Where's decent insurance for 17 year olds?

[johnmc]

Hi,
Can anyone point me to where I can find lower cost third party cover for my son?

He's about to hit the road and is just over 17. I've got my hands on an old car for nothing, thanks to my brother in law, and have started hunting for insurance. I ran a few scenarios through "confused.com" to check lots of options quickly. The car is a 9 year old Fiat Punto, group 5, £500 worth. Mileage would be about 6,000miles/yr.

Here's the CHEAPEST results that came out:
Adding him as a second driver to the Merc: £3,000 (ten times the normal premium). Some of the others were more than the car was worth by a long margin..!
Adding him to the Alhambra 130Tdi 3rd driver (Group 12): £2,500 (again a factor of ten). This was Direct Line.
Insuring him for the Punto as main driver (3PFT): £1,500 (Ten x what it would cost me again)
Insuring him for the Punto as second driver (3PFT): £1,200

I'd probably go for the £1,500 quote and let him build up his own discount. Direct line wanted double that, but let him build up discount as a second driver. That's really worth it.... not!

Pass plus attracts at best a 10% discount, not all insurers recognise it as useful. Admiral stunned me, their best quote on the Punto was £2,600, and they claim to be helpful to young drivers..! The best quote so far is coming from Quinn Direct, an Irish insurer breaking into the UK. If anyone can point me to other options I'd be very grateful. I'll make the decision on Friday after my next customer trips.

I know that kids have more accidents, we all have at that age, but are the mark ups on their premiums really not profiteering? Any other experiences out there?

Bye!
John

 

[rio678]

Try Adrian Flux for young drivers, STAY CLEAR of admiral, their idea of catering for younger drivers is hitting the poor sods pocket with stupid premiums,

Try www.confused.com they will search for the cheapest quote

 

[johnmc]

Thanks!
I'll have a look at Adrian Flux. The figures in my message came from confused.com, really handy web site!

John

 

[turnipsock]

Admiral...what can you say...they seem to advertise the dream solution, and when you go there you get ripped off.

I thought I would take advantage of there two cars on the one policy scheme. It worked out at a lot more than what I was paying at the time and I would loose all flexability to shop around for cheap car insurance.

The Admiral is more like a Pirate. I think he has only got one leg, one hand, wears an eyepatch and says 'arrrr' a lot.

 

[johnmc]

Yeah, my old air rifle could fix that parrot..wonder if I've still got it somewhere..!

John

 

[rio678]

Tesco is also quite cheap, plus you get clubcard points! ooOOoo!


Budget.com too, also very good.

 

[mister_cee333]

HI,
I'm not sure if this will work in your case but try upping the excess drastically for the young driver thus demonstrating that you are confident you will not have an accident, and if you do then you are willing to pay a fairer share of it.

 

[MercAl]

Just had exactly the same scenario with number one son. Turned out it was cheaper to buy him a car, than put him on my insurance. The car has a 1400cc engine, so I was expecting the worst! Tried confused, tesco, asda, direct line...all the usual suspects, but in the end, Churchill were the cheapest. £900.00 for the year, fully comp. But at least that's him on the way to buliding up his own No Claims. None of these companies offer third party for young drivers, except Direct Line, and even then, it was only a diffrence of £200.00! Norwich Union, (the 'quote me happy' people), were by far the dearest. £3,500.00...yes, three and a half grand, for a year! Needless to say they were as good as their word...certainly made me giggle!
You get an instant quote online with Churchill. No waiting about for emails, etc. Seemed to be fairly good to deal with...but that's always the case when you're buying! It'll be a diffrent story no doubt, if he has to call them with a problem...or heaven forbid, a claim!

 

[ba9rn]

Never been 'quoted happy' by NU - nor do I know anyone who has. What a ridiculous slogan.

The weird thing when I got insurance for my kids, it's only their age that mattered. Not whether they had passed their test or not.

 

[mlc]

As we are approaching the day when child number 3 wants car insurance I feel like an expert on this terrible subject.

The only way to play this game is to accept that teenagers are bad drivers, no terrible drivers, and that really the insurance companies dont want them, so they offer silly quotes. A good money saving option is to only have daughters, that saves you at least 1/3 of the premium!

