Who’d pay £17,000 for their car insurance? Few experienced drivers could cough that up, so why should teenagers? Insurers need to start developing solutions to help young drivers cut their costs.
The price of car insurance for young drivers has reached astronomical levels in recent years. It’s no wonder that around 1.5 million people now drive on our roads uninsured – most are under 25.
Last week there was uproar that a teenager had been quoted £17,000 for a year’s worth of cover on his Vauxhall Corsa. When faced with this kind of prohibitive pricing, it’s easy to see why so many teenagers feel it’s worth their while taking a chance and doing without insurance.
In the end, as can be seen by this astronomical quote, uninsured driving is just a knock-on effect of insurers charging high premiums. If insurers really want to combat this then they need to come up with innovative solutions to help young drivers reduce their costs.
‘Fronting’ – the result of expensive car insurance
One increasingly worrying offshoot of this problem has been the rise of “fronting”. This is where parents take out insurance on behalf of their children and then add them to the policy as a named driver. This is entirely illegal if the child is in fact the main driver, yet it’s an offence that many families commit – as many as four in ten according to some reports.
The problem of rising premiums for young drivers is one that we all want fixed. Every driver in the UK pays around £30 on their policy to cover the cost of accidents caused by uninsured drivers. Only when motor insurance for young adults comes down will the levels of uninsured drivers fall as well.
Innovative solutions for cheaper car insurance
Fortunately, there are a few companies doing their best to help the cause – using innovation to bring down the costs. Companies like ikube and insurethebox put a tracking device in young drivers’ cars, granting them cheaper premiums if they don’t drive in the small hours, or drive too quickly. Another company, Young Marmalade, ties up car loans with cheaper car insurance for young drivers.
Even so, young drivers will be lucky to escape without paying annual premiums that run into four figures. There’s more work to be done.