Car insurance for a young driver

[GuyJD]

Third Party policy can only be taken out on cars under a certain value these days, no Idea why as the insurance company would more than likely write a cheap car off for the slightest little accident leaving the owner with nothing anyway, but I agree last time I looked at a third party quote on my Golf that I paid £280 for it was the same as a fully comp quote.

 

Definitely go down the black box route if you can't get a decent quote as long as your daughter is a safe driver it should keep the cost down.

[GuyJD]

The only issue I can see, is that it doesn't monitor other drivers also on the road.

 

There are so many idiots on todays roads, as standards have definitely dropped, so these black boxes do not monitor this. If someone has to brake suddenly, how does the box know why the driver has taken evasive action.

Team it with a dash cam and you've covered all the bases.

[TwoZeroAlpha]

Team it with a dash cam and you've covered all the bases.

 

Many insurance companies will also offer discounts for having a dashcam fitted. May only be 10% but might be worth a look and adds peace of mind for you as well. I've got front facing Nextbase 312GW cameras in my car and my wife's Freelander.

[pcstru]

The only issue I can see, is that it doesn't monitor other drivers also on the road.

 

There are so many idiots on todays roads, as standards have definitely dropped, so these black boxes do not monitor this. If someone has to brake suddenly, how does the box know why the driver has taken evasive action.

 

The insurance company don't care what the cause is, they just care that you are in some way involved. In some ways that (IMO) should work well - as a motorcyclist I believe I'm responsible for avoiding other peoples mistakes and if you are driving defensively with good situational awareness that should be entirely possible (if it wasn't, I would not get on a bike). However, statistically Insurers claim there is a link between near misses and accidents; the more near misses you have, the more probable it is you will have an accident. So if your black box is recording a lot of emergency braking, they may rightly consider you a higher risk without needing to know anything about who was at fault (or how blame would be apportioned).

[Oaktech]

You can't? You've obviously not had much dealing with the Insurance Weasels.

Give them ANY excuse and they won't pay out. Their reason for existing is to make money for their share holders, not to protect you.

 

Quite...

 

Friend of mine caught the front nearside of his car on a bollard, it a 3 yr old BMW, he's nearly 40 and has been driving since 17, it was an honest mistake. His insurance initially refused to pay out because the manufacturer build sheet for the car did not mention the xenon gas headlights which were a dealer fit option and as he'd cracked a headlight unit would have to be replaced. He ended up having to get BMW UK to write his insurer a letter explaining it was actually a manufacturer fitment as they were claiming it as an 'undeclared upgrade'.

 

To stay on topic, firstly, call your insurer, most of them now will take a named driver no claims discount, but you might have to stay with the same insurer for a year, maybe more.

 

Secondly, start looking at other cars. I did this exercise with my god son earlier in the year and found it was cheaper to buy and insure an 02 plate 2 litre vectra estate than the S reg 1.2 litre clio he was going to get from his auntie.

 

I would always suggest against the black box unless the driver is super duper careful, no-one i've met has had good experiences with them.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Oaktech

[elsiegee40]

Thanks for the opinions everyone.

 

We already have a black box in the car - it's currently insured with Coop Young Driver. We've had no issues with it. The driving score varies, but we've never had a premium increase and occasionally had a refund. It's saved us a fortune on premiums when the kids passed their tests.

 

It seems daft that not having fully comp is more expensive and increasing your liability makes little difference to the premium. Hey ho. insurance companies have you over a barrel whatever.

 

We've made a few calls and got the best deal fully comp with AXA. Our other car is insured with AXA so we could get a multicar deal with them.

 

Next job is looking for quotes for my new car - a Focus. I'm hoping to reduce that quote by not having daughter on it now

[tmoon-mint]

Car insurance is the bane of my existence. I first passed my test when I was 20 and my quote for a 1.4 Fiesta was in excess of £2,000. I unfortunately had to bite the bullet since I needed a car and it has come down considerably since then but only just gone under £1,000 and I have 3 years no claims.

[FN-GM]

I'm struggling to think why they wouldn't pay out solely on having a parent as a named driver. It certainly was not a problem when I claimed, and was never a problem adding him on.

 

The reason was the named driver is supposed to be for the main person driving the car. In this case that wasn't true. So they say the information provided when they took out the policy wasn't true.