Car Insurance For Young Drivers

For young drivers the cost of learning to drive, and then purchasing your first car can seem so high that you feel you need to keep on good terms with the bank of Mum and Dad to fund your new found motoring freedom.

That new car will also need car insurance - it's the law.

The cost of car insurance for young drivers under the age of 25 can be eye-watering. One young Mancunian lad was even recently quoted £33k per year to insure his Vauxhall Corsa.

So how do you keep your insurance costs down while you're building up your no claims bonus?

Minimise Your Risk

• Get some extra training. A Pass-Plus or IAM Skill for Life course can reduce your insurance risk
• Comply with the law. Points on your licence may increase your risk to an insurance company.
• Don't modify your car - you will have to tell your insurer about those tasty allow wheels, but they might deem you a bigger risk because of it.
• Add a parent to your policy. An experienced driver on your policy in some cases may be viewed as a reduction in your overall risk

Shop Around

Shop around and dont be faithful to a company you family may have dealt with in the past. There are many web directories where you can input your details to obtain a quote. Be truthful, and dont attempt to lie or embellish even the smallest details. You can be charged with fraud if you give false information.

It is also considered fraud if you put your parents on your car insurance as the main driverif it is actually your car, and you are the main driver. In the car insurance world this is known as Fronting.

Higher Excess

When asking for quotes opt for a higher excess. This is the amount of money from any claim you would need to pay yourself. If you increase this to £1000 then your premium may be cheaper.

A New Kind Of Insurance

Several insurance companies are now introducing new schemes which include have a smart box or black box professionally installed into your car.

The Co-Operative Insurance schemes black box measures how well your car is driven by analysis of cornering, acceleration and braking forces. This data is sent to the insurer by GPS technology, and the mobile phone network, and is analysed every 90 days to review your insurance premium. The safer you drive the greater your discounts.

I-Kube specify a similar black box, but instead they monitor the time of day you drive. You get a discount for not driving and obeying their curfew between 11PM and 5AM. Your are still insured during that period, however each time you are detected driving you are sent an additional insurance bill.