Car insurance for my 17 year old daughter

musicegbdf

OK seems to be a wide variation of premiums. Have been qouted from £480 up to £2000. The cheapest three (cheapest was Adrian Flux) I checked the reviews and they sound terrible. I know reviews tend to show more negative than positive . the problem is the bigger names are far too expensive. So am in the quandry of go cheap and hope for the best to get a years no claims for her , or pay through the nose.

Anybody have any experience of this and know a company that can offer a reasonable price and not a bunch of sharks.....

stickyfiddle

Have you tried Cooperative Insurance? They're not normally on comparisons and were excellent when I was in my early 20s. 

Gagaryn

I've heard lots of good things about Adrian Flux in the past - they used to be good at insuring modded cars that mainstream companies wouldn't touch. I've been out of that game a few years now but all that I heard about them was good.

CabbageCat

It doesn't matter if the insurance company is rubbish if you don't get into any accidents.

ESBlonde

There is a company called 'Drives like a girl' and they fit a black box to the car (free). No driving other vehicles by the insured. Helps if you have 'Pass Plus' from an advanced driving instructor I think (ask). They check to see the car is usually home before 11:00pm and the engine isn't thrashed, but they can't trace it's whereabouts. With the right car (Skoda Fabia 1.2) for my boy when he passed his test at 18 it was about £750 with 10% cash back if you're good for 3 months.

Alternatively if she is yet to pass, a company called marmalade? do a monthly top up policy to your own car/policy to enable her to drive under your supervision for short periods. I think it's about £80 a month so perhaps worth it in the last weeks before the test for added confidence.

hth.

TTony

Adrian Flux is "just" a broker (unless it's changed), so check who's actually going to be underwriting the policy.

Motor premiums are up and down more than the proverbial, so the situation changes quite rapidly - even day to day - as different companies try to achieve their desired risk/premium balance across their portfolio.  So, it's worth checking quotes a few times.

When we did the insurance for a 20-odd YO student, living in an area not dissimilar to you, we did everything properly (car in his name, registered to his address, him as the main driver, etc - it's not worth the risk of invalidating the cover by misrepresenting those facts) and then put his mum on the policy as a named driver - because she was going to have to drive it for a couple of trips.  

And the premium fell 25%.

As ESBlonde says, the black box companies can help reduce the premiums too.  The reduction might be retrospective once they see and assess her driving habits, but it's worth taking a look.  I was involved in a motor insurance / telematics start-up business a few years back, and the accident stats are horrible.  It's those stats that drive up the premiums for all young drivers.  So, if she's not driving from 8pm-3am Thurs/Fri/Sat nights (which the black box would confirm), her premium should be a lot lower.

musicegbdf

Thks guys this is really helping. One problem with the black box thing is she works late (waitress in a pub). She has not yet passed , but we were going to use her car to pickup and collect and if she passes she will want to drive to/from work.
Have put both me and missus on the insurance. She is being given a 12 year old Micra from her Nan so like TT Tony I want to do the right thing and build her own insurance as she hope to go to Uni next year and hopefully she will ahve passed by then.
I will reconsider the black box thing though. My main concern was the reveiws I saw for Adrian Flux. Then I started to look at all the reviews and they were all poor (so only people with a greivance post them maybe). Intersting did not know they were brokers.
The one thing that has peed me off is the comparison sites seem to make "assumptions" which when I checked carefully and found were wrong (like one saying she had been driving the 2003 car since it was new (see would have been 5!)) . So I will really need to check carefully as I see the chepaer ones charge for any errors....
Will try drives like a girl.... keep them coming !

BTW Nan has ordered a new Polo DSG auto , went with her and haggled the price down. What a cracking little car.

TTony

musicegbdf said:

One problem with the black box thing is she works late (waitress in a pub). She has not yet passed , but we were going to use her car to pickup and collect and if she passes she will want to drive to/from work.

Hmmmm ... that's possibly not a good idea on a couple of levels.

Firstly, it will appear to the ins co that she's driving to/from pubs late at night, and so will appear to be exactly the sort of risk that they want to avoid.  The black box based premium might be considerably higher than it would otherwise be.

Secondly, that's probably not the best time to be getting in some driving practice - nor driving as a recently-qualified driver.  It's the riskiest time of day for driving for a reason ...

