A 17yo taking out their own car insurance V being a named driver until 21

It rarely has an effect these days, they’ll just load the risk against the young driver anyway and charge appropriately. Also, if the 17 y/o is going to be the main user of the car then not having them as the main driver is fronting the policy - nothing good will come if you get caught out doing that

If it’s an additional car - eg mum and dad suddenly go from 2 cars to 3 when kid turns 17 - yeah they are wise to this and charge accordingly.

We got the third car because mine's too big for her to learn in, and my wife has a new car on PCP that would cost a fortune for her to be on.

As a learner it was cheap, because she was never unsupervised. As soon as she passed her test that policy lapsed and we had to reinsure - she couldn't even drive it back from the test centre - and it went up from £35 a month as a learner to £91 a month. More annual premium than the car's worth, but of course it's what she's going to drive into that could be costly.

Thankfully so far she hasn't - and is now on year 2 and it dropped from £91 to £65. She has to have a telemetry box on the policy, but there are no restrictions (some penalise if you use after midnight or something....)

I know that's not exactly the question asked but was the advice I got from a broker friend - bite the bullet and do it 'honestly'

We got a third car, as the others are automatics.

1.0 underpowered Fabia. Unsexy, practical, low insurance because 17 year old lads don't drive them.

Cheap enough with Admiral when he was learning, I'm on it as the main driver as I use it for commuting. Went up to about £1200 a year when he'd passed, but no black box or curfew. Much cheaper than his mates underpowered Corsa. I'm still the main driver as he doesn't have it at uni.

He's 20 this year, will have 3 years NCD, and now I've added my car on a multicar policy, it's worth it. Will add his mum's car when her renewal is due this year

Not sure how we will play it when his sister starts learning early next year.

"Fronting" the youngster on a parents policy seems really clever. Until the kid causes an accident, leaves a mate needing 24/7 care for the next 60 years and the insurers try and recoup the costs....

Admiral Multicar - they allow family to add policy to the group, they give named drivers NCD including when they are learning, they give discount per vehicle added.

We've got one car for mrs_oab and I, one insured for all 5 of us (17,20,21,49 and 49), and the 21 year old had transit camper for him, his mum and I. The camper was £1300 elsewhere - £760 with Admiral...

If it's thier car, they are main driver. But of course you add you and other lower risk drivers for the odd occasion you may borrow thier car. Helpfully reduces the premium too.

My son pays for his insurance as the main driver. But adding me 40 something old blocke with no points and no claims plus his 70 year old grandad brought her costs down by a few hundred.

Bonus is I have another car to use. Oh and if I crash it then he takes the hit on insurance, which when I pointed this out to him he really appreciated 🤣

Third car here, although Son was on the insurance too, as he has his own car (age 21 with 4 points). Daughter learning (aged 19). Paying full whack probably, but it's gone from £50 a month to £70 this renewal. Only a 2010 Aygo, worth about £2.5k.

I do take it to nip to the shops !

Only a 2010 Aygo, worth about £2.5k.

The value of the car is pretty much irrelevant. It's the cost of patching up injured third parties that drives premiums.

Just make sure they never refer to it as "their car". A mate did that in her "mums" car after a non fault bump years ago & it opened a world of pain.

Put 3 sons thru this.

#1 Until they pass their test, don't bother just pay for lessons and let them drive a dual-controls car
#2 On passing test, buy car and register in their name with their insurance
#3 Add self, OH etc on as named drivers - and Comp is usually cheaper
#4 Is a Black Box really worth it - square root of FA saving for our 3

Cheers all, I think we'll go down the Admiral mutli car route when the time comes, no rush though, he's ready to do his test and the earliest on offer was September!!! The cancellation hunt begins...

#3 Add self, OH etc on as named drivers – and Comp is usually cheaper

Thats interesting, assume you mean Comp is cheaper than TPFT? Been a long time since I've compared (and have 12 years until worrying about covering child #1)

It was cheaper to have my daughter as main driver when we insured her car.

Thats interesting, assume you mean Comp is cheaper than TPFT? Been a long time since I’ve compared (and have 12 years until worrying about covering child #1)

Just try it on Confused/MSM/etc with your current car - always been our experience.

Also forgot
#5 High excess and don't claim
#6 Check out parking on road vs drive/garage etc - parking in a garage is often the dearest

Thats interesting, assume you mean Comp is cheaper than TPFT?

Like I said, the value of the car itself is pretty irrelevant

Comprehensive is apparently bought by more careful people than TPFT, so it's cheaper.

Black box didn't work for us - we downloaded the app and it didn't like the fact that mrs_oab used rural roads for work (Stirlingshire), didn't like the fact I went to airport one morning before 7am, didn't like son coming home from work at 11pm....so would have charged us. I would rather know what I was paying - and Admiral have served us well for 4 years now.

