Teenage car insurance woes

Aaah! I'm suffering car insurance agony with my 17-year-old son. Our insurance is coming up for renewal and we'd like to put my son on it. We've rung around and been quoted £400 without him and £1,400 with him. It's hardly as if we drive a souped up car. We've got a 1 litre S-reg Nissan Micra.

Now, I understand that teenagers are more risky, but if they're this expensive to insure on our policy how the hell can they be expected to buy their own insurance? You can just see the mindset - 'I'll drive without cover and risk the £250 fine' - which is what thousands choose to do.

What's really shocked me is the rise in premiums since we put other son on the policy five years ago - that cost around £700. One insurer told us it would be cheaper to insure for any driver over 17 than for our son as a named driver.

The problem is I promised to get him driving lessons if he promised never to ride a motorbike - a fair compromise if you've seen the stats for motorbike accidents among youngsters.

There must be a sensible solution here, but I can't see it. Meanwhile my wife is spending the week on the phone searching for a cheaper insurer while I brace myself to lose a sizeable chunk of money for daring to want my son to learn to drive responsibly.

- Tony Hazell, Money Mail

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Comments

[Terry Barr]

Sad but true, insurance for young drivers has always been really expensive.

[Car Insurance]

That is not 100% true, there exist discounts for younger drivers. Such as if you are a good student or if you have to drive to university or work every day and so on.

[Alison]

In Australia, the learner driver is covered by the fully licensed driver- because they are the one who is "driving" (giving instruction etc.)

However, it bites when you have your own license and car - my insurance premium is pretty hefty (not too bad though - it's just 3rd party) and I thought I was covered- but my excess is 900$- 400 of that is because I am under 25. That is almost half of my current bank balance.

It hurts that I spent 20 minutes in the phone queue to make a claim (chewing up valuable phone credit), only to find out that I have to pay for the damage anyway - when yes, it was my fault, I was the driver, but it was an accident!

Myth busted: insurance gives you financial peace of mind.

[Jeff]

The worst I know of is a pupil of mine who was quoted £2,400 to be added onto his dad's insurance, which was a 2 litre petrol Ford Galaxy, which i don't think was even worth a £1,000, needless to say they didn't go ahead with it!

[Jane Mullen]

Insurance quote for me with one accident to my record - £377.40 fully comp - add my 17 year old daughter with no convictions or accidents, quote goes up to £2277.99 - ridiculous. If anyone knows of a way to insure your teenager legally and cheaply please let me know via this blog. Many thanks.

[Alfred Goodson]

Does anyone know the law regarding named drivers. My 17yr old daughter, who has passed her test is a named driver on our second car. Is there any law governing how often she may drive this car? I am the owner/registered keeper. What if she tends to use it more than me? I have heard that this could be illegal.