Currently looking for insurance for my son. Hes 17, not passed yet but i expect he will in the next few months.
Looking for advice re; best way to find a good deal( comparison sites etc) and if there are any hacks to bring down the price of his policy (named drivers etc).
I'm clueless when it comes to this as I'm on a company policy and not had to source mine for a good 6 or 7 years

Take out a mortgage.

Cheap, small engine, car. Get a black box and put yourselves on as named drivers, that was what we found the cheapest.

Everything is against them though, even worse trying to get a young person on a company policy today. Last quote was £1000, per month.

WadingInDeeper wrote:Take out a mortgage.

Cheap, small engine, car. Get a black box and put yourselves on as named drivers, that was what we found the cheapest.

Everything is against them though, even worse trying to get a young person on a company policy today. Last quote was £1000, per month.

Thanks. Got him a Toyota Aygo. He wont be on a company policy. I'm expecting somewhere between 2 and 2.5 k per year

My daughter's first policy was about £2400, but she got some back part way through for being a safe driver.

I've got it all to go through again in a few months.

If you can bank roll him (as guarantor )one of the best ways to get on the insureds ladder is a small car with insurance. They crucify anyone with an older car, so cheap runarounds really don’t exist anymore.

Black box is insisted on by some and rubbished by other providers so don’t just look at black box as an option.

Sorry, didn’t read on

elwaclaret wrote:If you can bank roll him (as guarantor )one of the best ways to get on the insureds ladder is a small car with insurance. They crucify anyone with an older car, so cheap runarounds really don’t exist anymore.

Black box is insisted on by some and rubbished by other providers so don’t just look at black box as an option.

I dont want to get him something brand new. I just think he will have some kind of prang in his first year.
I'm happy with the black box. I think it will give me a little piece of mind. He will know hes being monitored and will have to drive accordingly

Friend of ours had her son on the insurance tracker with penalties for speeding.
Gets a letter informing them he’s been excessively speeding and penalty. Lad says he’s innocent, whist being bollocked. When they check back it had been in for its MOT and had been on the rolling road. Thankfully proof was accepted and penalty anulled.

For my daughter I found out what the cheapest cars to insure were rather than get a car then look for insurance. I got her a Seat Mii. Cost £900 insurance for a 17 year old.

Damo wrote:I dont want to get him something brand new. I just think he will have some kind of prang in his first year.
I'm happy with the black box. I think it will give me a little piece of mind. He will know hes being monitored and will have to drive accordingly

There certainly is that about it. The all think they’re bulletproof at that age... just like we did.

I stopped driving due to illness and so had to re start my insurance, fully comp with full no claims to none. Same car went from £300 a year to over £2,000 when I asked why so extortionate... age of car, kids don’t look after older cars... they wouldn’t move even when l pointed out I was 45 at the time.

TheOriginalLongsider wrote:For my daughter I found out what the cheapest cars to insure were rather than get a car then look for insurance. I got her a Seat Mii. Cost £900 insurance for a 17 year old.

Was going to suggest this too. Needs to be a good combination of old enough to not be too valuable but young enough to not be deemed unreliable. 5-8 years on a One litre likely the best idea.

Be mindful of blackboxes because, in my experience, the speeding information is manually verified when a speed alert is made.

What I mean by this is, data is sent over via GPS and the accelerometers in the box, suggesting that X speed was done on X Road.

Once this is sent over it is compiled into a big document which then gets manually checked to make sure it is correct, with staff going on to Google Earth to make sure that road is what the GPS data says it is and that the speed information is correct.

This is certainly true for Aviva boxes via Vodafone and would cause a lot of issues as if there were three instances of speeding in a short time that hadn't been manually checked, a customer would have their insurance cancelled without any actual warning.

It may be different now but this was true last year as I was working there over summer.

elwaclaret wrote:There certainly is that about it. The all think they’re bulletproof at that age... just like we did.

I stopped driving due to illness and so had to re start my insurance, fully comp with full no claims to none. Same car went from £300 a year to over £2,000 when I asked why so extortionate... age of car, kids don’t look after older cars... they wouldn’t move even when l pointed out I was 45 at the time.

The motor insurance industry is completely corrupt.
You hear so many stories about what they get up to.

Something to consider with a black box is if he works and finishes late.

Somebody I know had one, who got penalised for driving home from work when he finished at 10pm

Depend g on which one you use it can completely take the joy of driving away. I was with admiral smart box and I was graded 100/100 for driving within the hours (7am-11pm I think)

Then, after 30hrs of driving within these limits I had to get to the airport at 1am.

When I checked the app after, the one hour out of hours v the 30 in hours mean tmy rating dropped from 100 to 13.

I cancelled the insurance there and then and went elsewhere. Absolute con.

Collingwood do Learner Driver Insurance and it costs about £30 a month, We've bought a Corsa and it'll cost about £800 to insure when he passes his test.

wilks_bfc wrote:Something to consider with a black box is if he works and finishes late.

Somebody I know had one, who got penalised for driving home from work when he finished at 10pm

I hadn't thought of that. He works into the early hours at the weekend

Guich wrote:Collingwood do Learner Driver Insurance and it costs about £30 a month, We've bought a Corsa and it'll cost about £800 to insure when he passes his test.

I contemplated insuring him on the car while he's learning, but then I heard some stories of the price jumping up to 3 or 4 thousand pound after passing, and the only way to avoid paying an extortionate rate was to cancel and start a new policy.
It seems they know they can quote you whatever they like once you have committed to the policy before they pass

I thought the black box was a speed thing, didn't realise they had a curfew as well, jeez.

