This past year has seen a record increase in the price of car insurance premiums, with young drivers the worst hit. What needs to be done to ensure that teenagers aren’t hit by unaffordable car insurance?
Many of you don’t appear to have much sympathy for the younger drivers among us. Our previous Conversation on the high cost of car insurance for teenagers prompted responses along the lines of ‘young drivers are their own worst enemies’.
The most common argument offered was that insurance premiums simply reflect the risk based on statistics and that if young drivers want cheaper car insurance, they’ve got to start driving safer.
Record rise in car insurance premiums
But it doesn’t look like that’s happened, with the AA reporting a record price rise due to a surge in accident claims. Young drivers have been especially hit. Premiums for 17-22-year-olds have risen by 47% in one year – the biggest rise since the AA started tracking car insurance in 1994.
Young men are worst off – with the average price of the three cheapest quotes starting from a hefty £2,457 a year. That’s almost double the premium offered to young women, but is apparently due to young men being twice as likely to be involved in an accident. Whatever the cause, it’s quite simply pricing these drivers out of the market.
Which? Convo commenter ‘Mother’ agrees:
“[Car insurance premiums] are quite clearly unaffordable to young people and even their long-suffering parents. Yes, there are bad young drivers and all need to gain experience of the roads, but don’t tar all with the same brush.”
What should be done for young drivers?
Isn’t the knock-on effect of these high cost premiums an increase in uninsured drivers on our roads? There are around 1.5 million uninsured drivers in the UK and most are under 25.
From our previous poll, over half of you think uninsured drivers’ cars should be sold, with this cash going to compensate crash victims. And then there’s 20% of you who think we should confiscate and crush their vehicles! Perhaps a bit harsh. But as ‘Mother’ points out, reducing premiums for young drivers would mean more would choose to be insured.
So what should be done to get these costs down? Perhaps the new and tougher driving licence that includes independent driving will reduce the amount of accidents among young drivers?
Convo commenter Jane Winfield thinks new drivers should only be able to drive cars with a small engine, which is actually one of our tips for young drivers trying to reduce their premium. What do you think should be done to reduce car insurance premiums for young drivers?
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