Any insurance recommendations for a learner driver

[sawdust1]

Hi all, the lad has now started driving lessons so the next step is getting his own car.
We all know how expensive the insurance is going to be, so looking for any recommendations
and how to keep the cost down. Thanks !
To put him on ours as a named driver would cost £586 extra, 2L engine which does not help.

 

[marcros]

no advice as to companies, but you may as well get him started with his own policy now and start building some NCB. Whichever way you go, it is going to be painful to the pocket.

 

[morturn]

Have a look at Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert website, he has a lot of good advice about insurance and other stuff.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

 

[GeordieStew]

It'll go up when he passes his test. As he'll be able to drive alone.

A black box may help.

Don't do the "fronting" thing. It's a criminal offence.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[RobinBHM]

If your son is getting his own car, as noted above you cant insure with him as named driver, fronting could void the cover.

Sadly cover is very expensive now, an employee of mine was quoted a range of £3k to £7k

 

[pollys13]

As morturn says, " Have a look at Martin Lewis’s Money Saving Expert website, he has a lot of good advice about insurance and other stuff. "
On the car insurance section, goes through various filters to find broker offering best price and cover. I always get a good price.

 

[stuartpaul]

If your son is getting his own car, as noted above you cant insure with him as named driver, fronting could void the cover.

Sadly cover is very expensive now, an employee of mine was quoted a range of £3k to £7k

That is scary! :shock:

I suspect it makes some far more tempted to drive without insurance.

 

[Droogs]

I know zurich used to do a family policy that allowed named new drivers to also build NCB. don'y know if they still do it as not had a car for a few years

 

[rafezetter]

I passed my test late last year (long story) and even at 47 the prices were awful - I found a policy by admiral which included a black box and was for a 10 month period instead of 12. It was still pretty steep, not much change from £1000, and that was for a single payment; but was still the best deal I could find.

 

[MrTeroo]

I think adding an older secondary person with a good driving history to the policy brings the price down.

 

[Tasky]

Putting other drivers on his policy as named, especially if they have a long history and NCB themselves can help.
Insurers specialising in New Driver or Young Driver (which is usually the same, under 24, so no help to me) policies can be good, as is a Black Box policy.
A lot of it comes down to the statistics of which car he has, where you live, and how often someone of that age from that area in that car has crashed lately. It was cheaper for me to insure a mkII Supra (or even a mkIII) than it was a Golf. I got an Octavia in the end.

Don't just use online comparison sites, phone up as well and get several quotes to play one company off against the other. Try changing a few details around, such as Driveway to On Street, see if that helps.

 

[Mark A]

I received an online quote of £20,000 when I started driving at 17, so £7000 is almost cheap by comparison!

My van is currently insured by Tesco as they came out one of the cheapest on ConfusedMeerkat.com. NFU Mutual refused to insure me last year due to me being 24 at the time.

I avoid any insurers under the Admiral umbrella out of principal as they're the only companies who ask for speed awareness course details. Very sneaky. I imagine a lot of people on here have been caught driving three miles over the limit at some point or another, and the entire purpose of those courses is to avoid penalty points appearing on driving licences. Declare the courses and be penalised, or take the risk of not declaring and face the possibility of insurance being void when making a claim. Sneaky!

Mark

 

[RobinBHM]

I received an online quote of £20,000 when I started driving at 17, so £7000 is almost cheap by comparison!

My van is currently insured by Tesco as they came out one of the cheapest on ConfusedMeerkat.com. NFU Mutual refused to insure me last year due to me being 24 at the time.

I avoid any insurers under the Admiral umbrella out of principal as they're the only companies who ask for speed awareness course details. Very sneaky. I imagine a lot of people on here have been caught driving three miles over the limit at some point or another, and the entire purpose of those courses is to avoid penalty points appearing on driving licences. Declare the courses and be penalised, or take the risk of not declaring and face the possibility of insurance being void when making a claim. Sneaky!

Mark

thats correct -at my speed awareness course the people running it mentioned Admiral as one of the few companies that insist on declaring it.

