Insurance (or not) for under 25s
We have a 12 year old Symbol currently insured with CMC for a pretty reasonable premium (under £300) and just enquired about the possibility of our almost 24 year old son being added for a week.
However this is not possible as he is under 25; despite having been driving for 4.5 years, having his own car and insurance AND having a current MIDAS qualification!
So it is purely down to age; he could be 25 but only driving for a few months and never anything bigger than a Ka yet be allowed to drive our van.
The fact of him specifically having a minibus qualification seems to be totally irrelevant due to his age!
Seems crazy...!
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Without being an expert in insurance the usual thoughts that I have are that the insurers are
a) trying to rip us off for maximum profit at the years end or
b) really haven't a clue in the first place. Their world is a fairyland to which you and I are not admitted
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At least when he reaches 25 his driving record will count for him and hopefully reduce the extra you have to pay.
If someone of 25 had just passed their test the insurance premium would be massive as would your excess, as it is for any new driver.
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Suppose he had an HGV licence, would that make any difference?
At 25 I had been driving for 9 years, had a professional career a wife and 2 children. Many of the chaps of the previous generation had served in the forces through WW2.
Some of them had joined up at 14
Yet now 25 year old's are treated like kids.
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Statistically drivers under 25 have a terrible accident record and most insurers do not want to know them. Those that do load the premium to what the average record requires. When you see reports of serious accidents young drivers are involved far more than would be the case if their record was good.
There is no real competition for their business so rates tend to be higher than ever.
Some drivers are far better than the average but the insurer has no way of telling and most have not been driving long enough for the insurers to be sure of the standards involved. For cars the best bet is a black box if they drive well and this does help.
You can only sympathise with the good drivers lumped in with the bad, but to a lesser extent us older drivers have the same problem.
Possibly shopping around at renewal will get you a sensible quote with another insurer.
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It is not a new thing. 48 years ago as an 19 year ago, after having been on my mums policy and she had died I needed a car as I was away from home, buying a mobile home for my wife to be who was expecting our child the cost of car insurance was horrific then.
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Hi all,
Most drivers will know - and as is mentioned above - that, because of extremely high risk profiles, insurance for younger drivers of all vehicle types can unfortunately be extremely expensive, and there are many insurers who simply elect not to cover younger drivers at all.
Because the current profile of our Motorhome insurance book largely comprises drivers in the 40–65 age range, this is where the insurers on our panel tend to price our cover most competitively, and they have very little Motorhome-based empirical data with which to price for younger drivers, so they are forced to use data for cars in general.
While we do not set a mandatory lower age limit, we are beholden to whether any of the insurers on our panel will accept the risk, which is assessed on a case-by-case basis. I have checked with our brokers Devitt, and in this particular case, certain specifics of the quote request (which I obviously cannot detail for data protection reasons) meant that unfortunately we were unable to offer cover on this occasion.
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Hmm, thanks David Smith, but you make it sound as if there was more to my request to get my son on the insurance than I am admitting!
"While we do not set a mandatory lower age limit, we are beholden to whether any of the insurers on our panel will accept the risk, which is assessed on a case-by-case basis. I have checked with our brokers Devitt, and in this particular case, certain specifics of the quote request (which I obviously cannot detail for data protection reasons) meant that unfortunately we were unable to offer cover on this occasion."
it is very simple...i was told there was a blanket "no under 25s" policy and that even the fact of him having MIDAS qualification, his own car and insurance etc did not matter. I never even got round to the bit where they ask what his job is or if he has any convictions! (he has a "respectable " job and no convictions BTW)
The vehicle is registered to my husband and insured in my name (same address, no convictions etc etc) So what is the issue? I am now very concerned that there is something on one of our "records" that is going against us so I will have to find out more.
I also hope very much that the reason you cannot detail the specifics of the quote request is actually because you don't know! They didn't tell you, because if they did that would be a clear data protection breach surely?
Any further information you can supply to me privately would therefore be very much appreciated.
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)when some one phones at 9pm they apologise If they got us out of bed 
