How to get insurance down?

[-]

ledow@reddit

The insurance company are going to be thinking the same as you:

"wtf he works part time in a chippy ffs" - so how are you going to afford to maintain that car safely?

They'll also think "he's bought a cheap old banger that's 'cool' and popular with the kids because he wants to get his mates in it and show off". Instead, you want them to think "Oh, look, he's using his mum's old car, bless him, if he scratches that there'll be hell to pay so he'll take care of it".

Same for the other factors (that's why adding your mum makes it cheaper).

Insurance isn't about you - nobody cares about you and your car. It's about the people you kill, maim, disable, cripple and who have to spend their life feeding through a tube, all paid for by your insurers (because there's absolutely no way you could ever afford to pay those people anything in the way of compensation yourself if you were to cripple them and put them in a wheelchair and make them life off disability for the rest of their life).

That's why you don't go without insurance. I don't care about your car not being covered. I care about the kid you maim who then has to spend his life hooked up to a machine that his parents can't afford. Without insurance, you're fucking that kid over. At least with it, that kid won't have money worries AS WELL as a ruined life.

That's why you don't lie on insurance - because they will just invalidate your policy and not cover you and then the above happens again.

And that's why your insurance will ALWAYS be ridiculously high. You're 17, totally inexperienced and you're buying cars because they're "cool" and you need to understand... it will not be cheap for you until you've proven yourself. And the high price is there also to DISCOURAGE YOU from fucking up, because you can't afford the insurance now, what do you think is going to happen when you hit someone else or get speeding points and your insurance doubles overnight?

You won't get cheap insurance. You might get CHEAPER insurance. By treating it like a sensible essential and necessary thing that you're not going to "play" with and are going to respect it and everyone else out on the road.

So insure a BORING car, not a "cool" one. Suffer the first year or two of crippling insurance WITHOUT FUCKING UP. Get a telematics quote if that's cheaper (and then watch as every time you "play" with your car your insurance gets more expensive or more annoyed with you).

And if you need a car... I would suggest upgrading form a part time chippy job to something that's going to pay for the luxuries you want to have in your life. Like a car. Because when you get that car... congratulations... you can now drive to work further afield and get yourself a better job. (And then you will additionally realise... now that you have a job that needs a car, you can't afford to mess around in your car!).

Everyone your age has the same problem and it's literally designed to stop you treating it and other people's lives like a toy until you're old enough, and have been sensible enough, to prove that you understand that.

So buy a boring car. Take a boring advanced driving course. Get yourself a better paying boring job. Drive boringly.

You know... like a grown adult.

[-]

jeminar@reddit

My first bike (a 125cc Honda) gave me a quote for £1640 in 1990 (Norwich Union).

That's £5500 in today's money.

I couple replace the bike every 3 weeks for less than the insurance quote.

[-]

Ceejayncl@reddit

You have a 1 litre Citroen C1, that’s the problem. The insurance companies expect you to have that sort of car, they don’t however expect you to have a 1.6 VW Golf, Passat, Astra. There have been cases of new drivers being able to get cheaper insurance of an older Porsche Boxster than they do for the typical new driver 1 litre cars.

[-]

CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit

Yeah, that's because you're likely to care more about your Porsche than an old banger. I used to work for a car club and we had an insurance partner, so had loads of chats with them when I was younger. Shocking really.

[-]

InfaSyn@reddit

Can confirm my 1.8 mondeo ghia was shockingly cheap when I was that age. Had a 1.6 jetta before they had the slight rise in popularity too

[-]

Past-Educator-6561@reddit

Try with a less popular car. Mess about with your excess. Have you got fully comprehensive cover? This can sometimes be cheaper than third party only as it's 'more sensible'. The more in the future the start date the better, I think 3 weeks in advance is the sweet spot. Consider black box policies. Mess about with your job description and other things like where the car is kept etc (though don't lie ofc).

[-]

BoopingBurrito@reddit

Get a cheap shitty banger of a car. The more expensive the car, the more you pay for insurance.

Reduce the cover as much as you can, 3rd party only is often the cheapest.

Try reducing or increasing the number of miles you're expecting to do, sometimes that can have a big effect.

Play around with different (but still accurate) job titles, they can have an impact.

[-]

AdApprehensive137@reddit (OP)

Thanks a lot

[-]

blind_disparity@reddit

Doesn't have to be a shitty banger car. Just something very sensible. What your gran might drive, and the opposite of what a boy racer would.

A Toyota Yaris will be a lot cheaper to insure than a BMW, and vastly cheaper than a high spec BMW.

No idea what car you've got, but if it is something sporty, then swapping it for a Yaris or similar will save you on your fuel and maintenance, as well as insurance :)

The other big factor in your insurance quote is where you live. Even just different neighbourhoods in the same town can be surprisingly different. Moving house is probably a bit drastic, but just giving you all the info.

[-]

AdApprehensive137@reddit (OP)

Will look at a Yaris cheers

[-]

blind_disparity@reddit

Sorry, just saw your description. The car you quoted for is sensible so it's not that. Assuming you didn't put down for a brand new car?

I don't understand what you mean about putting your mum down with 25 years NCB? This quite must be for you as a new driver, no?

But I guess the issue is your job / income. How does the quote change if you say you're working full time, or working an office job full time? What's your future plans for work / education? Presumably not just staying at the chippy?

[-]

ClassicPart@reddit

The advice in that comment is generally solid but ignore the one about third party insurance. Companies use it as an indicator that (rightly or wrongly) you don't care about your car and will drive it like a cock, meaning the price difference between that and comprehensive is no longer that massive.

