Some comprehensive policies will even cover you to drive hire cars or cars owned by other people, although this is rarely included within the small print of a young driver policy. Check the details of any comprehensive insurance, because not all policies cover the same things, and the fine print can vary significantly from one company to the next.
Enter your job details carefully
Six, you will also save money by buying the right car in the first place and then by shopping around to find the best deal for your particular circumstances. The truth is, while one company will charge a 20-year-old trainee estate agent with a clean driving record £1,450 a year to comprehensively insure a 2015 Renault Clio that’s garaged overnight in Oxford, another company will charge more (or less), seemingly for no apparent reason.
Except there usually is a reason, and in this case it could be the words “trainee” and “estate agent” that send the algorithms into confusion. These computer-generated formulae analyse the risk that a customer represents, and the likelihood of the insurer having to pay out. As unfair as it seems, drivers of certain professions are, in the eyes of insurers, more likely to make a claim. Those in clerical jobs are generally regarded to be among the lowest risk, while professional sports players are far higher. You might not choose to use your actual job title when applying for car insurance, but whatever you state your profession is should reasonably reflect the work that you do. Stretch the truth and you could find your policy invalidated. Lie, and that’s fraud, plain and simple.
Shop around at renewal time
Finally, don’t go back to the same insurance company year after year. While the Financial Conduct Authority is looking into these issues, customer loyalty isn’t widely rewarded by the insurance industry. That means that if you stick with the same company, they’ll often charge you more money when it comes time to renew, not less. So once again, do shop around when you renew, because currently the most enticing deals are available to new customers, not existing ones.
What is young drivers’ car insurance?
Young drivers’ insurance is simply a marketing term for a product offered by insurance companies. If an insurer is trying to attract young drivers as customers then they might offer a product called young drivers’ insurance but it won’t be substantially different to anything else they offer, except that you might lose out on extras like windscreen cover or legal cover in order to reduce the price slightly. All the same terms will apply, which we’ve explained in our jargon buster below.