What’s the cheapest way to insure a 17 year old boy driver?

What’s the cheapest way to insure a 17 year old boy driver? He will drive my car. This was a question I posed last week and got a number of responses. I thought that they were really interesting so wanted to share some of them with you:
  1. When I was new it worked out cheapest to get my own insurance and for my mum to go down on it as a secondary driver
  2.  We bought our 17 year old daughter a car went through comparison sites and looked up young driver insurance … her as main driver and me and husband as named £344 on Comparethemarket (no black box ) ……. on young driver insurance with black box and me and hubby £1344
  3. The price of insurance has a number of factors. Postcode, age male/female and if family type car or a car that can be classed as a racing car, e.g sporty, if my daughter got a place just 2 miles up the road the insurance shot up to another 600 for the year, if he’s not the main driver then probably best to add him as an additional driver to your policy, however he probably won’t earn any no claims bonus. If he has his own policy, put yourself down as an additional driver to lower the price for him. Also, look at multicar policies. The best deals I found weren’t on comparison sites, direct line and Adrian flux have been frontrunners for me
  4. £1,700 paid all up front by a 17 year old boy for a type s Honda Civic with black box, dad was on the insurance, however, if you can avoid it don’t put them on yours as they get no, no claims bonus, etc.
  5. On provisional Collingwood learner insurance own policy for the car so if he crashes it it comes off his insurance not yours. When get to full licence insurance, put his name with an older clean named driver. With this, I got my costs right down from £2,600 to 680 on a 1.8 turbo Saab 9-3 convertible 2005 by putting the policy in partner’s name as a provisional licence holder and me as named driver
  6. Black box monitors speed and behaviour lots of black box policies offer discounts every three months for good driving
  7. Please be careful with some of the young driver insurance they give you a quote and seems a good deal and after 4 months they decide if you’re going over mileage you quoted for they then send a bill out for an extra few hundred for the extra miles
  8. Get them to insure the car in their name with you as a named driver, which brings the policy down a bit, then fit a black box for the first year and keep the mileage reasonable. Did this for my son for his first year and with safe driving, on target mileage he went down from £2.5k to £1.3k after one year.
  9. You can take out a separate policy for your son which runs alongside yours, Marmalade offers one, he earns his own no claims bonus and if he crashes it won’t affect your policy at all, if he has a provisional licence be mindful that the premium will increase once he passes, it will cost roughly the same to try and add him to your policy and he won’t earn his own bonus.
So lots to think about…but forum dwellers don’t have all the answers, so I thought I would also ask advice from the industry. Masternaut, a company that provides fleet telematics (basically allows you to track drivers…like the black box), has come up with the following:

Every parent wants to make sure their child is as safe as they can be when they start driving their own car. Insurance is a vital part of this safety, but the costs can often be very high for new drivers. Often the cost of insuring a young new driver is so high because, in the eyes of the insurance company’s, the risk of young drivers being involved in an accident is far higher than that of someone over the age of 25. Also, being a young or new driver means they haven’t had the time to build up a no claims bonus. With that in mind, here are some ways you can bring the cost of insurance down for new young drivers.

Finding a cheaper car to insure
A cheaper car can result in a lower overall cost of purchasing and insurance. Due to the way insurance companies calculate the cost of insurance, a cheaper car which accelerates slower, has a lower value when new, and costs less and can be fixed quickly when broken, will be classed in a lower insurance group. On the scale of 1-50, the lower the number, the lower to insurance cost.

Pay a higher excess up front and pay per year
If you can afford to do it, paying a higher excess could lower the overall insurance cost for young new drivers. The excess – the amount you have to pay up front if you have an accident and need to make a claim – can vary, usually going up to about £500. For young drivers, however, you need to think responsibly about if you can pay that lump sum if you have an accident and need to claim.

Paying for your insurance as a yearly fee rather than monthly, if you can afford to, could save young drivers a significant amount in monthly interest charges. The other added benefit to paying for the year all at once is that once it’s paid, there are no monthly payments to worry about or plan around.

Choose insurance with a black box
Some insurance companies now offer a telematics device known as a ‘black box’ which can be installed into the vehicle and tracks the behaviour of a driver. The device tracks areas such as speed, mileage, the time when driving, and some providers offer plans which effectively allows you to pay for what you use. Another advantage of installing a black box is increased safety. Firstly, for young drivers knowing their insurer is directly monitoring their driving has been shown to result in safer driving. Secondly, if a young driver does get in an accident, the insurance provider can see exactly where it has taken place, and if they can’t contact the driver directly to check they are ok, will alert the emergency services. This could save a drivers life. Finally, in the unfortunate event that the car is stolen, a black box can aid in retrieving your car as the location can be determined based on the GPS information.

Base your insurance on what you need
The base level of insurance that is required to drive on UK roads is ‘third party’. This covers the cost of repairs to a third party who is affected by an accident you have caused. This level of insurance, however, does not cover the cost of any repairs to your car. Theft or damage to your car will also not be covered. However, if you feel, based on the area you live in, that you don’t require coverage for theft or damage, then you don’t have to pay for it. Take some time to compare the levels of cover on offer and which one is best for the driver.

Ultimately, finding a good deal on car insurance for a new young driver will take time and some comparison work between providers. However, keeping in mind the areas mentioned above could save a significant amount of money and help get young new drivers on the road.

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