My son (18) passed his test in October and as my wife’s insurance is due this month, we are looking to add him as a named driver. Quote for just us two (no claims, convictions, etc.) is around £370 for the year. Add in my son and it goes up by a minimum £1,100 for the year. The thing is, whilst we want to put him on the policy so he can use the car (old Jazz) he won’t actually be using it that often. It’s used for work all week and does get used at the weekend so his windows for using it will be quite limited. Has anyone else had this and did you find a more cost-effective solution?

Thanks in advance.

Add in my son and it goes up by a minimum £1,100 for the year.

That’s the ball-park price for new drivers I’m afraid. Probably on the light-side in fact.

Doesn’t matter how many times they drive it. My daughter drove my wife’s car once shortly after passing her test (as she was still on insurance from learning in it). And managed to right it off outside our house!

Try LV – my wife moved all ours to them on a multi-car policy. My daughter has her own insurance now though on her own car (with me and the wife as named drivers).

Yup, insurance is a nightmare for youngsters. Our step lad is 17, his dad (don’t ask) bought him an Audi A3 as his first car.
Insurance is £1500 for the year, plus a black box. Putting him as a named driver on our car (Fiesta) whilst he was learning was relatively cheap (think it was an additional £200) but he needs his own insurance to get some no claims.
The black box is a god send tho, we can see on an App his driving which looks at speed, cornering, smoothness and even the times of day he drives it.
We just did a comparison site check for the insurance.

We didn’t go down the black-box route. Daughters first insurance policy for her own car was with Admiral and it wasn’t much dearer.

And I have no interest in knowing how she drives! 🙂

See how much it will cost to put him on insurance for odd days/weeks?

Sadly there’s a reason why new drivers insurance is so expensive, and it’s not connected to the value of the car they drive.

My eldest has 2 years no claims on his own car and we still can’t justify adding him to our family cars

And I have no interest in knowing how she drives! 🙂

My daughter has an app which rates her driving and partly generates her next premium. When I drive that car her rating gets worse!

Sadly that sounds about right, possible a bit low as PP said

Is it an option to buy him a cheap car and his own insurance? Insurance for an inherited Nissan Micra as a 18 year old male, new driver was about £700 with Churchill.

This was without a blackbox and was picked via confused.com. There were other similar priced options. Limiting the mileage and adding a black box may reduce that further

EDIT – Churchill were cheaper when we added my wife and I as named drivers. Not sure why, but it has actually proved handy a couple of times.

It might be cheaper to have the insurance in his name with the more experienced driver(s) as named, that’s how we did it a few years ago for our daughter. Although £1500 for a new driver is pretty typical TBH.

I always advise trying to ensure they have their own insurance BEFORE they pass their test if at all possible. Whatever it takes to get the cheapest pile of crap on the road. Even if they never drive it an inch. As someone else mentioned above the cheapest way to insure a 17 is when they are a learner and the first years insurance NCB is always the biggest. Yes its even cheaper to insure as second driver but you are just putting the cost off.

Our lad was fortunate to be able to afford his first car himself. We paid £300 to insure it whilst a learner. He had the option to pay £1000 to cover it whilst learning and then for when he passed in one payment or £1500 as a new policy when he passed. We took the £300 and it turned out a good choice due to covid and him taking 12mths to pass. £300 for 12 months 17yr old insurance is a bargain. His renewal after 12 mths was about £750 with no black box. He did another 12mths and then purchased a BMW 118 petrol. Insurance went up to £900 but he is paying that.

Try Elephant. My daughter passed her test 5 years ago and Elephant was, at about £900, the cheapest by a long way. (no black box).
A year to the day after she passed her test some numpty cut her up on a roundabout but admitted liability at the scene. Unfortunately she didn’t get the reg no, just his insurance details. He later denied he was at fault but Elephant, instead of saving themselves a lot of hassle by not pursuing him, did pursue him vigorously! It didn’t cost my daughter a penny and they have a very happy punter with 5 years NCB. Her latest premium on a Seat Miii is about £300 fully comp…

Try Marmalade or Veygo.

We used Marmalade for the first year after my son passed. It’s insurance in their name and is in addition to your own insurance. Has a black box too, but only for their driving rather than all drivers. They will earn their own NCD and if they have a claim it doesn’t effect yours.

When son was at uni and not driving much we used temporary insurance through Veygo. Again it’s in their name and in addition to your insurance so your NCD is unaffected. No black box and no building NCD. It’s available for anything from an hour to a month. Great for infrequent use but gets expensive if you put them on regularly for long periods.

IdleJon

My daughter has an app which rates her driving and partly generates her next premium. When I drive that car her rating gets worse!

My wife’s cousin is a funeral director and very experienced hearse driver and when he drives his son’s car in an almost funereal way the rating also goes worse! Perhaps making progress but smoothly is the answer?

Had this with our 18 year old. He bought his own car in the end. MX-5 s are cheaper to insure, due to them being two seaters.

Adding me as a named driver reduced the quote.