though!

I haven’t answered the question very well. I recently paid £77 for two months learner driver cover for my 1.2l Citroen. This was from the RAC, just for him (I have my own policy). We live in a low risk area. We ran some quotes before we bought the car and I expect to pay about £1.2k to insure him once he’s passed, as the main driver (most risky driver first). My RAC policy is with another company I think, they act as broker. Trustpilot is good for checking up on companies you haven’t heard of before. If you did the quote through a broker website, the should all be quite like for like, just double check that there isn’t anything like a huge hike in excess.

Try Direct Line, they’ve always been reasonable for us.

Thanks @autumnboys I have taken a policy with Marmalade so thanks very much!

Thanks @DustyLee123 I tried Direct Line and they wanted over £3000 per year!! It's bizarre as a friend added her child on very cheaply to a Direct Line policy.....

Just seen you have taken the Marmalade policy, we insured our teen on my car with Hastings Direct who have been going since the late 1990s. We chose the online only option and still got all the usual upgrades such as personal injury legal expenses etc. Ds's excess is £250 on top of the quoted excess, no black box, no data collection on driving, not because we don't trust him we do but they can go wrong a lot and then the insurance can get cancelled.

How much was the Hastings one if you don’t mind saying and is your DC a FLH or a learner?

@Lifeisnotfair4 he passed his test 6 months ago so is still in the first year. It will all come down to how long you have had a licence etc, for me it is 25 years for Dh 30 years plus 14 years protected no claims. My car is worth around £25k and I don't work. My car is down as social and domestic plus commuting on the rare occasion it may be needed by Dh or Ds for work. Ds is away at uni. My car is parked on the drive day and night. I pootle in it, so around 5000 miles a year, I literally do school runs and the shops. Any distance driving is done in the family car which is Dh's and bigger and more comfortable.

For just me and Dh on my car £300 when we add Ds £1200 for all of us.

Thanks @MargiesSandwich we were quoted £700 to add him to DH car worth around 13k so that’s on the same par as yours.

@Lifeisnotfair4 we also ran figures if we bought him his own car, so registered keeper and main driver. I ran a £10k car and the same make and model £5k car and the insurance price didn't really change, it was around £1700 with a box fitted and a £500 excess. Hhe is the unknown factor, they don't know anything about him as a driver so an insurance company is taking a punt on them. With my car the risk is spread between me and the named drivers, I am also a named driver on Dh's car. My car is also brand new, as in one month old brand new. That is how much I trust him

Just be careful with putting DC as named drivers, if they end up being the main driver but not named as such on your policy to keep the cost down. This is called fronting and is illegal.

DD is the main driver on her policy with DH and I as named drivers and it was £1300 with a box. Better that they have their own insurance and start building their no claims, the first year as a new driver will always be eye watering for insurance unfortunately.

@UncomfortableSilence Definitely worth pointing out. On my drop down for Ds's "occupation" it says he is an undergraduate living away from home. He is away for 30 weeks of the year. Definitely my car and I drive it way more than him as I do the school run in it.

Apparently the first year is always the worst, then when they have a year under their belt and no incidents, it drops.

If its an option always worth considering a small engine older car, 17yr old as registered keeper then they can learn in it as well as lessons

Advantage being they build up NCD as a named driver and policy holder whilst learning. This is usually between £250-£300 for an annual policy.
With the delay for tests being around 6months it's been sensible and worked well for us

Privilege Ins, part of Admiral, with 'box were very reasonable, put myself and a Grandparent on as named drivers, that helped drop premium.

But as always, where you live and type of car is key.

I’ll research more DC 17 and a half just passed might buy him a small car or give him my small car and trade up after A levels as thinking about a gap year anyway. We paid £330.00 for learners insurance with A-Flux for 1 year I taught him so no driving lessons but it stopped once DC passed. A-flux wanted £2,000.00 to continue husbands wanted £700 + not decided what is best yet as DC unwilling to spend any of their own money on it which I think is unreasonable given DC has access to a couple of thousand in their account so we are sort of at a stale mate.