Like I said, the value of the car itself is pretty irrelevant

I'm well aware of that, but still interesting that deciding not to bother covering the policy holders car increases the premium. This is a more useful response , and the only thing I could think of:

Comprehensive is apparently bought by more careful people than TPFT, so it’s cheaper.

Would be really* interesting to see some of the stats behind this sort of thing. Same as the old one of adding people to the policy making it cheaper (which iirc is because it means the highest risk driver can't be using the car aaalllll the time if other people are using it too)

*maybe

#1 Until they pass their test, don’t bother just pay for lessons and let them drive a dual-controls car

If you can afford it, great. But here in the SE it's £60 or £70 for a 90 minute lesson, which was 2 months premium while she was a learner. Once she'd mastered control and just needed time / experience, and also to be able to go out and practise parking, reversing, etc. then it was way cheaper than paying an instructor. All it did was bring forward the paying for the car itself.

She used to drive us everywhere she could - obvs no long / motorway stuff but supermarket trips, trips into town, etc. gave her hours of additional practise.

Watching with interest. My son passed last week and Admiral wanted £10,500 to insure him for the year.
Cheapest we have found apart from that is around £2,700

Eek

*( Audi, natch,)

*( Audi, natch,)

I think is the issue. Try a Mitsubishi Colt or Nissan Micra........

Aside from Admiral, you can get multi car policies from Aviva and LV. I've been with the latter two but never Admiral as their quotes are just ludicrous.

I’m on it as the main driver as I use it for commuting

He’s 20 this year, will have 3 years NCD

@morecashthandash are you sure about that? Some insurers give a discount (not NCD) as a courtesy but not all and if you change then it doesn't change over. Aviva wouldn't give my missus anything when we went up to 2 cars despite being a named driver with them for a few years.

The value of the car is pretty much irrelevant.

It's as relevant as anything else in their 8D matrix. Power is probably a bigger factor but the two correlate fairly closely.

Admiral quoting is pretty bonkers, on the phone for my son I got a quote of £5000 for him alone brought down to £3000 by adding me and the wife. On their website it came up as £1100 on a single car policy, £970 on a multicar policy 🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️🤷🏻‍♂️

@morecashthandash are you sure about that? Some

It's his policy on the only car he drives, so his no claims

Wife and I each have our own policies for the other cars. I effectively have use of two cars for the 30-odd weeks he's at uni, and still use it to commute if he's at home and doesn't need it on the day as it's more economical.

Thats interesting, assume you mean Comp is cheaper than TPFT?

This is usually the case, yes. If you think about the type of drivers who insure TPFT or TPO, they will almost certainly have a poorer claims and conviction history than these who have always insured comprehensive.

That's a pretty broad brush statement but for the vast majority of people it'll hold true, hence the prices will be lower.

Folk who park their cars in a garage are more likely to claim.

Because:
- there's lots of stuff in garages that can damage cars when it falls on it
- folk crash into their garages
- folk who are so bothered about their car that they want it 'enclosed' are also more likely to claim for damage/marks etc AKA finnicky

the value of the car itself is pretty irrelevant

after a quick google, Compare the Market, The AA and Go-Compare would disagree with this statement.

Check out parking on road vs drive/garage etc – parking in a garage is often the dearest

Worth trying all the permutations (without lying), mine was significantly cheaper in the garage. It undoubtedly varies by car, e.g. any of the well publicized keyless entry thefts would be prevented simply by not parking outside as the thieves would either not know the car was there, or if they did would need to gain entry (noisy), and start the car in the garage (also noisy).

It’s his policy on the only car he drives, so his no claims

How can it be his no claims if you're the main driver? Or are you not named as such?

Admiral quoting is pretty bonkers, on the phone for my son I got a quote of £5000 for him alone brought down to £3000 by adding me and the wife. On their website it came up as £1100 on a single car policy, £970 on a multicar policy

Of course you are going to put you and your wife on - it saves a heap of cash. Heck, I am on my 80 year old father's insurance who lives 250 miles away as it knocks £150 off and I can chauffer him a couple of times a year too.

And yes, those online prices are similar to us:
£870 for Ibiza 1.4 75bhp for 5 of us, one just passed test a month ago.

Worth trying all the permutations (without lying), mine was significantly cheaper in the garage. It undoubtedly varies by car, e.g. any of the well publicized keyless entry thefts would be prevented simply by not parking outside as the thieves would either not know the car was there, or if they did would need to gain entry (noisy), and start the car in the garage (also noisy).

I always have a play with this too. We have designated, but not labeled, spots, about 15m from the front door. the actual spot is land we own (on the deeds) and technically is connected, as it touches our side gate. The remaining space in the car park is shared responsibilty between the 4 houses. Can argue the case for quite a few of the options.

Admiral are good, but only when you put all your cars with them on their multi-car policy. Also allowed my daughter to have her car at uni address rathe than home address which other insurers don't allow.

We added other cars to the policy as and when the insurance on them ran out and this gave us the best discount.