Car insurance for young drivers

Common Mistakes Young Drivers make when Buying Car Insurance

Young drivers are the most disadvantaged when it comes to car insurance rates. Their rates are higher than those of other drivers, a situation that is well beyond their control. Young drivers are charged high rates because they are considered a high risk, a proven fact with statistics to back it up. Young men – between 17 and 25 - pay more than females of the same age. Current insurance rates are at least 60% more than what they were last year for this group. To cut back on the amount of money they spend on car insurance, a lot of these young people resort to some methods that pose even more problems for them. Below are some mistakes you should avoid making as a young driver:

Withholding past convictions and claims

The majority of young drivers will go through a number of points and file a few claims by the time they are 25. If at 21 you fill the form for a policy and do not inform the insurer that you made claims in the past or have a history of points, the insurer will soon find out. In the past, insurance companies did not bother much to check one’s background and in some cases, it was hard to know when one was lying about their driving history.

One way of saving money may be to use short term car insurance when you really need a car, rather than buy it for a whole year. You can see more about short term car insurance at www.insuranceshortterm.co.uk .

But with the increasing cases of fraud, insurance companies are not taking chances. They now have ways of tracking one’s record for verification of the information he or she gives. Withholding crucial facts such as these will not only cost you more; it will also make it hard for you to get insurance in the future as you will already be flagged a very high risk driver.

Fronting

Fronting is the unethical process of listing an older, more experienced driver as the primary driver when in actual sense he or she is not. Insurers give lower rates the older one is. Young people often use their parents, elder siblings or older friends to pose on their behalf in order to benefit from lower rates. It is an illegal practice that will get your insurance annulled if you are caught.

Do not even think about it because even if you get into an accident and make a claim, the insurer will want to know the circumstances surrounding the accident, seeing as the listed driver is over 25 years of age. The more time and effort they dedicate to the case, the higher your chances of getting caught. If fronting is detected, the insurer is allowed by law to deny you the claim.

Buying inadequate cover

It is true that the higher the coverage level you buy, the more it costs. This does not mean that you buy less coverage than you need because it only leaves you at risk of getting no compensation in case of an accident. Low coverage is tempting but is certainly a big risk for a young driver. With all the risk you are perceived to have, you need as much coverage as is necessary. The age factor is only a short term situation which will change in a few years, at which point you can do away with some of the cover.