EricTheWeary

ESBlonde said:

There is a company called 'Drives like a girl' and they fit a black box to the car (free). No driving other vehicles by the insured. Helps if you have 'Pass Plus' from an advanced driving instructor I think (ask). They check to see the car is usually home before 11:00pm and the engine isn't thrashed, but they can't trace it's whereabouts. With the right car (Skoda Fabia 1.2) for my boy when he passed his test at 18 it was about £750 with 10% cash back if you're good for 3 months.

Alternatively if she is yet to pass, a company called marmalade? do a monthly top up policy to your own car/policy to enable her to drive under your supervision for short periods. I think it's about £80 a month so perhaps worth it in the last weeks before the test for added confidence.

hth.

we've done marmalade once for Eric Jr. He isn't that interested in driving and has bugger all aptitude but if he does qualify ( so far failed his theory twice FFS) he can have MrsTheWeary's Matiz which is worth about 50p but quotes are around £1500 or so

fretmeister

EricTheWeary said:

ESBlonde said:

There is a company called 'Drives like a girl' and they fit a black box to the car (free). No driving other vehicles by the insured. Helps if you have 'Pass Plus' from an advanced driving instructor I think (ask). They check to see the car is usually home before 11:00pm and the engine isn't thrashed, but they can't trace it's whereabouts. With the right car (Skoda Fabia 1.2) for my boy when he passed his test at 18 it was about £750 with 10% cash back if you're good for 3 months.

Alternatively if she is yet to pass, a company called marmalade? do a monthly top up policy to your own car/policy to enable her to drive under your supervision for short periods. I think it's about £80 a month so perhaps worth it in the last weeks before the test for added confidence.

hth.

we've done marmalade once for Eric Jr. He isn't that interested in driving and has bugger all aptitude but if he does qualify ( so far failed his theory twice FFS) he can have MrsTheWeary's Matiz which is worth about 50p but quotes are around £1500 or so

Value of the car has very little to do with the underwriting. Most of it is about how much damage the car can do to other people.

chillidoggy

Insurance companies aren't in business to do anyone a favour. They're all snakey bastards when it comes to paying out, despite their advertisements. If it were me, it go for the cheapest cover. And no matter where you go, you'll hear tales of woe about every broker or insurance company.

musicegbdf

Think you have a good point Chilli. The car is not worth much £1200 and as most of the premiums are more than that , it may be the right idea.

Emp_Fab

What about Third Party Only cover ?  If the car isn't worth much then all she really needs is to be a) legal and b) be covered for any damage to other people / property.  Have you enquired about 3rd Party Only ?

ESBlonde

In some cases third party is not offered or is only very slightly cheaper. Again the insurance risk is not you/the old banger. It's the passenger or the Rolls Royce or the young mother with her buggy and bratts at the bus stop or the BT engineer you knock off the ladder who can't work for the next 40 years. These payouts in insurance are tens and hundreds of thousands of pounds not to mention the legal fees associated. A few hundreds in premiums is relative chicken feed.

TTony

ESBlonde said:

It's the passenger or the Rolls Royce or the young mother with her buggy and bratts at the bus stop or the BT engineer you knock off the ladder who can't work for the next 40 years. 

Of course, these aren't obligatory conditions of having insurance ...

ESBlonde

Damn, I've been storing the Roller in the lock up next to the BT man and wondering why he was beginning to smell.

musicegbdf

Yep looked at third party only . Difference is only £50...

Karlos

I was with Adrian Flux for 10 years and they were cheap and offered a good service. I'd still be with them but they could not find me a policy that gave me an agreed valuation on my classic Mini (in their Mini scheme) taking my occupation into account. Hastings who provided the cover withdrew cover.

I'm now with Sabre via Ribble Insurance and they were way cheaper than anyone else. Sabre claim to like taking on people that have unusual occupations/circumstances.

musicegbdf

Thks Karlos , that really helps me to decide.

Rox

KarlosSantos said:

I was with Adrian Flux for 10 years and they were cheap and offered a good service. I'd still be with them but they could not find me a policy that gave me an agreed valuation on my classic Mini (in their Mini scheme) taking my occupation into account. Hastings who provided the cover withdrew cover.

I'm now with Sabre via Ribble Insurance and they were way cheaper than anyone else. Sabre claim to like taking on people that have unusual occupations/circumstances.

Had a similar experience with both Adrian Flux and Footman James - quite happy to take your money, then withdraw the cover for your renewal.  But it worked out great because we went to Peter James instead and have three cars insured for £201 a year!

musicegbdf

Don't mind if they don't offer renewal as I always shop around as long as they give proof of ncd as iit will be important in her first year