Insurance Advice

Insurance for your vehicle is a legal requirement. You must have a valid insurance certificate covering you for third party liability. Before driving any vehicle, make sure that it has cover for your use or that your own insurance gives you adequate cover. You MUST NOT drive a vehicle without insurance, the police react strongly to uninsured drivers.

Types of Insurance

Third Party (Legally Required)
This is the most basic insurance type, and is the minimum coverage that allows you to drive legally. Any damage you do to a ‘third party’, ie someone or something that is NOT YOU or YOUR CAR is covered. However, Third Party Fire and Theft (see below) is usually only slightly more expensive. All other policies retain this Third Party component as their basis.

Third Party Fire and Theft
Third Party Fire and Theft (TPFT) is the basic insurance package favoured by younger learner drivers on their first or second provisional licence, and people who prefer not to pay for fully comprehensive insurance. You are – obviously – insured for ‘Fire’ and ‘Theft’, ie if your car ‘catches’ fire or is stolen. Third Party means that your passengers are covered, and any people, property or cars that you might hit are also covered. Your car is NOT covered. Either are YOU. TPFT is the cheapest way of building up your No Claims Bonus before changing over to the significantly more expensive ‘fully comprehensive’.

Fully Comprehensive Insurance
This is the ultimate in insurance, adding you and your car to the TPFT package. Thus Fully Comprehensive Insurance (FCI), or "full comp" is also more expensive. Having a full driving licence (and having it for more than two years) helps keep premiums down.

Why is Insurance for Learner Drivers so high?

Insurance companies know that new drivers are a bigger insurance risk than any other motoring group and here are the facts to prove it:-

• As a new driver, you are more likely to have an accident in the first year after passing your test than at any other time in your motoring career.
• Per mile of driving, the risk of an accident involving injury or death is about seven times greater for 17-20 years old than for those aged 40 or over.
• Drivers under 21 are involved in 15% of all accident deaths.
• New drivers make up just 10% of licence holders, but are involved in 29% of accidents.

Because of these factors insurance premiums are very high for the new driver. However there are ways to cut your insurance premium. Have a read of our Tips to Reduce Your Premiums.

Tips to Reduce Your Premiums

1. Young and newly qualified drivers can boost their no-claims bonus by taking an additional test called Pass Plus. Some companies will credit people who have passed Pass Plus with an extra year's no claims bonus. Companies who offer a discount for Pass Plus include Admiral, AGF, Churchill, Co-operative, Cornish Mutual, Direct Line, Eagle Star, Guardian, Lloyd's TSB, Norwich Union, Privilege and Royal Sun Alliance.

   Example: Dave age 18, passed his test six months ago and wants to buy his first car. His age and lack of experience are likely to go against him when he's looking for insurance. To help bring the costs down, Dave could take his Pass Plus exam. Although this would cost him around £150, he could easily save more than that on his first year's insurance alone.

   More information about the Pass Plus scheme is provided on the After You've Passed page. If you are interested in taking the Pass Plus course with Smart1 please do get in touch.

2. Shop around! Use the internet to research the best deal on your motor insurance. Remember that many insurance companies will give you a discount for signing up online. Why not try getting quotes from the comparison websites advertised on tv. Often you will be able to compare many insurance companies at once. Try Money Supermarket or Confused.com for instance. Don't disregard policies offered by the large supermarkets either - Sainbury's, ASDA and Tesco all offer car insurance.

3. Drivers who don't have full no-claims bonus can build their bonus up quicker with a policy from some companies called Bonus Accelerator. This policy runs for 10 months rather than the usual 12. At the end of those 10 months, provided no "fault" claims have been made, you get a full year's no claims bonus. So, somebody starting out with zero no-claims can build up to the maximum five years no-claims bonus in just four years.

   Be careful if you choose this scheme, you usually have to stay with the same insurance company throughout, in order to build up your maximum no-claims bonus. Companies don't usually allow you to carry a 10 months policy over from one company to another, so please check before you sign up for this type of scheme.

4. Buy a smaller-engined car. If insuring your prospective car is proving too expensive, consider buying a car with a smaller engine. Remember that buying a cheaper car will not make a huge difference to your premiums. If you or your spouse buy a second car, you may be able to get an introductory bonus on the new car. This means that your insurer may give you the same no-claims bonus on the second car as you have on the first, provided you insure both cars with the same company. It is best to check this with your insurer first because not all companies offer this facility, and the conditions for introductory bonus vary between companies.

5. Taking a higher Voluntary excess (The amount of money you have to pay the insurance company if you have to make a claim) than the standard £100 could give you a substantial discount on their premium.

6. Declare your mileage! If you don’t tell the insurer how many miles you do they will probably type in an average of around 12,000 miles. That's 230 miles a week! If you do less than that, you could be missing out on potential savings by not letting your insurer know.

7. Similarly, if you don't use your car to travel to work, let your insurer know. You may be paying for cover you don't need.

8. If you have access to a garage or driveway at night, use them. Using off street parking, rather than leaving your car on the street will attract a discount with most insurers.

9. Insurers prefer prevention rather than claims, so vehicles fitted with an engine immobiliser or alarm may qualify for a discount. The devices which qualify for a discount vary from insurer to insurer, so make sure you check before getting any device fitted.