I was 36 in a 30 limit.....

 

[Rorschach]

Add one or two older experienced drivers on to the insurance as it will bring the cost down considerably. Also look into family/multi-car policies. If he doesn't have a car yet, do some research into what cars/engine sizes are cheaper to insure. You could quite likely find that you could spend a little bit more on a newer but "old farts" model of car but still actually save money by cutting the premium on the insurance.
Smaller engine/smaller car is not necessarily cheaper since youngsters tend to buy those types of cars, a 1.2 clio or corsa for instance could be a lot more expensive to insure than a 1.8 focus estate for instance.

 

[rafezetter]

Just as an update to what I wrote about buying a 10 month policy from admiral using a tracker box.....

This morning I received the "it's time to renew your policy" email and it's unbeleiveable...... in a bad way.

"Gold standard" driving according to the tracker, no claim made and pay in one lump.

The price has gone UP by just shy of £60. UP !!!

Whomever is on the other end of the phone today is going to experience "one of those" phonecalls.

 

[cutting42]

My daughter has just received her second year renewal with Tesco Black Box. When she was a learner we used Adrian Flux learner insurance with both parents as named drivers for around £400 for a year.

Tesco black box had no curfew on time of day and was £1300 for the first year and the second year renewal was £740. I have been very happy with the level of cover and the big reduction.

Type of car can have a big impact. We bought a Fiat 500 as it topped the cheap insurance costs chart with the backup being a Citroen C1/Toyota Aygo. My son will probably not like the Fiat so much but we still have a year to go before he can drive.

 

[merlin]

We have been through this twice now over the last few years with both my little uns, the best we found was A plan.

As soon as they got their own car we insured them so that the ncd started to grow, also when they passed their test the cost didn't go up.

Didn't go down the black box route as it didn't seem to work out any / much cheaper, the other thing that reduced it was to get me and my wife to be named drivers.

When the second year came round it did go down quite a bit.

Good luck, Merlin

 

[NikNak]

I can 2nd for Adrian Flux.... =D>

Friends daughter, 21, first car, 04 plate Corsa (proper banger to be honest), i seem to recall insurance was just shy of £1200 but they came recommended by a broker near us. HAD to have a black box which was near useless..!! Would 'record' her doing trips when she wasn't. They were aware of 'issues' with the boxes/software, but seems so long as she had it in the car and plugged in she was ok.

After the first year the price was cheaper but not as cheap as going elsewhere. Think she managed to get it down to £550... same car.

Oh... and yes... as someone has already pointed out, while you're a learner its expensive, but be warned the price WILL go up when you pass your test.

Having done LOTS of searches and comparisons for her i've found that 'generally' putting your mother OR father on as a named driver will help... but dont bank on it. As previously mentioned where you live (more specifically your post code) what you do for a job (including the named driver) miles per year and value of the vehicle will all make a difference.

I told her not to buy a 'nice' car as she WILL inevitably have the odd mishap in it (which she has.... :roll: ) and IF she's unlucky enough to be involved in an accident then the car will probably get written off as it'll be too expensive to repair (value of banger v's repair etc (hammer) ) and with policy excesses she may even end up getting nothing back.... :shock:

Good luck.... and let us know how you get on

 

[Rorschach]

Value of car is another weird one, an expensive car will push up the premium and the price will go down along with the value of the car until at some point the curve will switch and start going up. Reason being the insurance company will assume that if the car has no value, you will not drive so carefully.

 

[rafezetter]

Just another update - I called Admiral today about the renewal letter and requesting an explanation why the price has gone UP - the response was "even though we applied a 7% NCD, the cost of living, general inflation and a new tax has hit us hard; we are a business after all".

To which I replied "I've heard enough" and was just about to hang up when the agent said "wait, have you had other quotes?" I said I was looking at both *go compare* and *compare-the-market* sites on my screen to which the agent said "if you're thinking of leaving I can look at your renewal price if you have a few minutes".

long story short the auto renewal was £787 up from £729..... and now it'll be.... £572 a full £216 less.

robbing bar stewards.