Cheap Insurance for Young Drivers

I first started driving at the age of 17, that was way back in 1998. Ah, the good ol days! Anyway, getting insurance for learner drivers or young drivers isn't an easy feat. I made the mistake of buying my car before looking around for insurance quotes.

I was way too excited at having my license that I overlooked the most important thing for being on the road. Young and dumb springs to mind. But it didn't stop me, even back then I had a little talent for finding a good deal.



Luckily, my brother and other family members were at hand to give me some basic tips. And although its been over 12 years, some of these tips and tricks still work just as well to get your insurance quotes down.

Weve already mentioned some basic tips on getting cheap insurance quotes for young drivers on a previous post so well just summarize that first:

As a young driver with little driving experience, you should start off with a car of a small engine capacity. Going above a 2.0 litre engine will heavily lower your chances of getting insurance cover.



Avoid buying a car which is classed as a sports edition or one which has sports modifications such as turbo engine, sports body kit etc.

Unless you're going to be buying a brand new car from the showroom, its best to avoid spending too much above £5,000 (or $8,000) for an used vehicle.

And most importantly, get some insurance quotes from a number of different insurance companies BEFORE buying the car. Make sure they'll cover you and that you'll be able to afford the coverage.

My first car was a Honda Civic Coupe (like the one of those cars at the start of The Fast & The Furious movie the ones which zig zag under the trucks). Yes, a sports car. And yes, it had some body modifications. I paid just over £4,000 for it, which was a lot for 17 year old in a part-time job. But the real shock came when I tried to get insurance for the Civic. Most companies down-right refused to cover me and out of the few that did were quoted me between £2,200 to £3,500 just for basic third-party fire & theft. Ouch! That's almost the same price as what I paid for the car.

So, heres what I did.

I had my brother put me onto his insurance as a 2nd driver. It reduced my insurance down to £1,100 per year. Still a lot, but a big difference I looked at it as a saving of over £1000.

There are a few other things you can do to try and reduce your insurance quotes.

How your occupation affects your insurance quote
Your occupation has about a 10% influence on your motor insurance price. Some professions are considered higher risk than others. Sounds strange, but it makes sense. Think about it, a head chefs job is considered quite stressful. They spend a lot time in the kitchen where its hot, they have to deal with other staff, cooking, getting compliants etc.

Now, they finish work and head home in their car they're considered not to drive as safely as someone who works in a less stressful environment. Now, don't get me wrong not all jobs are the same based on the title, but that's just how insurance companies work it out. Its all about risk analysis.

Help yourself to get a better quote
I have to point out before I go any further don't lie about your occupation it will make your insurance cover invalid. And you don't want that. No worries though, you don't have to lie.

Lets take the above Chefs job title as an example. We did some trials on a few insurance sites and found that by changing the title to Kitchen Worker or Kitchen Staff reduced insurance quotes by upto 5-6%. As you can see, there's no lies. A Chef is still a Kitchen Staff, so you can probably get away with that.

So think about your profession and see if theres room to describe it differently. It could help.

Where you Park affects your Insurance Price
Next is parking. Its common sense that parking on the street is higher risk than parking your car in a locked up garage or drive way. Well, insurance companies see it the same way. Again, don't lie about where you're going to be parking your vehicle. Instead, consider finding a better location to park.

I didn't have a garage when I first bought my car, I had on-street parking. However, my neighbours down the road had a twin drive-bay and only one car so I used their parking space. I specified that I would be keeping my car at their address. This helped me reduce my insurance quote by a further 4%.

Of course, you must first get permission from the owner if its not your own property. Also consider leaving your car at your work place if it works out cheaper this as well explain later may also reduce your milage and hence further reduce what you pay for your insurance cover.

Are you single, cohabiting or married?
This again can help you reduce your insurance quote. I lived with my parents at the time but if you live with your girlfriend or boyfriend, then you are cohabiting. This can, in most cases further reduce your quotes. So even if you aren't married, you can state that you are cohabiting if you have a girlfriend/boyfriend with whom you live in the same property.

Total milage per year
The more milage you estimate to do per year, the more you'll be adding onto your insurance premium. Just a few hundred extra miles per year might not make a difference, but a couple of thousand most certainly will. If you work somewhere that has good safe parking facilitie, then consider leaving your car there over-night.

If you do this more than 5 nights per week, you can register your car to be kept at your work address. If the location is safer than your home address, you may find that you could be saving quite a lot by doing this. In my example this would have saved me £300 (almost 30%), but I chose not to do this because it wasn't convenient for me.

So there you have it, some basic tips to help you reduce up to 40% of your insurance quotes. Take all of this into consideration and by all means shop around to see which company can give you the best quotes.

And keep in mind, sometimes you'll find that being fully-comprehensive may only cost a few pounds/dollars more than 3rd party so make sure you check out all the options before committing yourself.