Insurance for “just passed” young drivers

[Bobby Dazzler]

Congratulations to Junior D Rob. Wishing her many happy, healthy fun miles in her wee little jam-jar.

Thank you Ant

 

[Rayny]

Junior D just insured the FIAT 500e (EV) having passed her driving test a week or so ago.

She’s just turned 21 and found that Hastings Direct was by far the best value at £1481 (paid up front) for fully comprehensive, commuting and business use, and no requirement for a black box.

There was a cheaper option with Hastings at £1360 for their most basic level of cover, but she went for their top level of cover (there are three levels of cover) Would have been an extra £160 monthly.

It’s group 16 and remarkably quick, so given the MBClub threads on the sky high cost of insuring EVs and rocketing premiums generally, I thought £1481 was fairly reasonable with business use.

Considering the current motor insurance ratings, that looks like an excellent result.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Considering the current motor insurance ratings, that looks like an excellent result.

Thank you. I thought so too.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Looking forward when she takes on her own policy, she’ll get lower quotes if Mum is a named driver.

Black boxes generally are good for cost and to develop safe driving. The insurance company will report / nudge on poor driving.

It’s better to be coached into safe ways than to find out when she writes off the car.

They used to say that there’s a 50% chance of a claim in the first year of driving.

And the best way of dying in a car collision is to be a car with a relatively new male driver being driven after 10pm. Worth saying, because cost is the least of anyone’s worries here.

Finally, when she does really need her own car, the cheapest solution might be a slower 1litre petrol car for a couple of years.

Happy birthday, Miss D

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Looking forward when she takes on her own policy, she’ll get lower quotes if Mum is a named driver.

Black boxes generally are good for cost and to develop safe driving. The insurance company will report / nudge on poor driving.

It’s better to be coached into safe ways than to find out when she writes off the car.

They used to say that there’s a 50% chance of a claim in the first year of driving.

And the best way of dying in a car collision is to be a car with a relatively new male driver being driven after 10pm. Worth saying, because cost is the least of anyone’s worries here.

Finally, when she does really need her own car, the cheapest solution might be a slower 1litre petrol car for a couple of years.

Happy birthday, Miss D

Thank you for the birthday wishes Mike.

This price is to be insured in Junior D’s name with me as a named driver. The online process would not allow her to add her Mom too but she’ll call and add her Mom before the policy starts. It will be interesting to see if the premium reduces further.

The 500e was an experiment and a bit of fun to see what living with an EV would really be like, to witness first hand the $hit $how charging infrastructure and diabolically poor range which is often described online. Disappointed to learn it’s not.

We bought Junior D a manual Smart ForFour 5 years ago so that she could learn to drive well before she was 17 years old and therefore pass quickly. We bought a manual so she could drive one, just in case she ever needed to in future.

She didn’t like it though and only drove it on a car park a handful of times and never did have a lesson. Being an EV and therefore automatic, we thought the 500e might get her back into the idea of driving and get some lessons booked.

It worked and she passed her test in no time. it’s such a shame that she didn’t want to drive the manual as she’s a natural driver. When we bought it we knew she’d probably never own a manual car but it was me that thought it was a good idea!

A job for this week is to find her a defensive driving course. Fortunately her boyfriend is a very careful and very competent driver, and I trust him to drive carefully.

 

[BTB 500]

BTB Jr turns 17 in early December so I have all this to look forward to now There's no public transport where we live and it's 6 miles to the nearest (small) town, so we have to drive him everywhere at the moment (he has a bike which is OK in summer but not a great idea in the dark on our unlit single-track roads).

Anyway we're off to a flying start as we've just been given a 1 owner Citroen C1 (2009) by my sister Unfortunately it's 230 miles away ... I'm expecting the drive home to be a bit of an endurance test!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Anyway we're off to a flying start as we've just been given a 1 owner Citroen C1 (2009) by my sister Unfortunately it's 230 miles away ... I'm expecting the drive home to be a bit of an endurance test!