Damo wrote:I contemplated insuring him on the car while he's learning, but then I heard some stories of the price jumping up to 3 or 4 thousand pound after passing, and the only way to avoid paying an extortionate rate was to cancel and start a new policy.
It seems they know they can quote you whatever they like once you have committed to the policy before they pass

Our Collingwood policy is just for learners and stops a soon as he's passed.

dougcollins wrote:I thought the black box was a speed thing, didn't realise they had a curfew as well, jeez.

Some of them can even sense how efficient you are driving too, how often you brake too quickly and other "safe driving" things.

WadingInDeeper wrote:My daughter's first policy was about £2400, but she got some back part way through for being a safe driver.

I've got it all to go through again in a few months.

£2400 for Insurance? Good grief I only paid £40 for my first car

My insurance company refused point blank to put my 18 year old daughter on mine when she’d passed. Did some research Toyota aygo came up as one of the cheapest in missus name (£500 for her policy) with a bolt on marmalade policy (£1000 ish)in daughters name.
Marmalade are a bit of a pain to deal with but their box seems hassle free once fitted - plus daughter gets no claims - just come down to £860 for 2nd year

Get em a bus pass

dougcollins wrote:I thought the black box was a speed thing, didn't realise they had a curfew as well, jeez.

A lot have that for younger drivers as we know but wouldn’t say it’s a curfew more of a monitor of your driving habits.
I have one through my policy which measures duration distance speed of journey along with breaking habits ie heavy/late breaking.

It’s reduced my policy by £100 over 2 years and I’m in my 40s

They are justifiably expensive for a reason. There are many sensible drivers but there are also some very stupid individuals in Chavved up Corsas and young girls in financed A1s and A Class cars who think they have mastered the art of driving. Cars used to be harder to drive, you had no multi media distractions and would start with an old banger.

Tricky Trevor wrote:Friend of ours had her son on the insurance tracker with penalties for speeding.
Gets a letter informing them he’s been excessively speeding and penalty. Lad says he’s innocent, whist being bollocked. When they check back it had been in for its MOT and had been on the rolling road. Thankfully proof was accepted and penalty anulled.

An MOT test wouldn't result in excessive speeding, the only rolling road is the brake tester and they don't build up much speed.

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:An MOT test wouldn't result in excessive speeding, the only rolling road is the brake tester and they don't build up much speed.

Doubt that would have happened on a rolling road.

More likely is that somebody has been out for “test drive” whilst in for MOT and used that as an excuse to cover their backs once found out

GodIsADeeJay81 wrote:An MOT test wouldn't result in excessive speeding, the only rolling road is the brake tester and they don't build up much speed.

They also get the speed from the GPS in the black box, they aren't connected to the ECU so the black box would think the car is stationery even if the Speedo was reading 100mph while on a rolling road.

Think the young lad pulled a blinder here

Be careful making you or your partner the car owner and main driver to get it cheaper for a son/daughter, I did it but was advised that if they have a bump and it is proven that they are the main driver your insurance is null and void. That could cost.

An expensive way to reduce your yearly bill is to move.

I saved 50% one year when I spent some time working down south before i moved out here compared to the year previous by just changing the postcode.

If it's any consolation, car insurance here is also expensive but a little more straight forward in that they just look at your age, the car age and value and apply 10% discount for each year of no claim capped at 50%. So I'm paying around 700 quid a year.

This video is of a crash yesterday but is typical of the types of crashes that occur on a daily basis and posted on the internet as everyone has dash cams. Only on Saturday I was almost t boned on a t junction turning onto the one way carriageway as a car decided the red light was not mandatory, fortunately I had the sense to give way.

https://youtu.be/Rxsr5bPiMIE" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

theroyaldyche wrote:Get em a bus pass

Completely agree. With the levels of insurance premiums being quoted on here, surely it would firstly be common sense to ask if car ownership for a 17 year old really was essential. Is it not possible to walk? get a bus? get a taxi? (£2500 would offer quite a number of taxi rides).

You can't put the parents down as main driver as stated above, but even putting yourselves down as named drivers can save quite a bit. My nephew's first insurance was when he was 22, and yet £2,000 was the cheapest. Adding his parents as named drivers brought it down to £1,000, even though they live 150 miles away. There's no misdeclaration - all you are saying is that the parents might drive it, not that they will.

Of course, they may have blocked that loophole now.

Billyblah wrote:Completely agree. With the levels of insurance premiums being quoted on here, surely it would firstly be common sense to ask if car ownership for a 17 year old really was essential. Is it not possible to walk? get a bus? get a taxi? (£2500 would offer quite a number of taxi rides).

Its all. I want. I need

Havent got a clue about costs or money

And I'm guessing neither of you had a car when you were in that age bracket?

Claretmatt4 wrote:And I'm guessing neither of you had a car when you were in that age bracket?

That probably depends on whether they could afford one. "Bank of Mum and Dad" doesn't necessarily run to buying and running a car for the grown-up son.

Was on my ex wifes insurance and then parents for a number of years due to costs etc.

Just got my own at 35, needs to be done sometime. Even that came in at £1,500.

What I would say is use a recognized firm, I went cheaper at £1150 with a company called RCI (no indication on comparison site that they were brokers) then after the 14 day cooling off period they contacted me for a further £800 in total saying I had given false information, I hadn't and double checked this. Luckily I have a bit about me and was able to 'bully' them into a refund but I had to fight for it.

I put my husband down as name driver (i was 23 at the time) now 24.. hubby is older and been driving years it was around £1,200 approx.. no black box or anything and a brand new car. I was on his insurance as a provisional learner when I passed I updated it cost a few hundred, then bought my own car
Have a look on compare the market