Additionally - and much more crucially - if you do need to make a claim you will get nothing, because that's what third party means. With comprehensive you will get your car repaired or its market value in cash.

[-]

Kind-County9767@reddit

Often isn't true at all. Especially once you get down to a certain value of car it's basically an instant write off for minimal value as far as insurance is concerned. In fact excessively cheap cars very often have higher insurance for young drivers because those cars are more likely to be driven by idiots who cause accidents and other people have much more expensive cars.
Again often isn't true. Because cheap beater car plus third party only cover was/is the go to for people who cause a lot of accidents it can often be as or more expensive as a fully comp policy.

[-]

Ceejayncl@reddit

This. The C1 is the reason why it’s so high (aside from being a new driver).

The reason it’s the problem is because everyone on here is telling OP his car is perfect etc, because they are assuming that’s how insurance works, and it works differently for new drivers.

If OP went on the carsuk reddit, he would be getting the right advice, and being told that the C1 with a 1 litre engine is the problem. Instead though he’s came on AskUK, where it’s like my morning mimosa, and everyone is full of ‘advice’ that they are absolutely fucking wrong at giving.

[-]

Itchy_Harlot58008@reddit

Don’t go buying insurance until you’ve passed. They’ll be checking your licence to see if you’ve passed or not. C1 should be cheap to insure really.

Consider PAYG insurance like Cuvva. You’ll need to park on private property when not covered though (unless someone else is insured on the vehicle).

[-]

Ceejayncl@reddit

The C1 won’t be cheap to insure. This has been done time and time again on the carsuk reddit. Stop giving the OP bad advice.

[-]

Illustrious-Welder84@reddit

Can you mum buy the policy and add you as a named driver instead?

[-]

ASY_Freddy@reddit

this could be seen as insurance fraud
https://insurancefraudbureau.org/insurance-fraud/fronting-and-car-insurance#:\~:text=What%20is%20%22fronting%22%3F,save%20money%20on%20car%20insurance.

[-]

Jimmy90081@reddit

Be older, don’t be younger.

[-]

AdApprehensive137@reddit (OP)

Thank you Jimmy I’ll try

[-]

lxgrf@reddit

The good news is you will succeed eventually.

[-]

MrNippyNippy@reddit

Unless you don’t - but then you’re not bothered by the cost of your insurance.

[-]

Jimmy90081@reddit

Yup, it’s a goal that you attain one day at a time.

[-]

Chaosblast@reddit

I'd leave the country for a few years and come back eventually if you really want. Uni years are worst with student loans in the UK as well so best choice is to skip these shitty systems here.

Not even kidding. We plan to do so when kid is 12. Nothing good will come of staying here for teenage years and uni and young adulthood.

The UK is great for some things, but also the worst and stupidest country in the world for so many others. Don't encourage those.

[-]

AdApprehensive137@reddit (OP)

I’d like to take a gap year idk how I’d afford it though

[-]

Chaosblast@reddit

Not paying £4k insurance lol. With £4k you can fully leave several months in so many other countries lol.

Seriously, charging £4k insurance for a car is taking the piss. There is no justification possible. If it was THAT probable for young drivers to destroy cars people would not walk on streets out of sheer fear for their lives.

In Spain I paid about 400€ IIRC for my first car insurance at 18, straight after getting my license. And that was expensive already. I don't think people kill cars 10x in the UK. It's just impossible. Especially considering the used market is considerably lower priced in the UK. It's just nonsense, and if anyone actually pays those prices, they're contributing to the issue.

[-]

Hungry-Falcon3005@reddit

17 year olds drive like maniacs round here. There is a long stretch of road where they race each other. I’m not surprised insurance is so high. It should be

[-]

Breakwaterbot@reddit

Set the policy to start in 10 days time

[-]

SickPuppy01@reddit

Play around with your job description. If the job title suggests you work in a takeaway away it will indicate you could be out late driving and could be a higher risk. Instead picking something related but more daytime based, e.g. retail worker, or working in a cafe.

Other than that there is not a lot to play with other than maybe policies that need black boxes fitting.

[-]

africanviolet@reddit

I heard that this could invalidate your insurance too if you lie about our job?

[-]

SickPuppy01@reddit

Yes and no. You couldn't change your job to lawyer if you work in a take away. What you can do is use a different job description that covers what you do. If you work in a take away you could claim (depending on what you actually do) to be a retail worker, a cook, a delivery driver, a supervisor, a cafe worker etc. i.e it has to still be a believable description of what you do and you can claim the job title still fits what you do. Each job title will be rated differently.

[-]

BoopingBurrito@reddit

Other than that there is not a lot to play with other than maybe policies that need black boxes fitting.

I looked into that when I was getting insurance for my new car recently, and weirdly the black box policies were all more expensive than the comprehensive admiral cover I went with.

[-]

teeesstoo@reddit

I believe the rules have changed so the price shown has to actually represent what you're likely to pay, given that most black box policies charge extra if you drive "during peak hours" - like, you know, to and from work?

[-]

axelzr@reddit

What car?

[-]

Vespa_Alex@reddit

Don’t go for cars that 17 year olds think are cool, because statistically speaking 17 year olds crash them all the time.

Try some slightly larger, deeply unfashionable cars as they don’t get binned so often.

Also have a look at classic car insurance. You won’t earn NCB, but it can be a lot cheaper for the first couple of years.

[-]

Top-level comments to the OP must contain genuine efforts to answer the question. No jokes, judgements, etc.
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!

Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.