A recent survey has suggested that the cost of car insurance for young people has risen by more than 50% in the last twelve months. That’s a huge rise on top of insurance costs that were already very expensive.
According to recent research, an 18 year old male living in the UK would have to pay as much as £22,000 in order to insure a £2,000 Ford Mondeo. That’s approximately 11 times the value of the car.
So, what can be done? Many young people have turned to “fronting”, getting insurance in their parents’ name at a cheaper price. Many don’t realise that is a serious offence than can lead to criminal prosecution, so it should be avoided.
The only way to find cheap young driver insurance is to shop around. Many people start and finish their search online, mistakenly thinking that an insurance comparison site will automatically find them the best deal. This is not always the case, often the best deals are found on the high street, in the office of a local broker. With so much money at stake it pays to take your time and shop around.
One other way of solving the problem of the high insurance cost is to turn to technology. Throughout the ages technology has been our friend and our enemy. In this case, it is most definitely a friend and it comes in the form of a little black box. Yes, exactly like the ones fitted to aircraft that record flight events and information. This move has been made in retaliation to the rising costs of insurance for young divers. After all, the most frustrating things about passing your driving test is the issue of car insurance. Here in the UK, car insurance premiums for young drivers are extremely expensive. The added risks and costs associated with insuring young drivers make it difficult for those aged between 17 and 25 to find competitive car insurance.
Recent developments in satellite tracking technology, however, have made it cheaper for insurance companies to accurately track driver behaviour which has lead to a breakthrough in the way they go about insuring young drivers.
With a GPS enabled device fitted to your car, insurance companies can now create policies that have certain terms and exclusions added. They might for example, say that the car is not to be driven during the night as this is when most accidents happen. With a GPS enabled car, they will be able to check that the car is not moving between certain hours and ensure that drivers comply with the terms of their policy.
It’s still an expensive business to get insurance but it looks like technology might be coming to the rescue.