You also need to buy the right car. You need a very low group car, 3 is the maximum you should consider. The value of the car isnt too relavant either, cheap old cars can damage posh cars just as easily.

Options I would suggest include Ka, Yaris and the little toyota that they played football with on topgear. The little darling is not going to get excited about any of them but they are all nice little cars.

Finally we have found the direct line / tesco have been the best bet for us over the last five years. Direct line dont ask the difficult questions about parents insuring in their name for the kids and allow all named drivers to build up a NCD, providing of course that they manage not to create claims.

Good luck,

Mark.

 

[Rory]

These threads are generally pretty pointless as what's "cheap" for one is dear for someone else.

My daughter has used Admiral since the ripe old age of 21 - she's just renewed for the 2nd time (so in her third year) and they were still the cheapest.

A couple of things to try:
Try getting fully comp quotes - with some cars / drivers it comes out lower.
Add an older named driver (Mum or Dad - as long as their licence is clean). With Admiral this made quite a big difference.

Amother really bizarre thing is that Daughter recently added Class 1 business use to her SDP & Commuting cover - her premium *dropped* £15.

 

[johnmc]

Hi Folks,
Thanks for all the pointers! Very helpful. I've tried popping through a group 1 car, and it saved £130, but since I got the Punto for nothing it's not going to make me change the car. It seems to be the age 17 appearing on the policy that drives the number, and Rory it also appears that girls get a better deal! I guess us blokes have horns sticking out of our head when we get in the car then, at least at 17 years old!

You're right, every circumstance is different, but with the amount of cash that can be saved it is WELL worth looking for ideas. You can save more on this than you can get a discount on a new Merc!

I'll make the choice on Friday and will drop a note in to let you know what happened.

Bye!
John

 

[Dan996]

17 to40 really cheap

 

[johnmc]

Hi Rio678,
You cracked it! Tesco came up trumps, £657. My son checked with his pals that are also at this stage, and this seems consistent. Great stuff, just need the wife to find that Tesco Clubcard now..!

Cheers and thanks for your help!

Bye!
John

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

and the government wonders why so many people drive without insurance. You pay £3000 for insurance or you drive without it and probably get a £150 fine if you get caught. Frankly when was the last time any of us got pulled over? With me it was about 20 years ago. Police are only interested in catching speeders these days and they can do that without having to leave the police station.

I'm not advocating driving without insurance but I do think the government should regulate the insurance companies a bit more heavily.

 

[rio678]

Hi Rio678,
You cracked it! Tesco came up trumps, £657. My son checked with his pals that are also at this stage, and this seems consistent. Great stuff, just need the wife to find that Tesco Clubcard now..!

Cheers and thanks for your help!

Bye!
John

Great to hear and that sounds like a very good quote, funny enough they are underwritten by direct line, lol

 

[sdc77]

Insurance

Re no insurance. In London at least no insurance currently gets you a ticket incorporating a £200 fine and 6 points. Your car can be siezed and held for 21 days for someone insured to collect it otherwise it is disposed of. (I believe they recently removed 1400+ cars in a month).. all that without sitting in offices.

 

[Rory]

and the government wonders why so many people drive without insurance. You pay £3000 for insurance or you drive without it and probably get a £150 fine if you get caught.

..and bizarrely if you get an 'IN' offence code on your licence then the insurance premium jumps up even more.

Frankly when was the last time any of us got pulled over? With me it was about 20 years ago.

It was probably 20 years ago because you were much younger then - youngsters still get stopped quite a lot. Also, of course, ANPR exists these days and, apart from the mobile check points, most traffic cars are now ANPR equipped, so they ought to be able to catch people (if the car carries no insurance at all).

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

yes but we don't all live in London. Some of us live in the country where we only ever see a policeman if there are a bunch of loonie Londoners standing in the way of a fox hunt.

Our nearest police station is 20 miles away and only manned 9-5. And I only live about 50 miles from London.

 

[OmniCognateNeutronRangler]

It was probably 20 years ago because you were much younger then

yep, about 20 years younger! However, that last time was also the only time (so far).

Like I say, I'm not advocating driving without insurance. I'm just saying I can completely understand why youngsters do it based on insane insurance quotes. I know some of you will say the quotes are based on risk etc, and I'm sure they are, but £3000 is a rediculous amount to pay.