Car Insurance for Teenagers

[meadowblythe]

Thought I'd start a new thread on this ..

 

Non dancing DS has passed his driving test (hooray!) but unfortunately this means the ugly subject of cars and insurance has raised its ugly head.

 

As he is going to the  Birmingham School of Acting I suspect that it would be a waste of money for him to buy a car, as he would have nowhere to park it, but he will need transport.  One option is to upgrade his current provisional motor bike license to a full one, and buy a bigger bike.  Another is to put him on the insurance for my little car, and the third is one of these policies where you buy a set number of days per year.  

 

Any thoughts or experience to share?

 

Meadowblythe

[Jan McNulty]

How about one of those policies where you have to have a "black box" in the car and night-time curfews and such-like?

 

If you insure him on your car, there were isssues a few years ago where insurance companies were querying who drove the car most.  If he would only be using it occasionally that may be an option.  I think one of the problems is that if he is insured through your policy he is not building up a "no claims" of his own for when he eventually gets his own car.

 

It's a minefield isn't it?

[KathyG]

For DS when he was learning we took out one of those pay for so many days at a time as he was away but as soon as he passed his test that was no longer available.  First of he was on Grandad's insurance and then last year he took out his own.  We did investigate the little black box but they wouldn't touch him until he was older, can't remember the age though. But tis was when this type of policy was new.  As he was in Birmingham it was expensive.  We're now considering his options as he is now no longer a student and dancers get a very high penatly stuck on them and as he is about to leave the country is it even worth keeping an insurance so he can build up his no claims? 

[Shmendrick]

  I have a friend with a black box and they seem quite pleased with it and it does knock a decent chunk off their insurance, they may still be on their parent's insurance though. I knew someone else who had a student insurance deal which let build their no claims faster by counting every claim-free nine months as a claim-free year, not certain how much this is or who it was with though but the deal might still be around. I also had a friend who told the insurance his dad was the main driver when he was and had almighty trouble when they found out. Then there was the friend quoted £10,000 a year for a £500 car. 

 

    Oh the wonders of insurance.

[alison]

I also had a friend who told the insurance his dad was the main driver when he was and had almighty trouble when they found out.

 

Ouch.  That could invalidate the insurance, couldn't it?

[Shmendrick]

I think it did, he didn't drive for a while and I think his insurance afterwards was quite expensive.

[KathyG]

We did the 9 months to get the year no claims for non DS although it appears cheaper after a couple of years it was better value to get a full years insurance.