That’s great, takes away the luck of the draw on buying a car. I think you’ll be surprised just how capable small modern cars are. I’ll happily do 400 miles in one day in our Smart with a long working day in between - it’s easily up to the job, even if there are cars which are better suited to the task.

 

[Jobsworth]

Another tip I can give, don’t pay for your kid’s insurance to start tomorrow. You’ll pay a hefty premium if you do. The sweet spot seems to be to buy insurance to start in three to four weeks time. Saves a surprising amount.

Forgot to mention that the last time

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Junior D just insured the FIAT 500e (EV) having passed her driving test a week or so ago.

She’s just turned 21 and found that Hastings Direct was by far the best value at £1481 (paid up front) for fully comprehensive, commuting and business use, and no requirement for a black box.

There was a cheaper option with Hastings at £1360 for their most basic level of cover, but she went for their top level of cover (there are three levels of cover) Would have been an extra £160 monthly.

It’s group 16 and remarkably quick, so given the MBClub threads on the sky high cost of insuring EVs and rocketing premiums generally, I thought £1481 was fairly reasonable with business use.

Update on this: Baby D added Mrs D to the policy - so that both Mrs D and I are named drivers - and it resulted in a refund of £90 or so.

That was based upon 10 months remaining, and I’m assuming that there was likely an admin fee, deducted from the refund due.

I’m guessing that Junior D’s original premium could have been close to £150 less (more than 10%) had she added Mrs D at the outset!

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Baby D will be 17 next December - just over a year from now - and he would like a Smart Roadster Brabus. It’s a group 28 and Baby D will hopefully be 17 when he passes his test.

The Fiat 500e which Junior D insures is a group 16 and she was 21 when she first insured it just after passing her test. With the refund since adding Mrs D, her premium would be <£1400 pa yeah.

It will be interesting to see what difference the age, gender and insurance group com need will make on the premium. Logic suggests that it will cost a fortune, but let’s see!

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Looking forward when she takes on her own policy, she’ll get lower quotes if Mum is a named driver.

Cough.

I should have made it clearer.

Little Miss D gets a lower quote if it’s her Mum as the named driver, not if it’s her Dad.

But worth highlighting again for those who follow. It’s all about the actuarial risk, not reality.

Put the tenner a month that you save into a jam jar for the Chipsaway / Dentfix man,

 

[BTB 500]

So I'll be picking the C1 up on November 10th, which is a month before BTB Jr turns 17. He won't be the 'main driver' for a little while so I guess I'll need to insure it for me and Mrs BTB to start with, then add Jr as a learner driver after his birthday. Once he's having lessons and I've had the car checked/sorted (MOT is due on Dec. 20th) he will likely become the main driver - can he earn NCD on a standard policy with just a provisional licence? Or would it be better to switch to a learner policy in his name with me & Mrs BTB as named drivers? But a learner policy terminates as soon as he passes his test(?), so I guess it all depends on how long that takes!

I guess there's no problem with him being the registered keeper of the car from the start, even if he's not initially insured to drive it?

 

[BTB 500]

I think you’ll be surprised just how capable small modern cars are. I’ll happily do 400 miles in one day in our Smart with a long working day in between - it’s easily up to the job, even if there are cars which are better suited to the task.

It's just the fact that most of the drive home will be motorway ... it's small and light with not much power, likely to be noisy at speed, and it'll be the first time I've driven it! It'll also be 17 years since I've driven a manual

On the plus side the C1 has three times the power of the Fiat 126 I had many decades ago, and I did take that on some fairly long trips!

 

[BTB 500]

I guess there's no problem with him being the registered keeper of the car from the start, even if he's not initially insured to drive it?

Starting to look at insurance and Compare The Market won't allow you to enter a registered keeper under 17 years old ...

 

[jasonh]

You'll also find the comparison sites are impossible if you are trying to plan ahead. For example you want some quotes that start when they are 17. Or you want a quote for full insurance assuming they pass their test.
You essentially have to be 17 to get the quote. You have to have already passed the test to get the quote.

 

[Jobsworth]

I’d recommend Collingwood Learners. Was £285 fully comp for our lad on the C1. Yes, when he passed his test I had to drive it home because his insurance no longer covered him. Collingwood wanted £45 to cancel the policy once he’d passed, but with a bit of haggling he was offered one year no-claim bonus in exchange for my forty five quid. That helped enormously when we insured with Hastings Direct

 

[jasonh]

I’d recommend Collingwood Learners. Was £285 fully comp for our lad on the C1. Yes, when he passed his test I had to drive it home because his insurance no longer covered him. Collingwood wanted £45 to cancel the policy once he’d passed, but with a bit of haggling he was offered one year no-claim bonus in exchange for my forty five quid. That helped enormously when we insured with Hastings Direct

That's interesting. My son has a test in around 2 weeks' time. If he passes my understanding was the policy automatically cancels. In our case that leaves the car uninsured and my policy only allows me to drive other people's cars if the car is already insured for the road.

So in the car park we'll be taking out a policy to drive home (assuming he does pass). If I need to cancel the old policy and there's a chance of NCB being earned that's good but even more complicated!

 

[Jobsworth]

That's interesting. My son has a test in around 2 weeks' time. If he passes my understanding was the policy automatically cancels. In our case that leaves the car uninsured and my policy only allows me to drive other people's cars if the car is already insured for the road.

So in the car park we'll be taking out a policy to drive home (assuming he does pass). If I need to cancel the old policy and there's a chance of NCB being earned that's good but even more complicated!

I’m fortunate to have a motor trade policy that covers me to drive any car, otherwise I may well have been stuck

 

[BTB 500]

I’d recommend Collingwood Learners. Was £285 fully comp for our lad on the C1. Yes, when he passed his test I had to drive it home because his insurance no longer covered him. Collingwood wanted £45 to cancel the policy once he’d passed, but with a bit of haggling he was offered one year no-claim bonus in exchange for my forty five quid. That helped enormously when we insured with Hastings Direct

Will check out Collingwood - thanks.

At the moment I'm just looking to insure the car in order to tax it and drive it home - my son will still be 16 then, so it will be in mine & Mrs BTB's names only. With no NCD the best quote I've had for this so far is £177. Will have to decide what to do once he's 17 and learning ... either add him to the existing policy (probably as the 'main driver' from that point), or cancel it and start a new 'learner' one with Mrs BTB and me as named drivers. Obviously the big increase will be once he's passed his test and is driving solo.

It's a bit annoying that I can't (apparently) have him as the registered keeper of the car till he's 17, which would mean getting a new V5 after his birthday in December. Not sure how that change would affect the original policy, if I keep that.

 

[jasonh]

Will check out Collingwood - thanks.

At the moment I'm just looking to insure the car in order to tax it and drive it home - my son will still be 16 then, so it will be in mine & Mrs BTB's names only. With no NCD the best quote I've had for this so far is £177. Will have to decide what to do once he's 17 and learning ... either add him to the existing policy (probably as the 'main driver' from that point), or cancel it and start a new 'learner' one with Mrs BTB and me as named drivers. Obviously the big increase will be once he's passed his test and is driving solo.

It's a bit annoying that I can't (apparently) have him as the registered keeper of the car till he's 17, which would mean getting a new V5 after his birthday in December. Not sure how that change would affect the original policy, if I keep that.

If you can ask the family member not to cancel the tax and not to change the owner until you've got the car home then it would help.

If they can leave their insurance running then your policy will most likely cover you to drive it whilst it's still their car.

If they leave their insurance running then they may gain another years NCB versus a derisory refund.

In terms of you taking out a policy for a month what you'll probably find is that the best deals for you and your wife won't allow you to add a learner to the policy. So you'll just have to scrap the policy when the time comes for your son to drive.
Alternatively keep your policy running and pay by the month using Veygo to add your son (on top of your policy) whilst he is learning.