On this sub I see quite a few young drivers asking about how to get prices down as insurance companies can charge extortionate amounts, as I know too well. So I thought I’d give some tips that helped me lower my insurance from £3000 with a blackbox in my 1st year to £600 without a blackbox in my 3rd year of driving.

For context I very luckily got a brand new Peugeot 208 2024 with a 1.2L engine.

Also on mobile so if formatting is poor I apologise :)

In my first year I did a lot of shopping around, both through sites like compare the market, and also going through insurance companies 1 by 1. Doing numerous quotes switching around answers to questions and seeing what gets the lowest price.
The things I found affected price the most were:

1. Parking - For home parking, parking in the driveway was the cheapest, the reason I found for this was that new drivers tend to be worse at parking and if they select parking in garage they have a higher chance of damaging or dinging their vehicle whilst parking. And it doesn’t take a genius to know why on the road is the most expensive. So if you have the option to, put down driveway. For parking at other times secure locked car park is the best, again self explanatory.

2. Social vs social and commuting - This one surprised me a lot. I found that social and commuting was almost always cheaper. The reason I found for this was that people who commute tend to know the drive better as it’s one they take often, thus less likely to have an accident.

3. Mileage per year - This one is a long term vs short term cost. Less miles per year = cheaper cost for the year. However I’ve noticed that when I increased the miles to drive per year, renewal was cheaper. I’m guessing this is due to greater experience as a driver? So it’s up to you deciding if you want a cheaper year or lowest cost over multiple years.

4. Blackbox vs no blackbox - for new drivers I’d absolutely recommended this, but do not select the curfew one! It will mean you cannot drive late and sometimes during rush hour, which means driving to school or part time jobs can be impossible. It sounds cringe to new drivers as they want to show off to mates but driving safe is absolutely worth it, cheaper fuel mileage than speeding, and no speed tickets, win-win.

5. Fronting - Absolutely not. Firstly it’s illegal to have a parent as a main driver who doesn’t use the car. Secondly you don’t get any No Claims Discount as an additional driver. Meaning your next renewal will not be lowered much at all. However adding a parent as an additional driver can reduce costs in some cases (depending on their risk of course).

6. Call if you are curious about quotes - In my second year of driving I had Hastings with a blackbox (I know some of you will say they are evil, I had no issues). When it was time to renew they did not offer a quote, so I called to ask about this. The man on the line was very helpful and we were able to agree on £640 a year with no blackbox. This was great as the next cheapest quote I could find was £800 with one, in fact I got 0 offers for no blackboxes. And on compare the market Hastings wanted over a £1000. So calling saved me £400 and no blackbox!

Of course these are all dependent on where you live too and the vehicle, but this is my experience.

If you have questions or want to disagree please do, I’ll try explain anything better!

Thank you in advance for any advice that anyone can give on this matter. I don’t use Reddit very much but hoping for some viewpoints.

In August this year, I drove my wife’s car to the Post Office and parked in the car park outside. While I was in the building (ie not even in our vehicle), someone hit our parked car. Fortunately, the person who hit our car owned up and the repair was completed through their insurance with no loss of no-claims bonus or excess on our part.

In summary, for the incident:

- Wife’s car
- I was in charge of the vehicle as a named driver
- Wife’s policy
- No fault accident

My question is about declaring this claim for insurance quotes. My wife and I have informed our current insurers on each of our cars but one is due for renewal soon.

When searching with comparison websites, the driving history section asks about claims for the policyholder and named drivers on their own policy. To comply with this, it requires this one incident to be entered twice, once for me as the projected policyholder (as the named driver on my wife’s policy at the time of the incident) and once for my wife (as a named driver on the policy I am looking to buy (as the policy holder for the incident).

It feels like I am declaring two incidents when there was actually only one, with the obvious effect that could have on both my wife’s and my policy cost. For example, if I had been driving my car, the incident would only need to be declared once for each policy (either as policyholder for me or me as a named driver for my wife’s policy).

Am I declaring correctly? It seems wrong to have to declare the incident twice when there was only one incident!

Thanks for any advice given!

I'll try and explain this one but could take a bit.

I recently drove my 81 year old mother to collect her car.

We drove back in our own cars on the dual carriageway where the police started closing a lane and sort of flagged me to go into the other lane and my mum being behind me- drove into the back of my car.

(it was dark, bad weather and yes she would have been driving too close).

Basically she was hospitalised with 2 fractured ribs and sternum for a couple of nights.

She has arthritis and has a blue badge so driving does give her independence.

When the collision happened , we spoke to the police officer as he was taking our registration details but couldn't find my mums which we were surprised about. She was given a note to report into a police station with her insurance details in the next 5-7days (approx).

When I was back I had to search in my dad's emails (with his permission) for my mums insurance details (as myself and my brother had arranged it and obviously had to do it online as that's how things are these days).

Sure, we found the insurance we had booked was there. The certificate of motor insurance for the time period that would have included the date of the incident was there.

But, what I found at this point was also another email from them around 2 weeks later saying the policy had been cancelled without any reason.

It had also been sent a few days after the policy had cancelled.

My mum doesn't use computers and my dad often doesn't check his emails.

Really letters through the post are what they need.

My insurance company paid out but are trying to bill my mum as the uninsured driver for 8k.

Is there anything we can do?

I have recently bought a car and my daughter wants to drive it as well. I tried adding my daughter who is 21 onto my policy as a second driver but Aviva doesnt allow it. So I suggested her to get her own policy to drive my car. However she lives near the university and needs car occasionally on the weekend for part time job. She got herself a quote for living at university address as her home address. On that policy she also included me and my wife as 2nd/3rd driver. She mentioned that I am the legal/registered owner of that car and she is the policy holder. Is it safe for me to cancel my Aviva insurance as I am covered on my daughter insurance policy?

Hi all,

I'm after a bit of advice, after having my car written off by a foreign lorry. I was cruising in the middle lane doing the speed limit on one of the main A roads, one with 3 lanes. Traffic was moving slower in the left lane and a left hand drive HGV decided to start shifting into the middle lane, taking me out (essentially performing a PIT manoeuvre on me), I did a 360 and ended up on the grass verge, sliding around with no control some 50-70 meters down. He stopped, said "sorry" he didn't see me before he started moving into the middle lane. Needless to say, my passenger door, rear bumper, rear quarter, side skirt and wheels were damaged. I was very lucky to escape with nothing but a massive shock, as at one point during the 360 the HGV looked like he was about to T-Bone me with full force (more like run me over).
Police didn't attend, but the highway patrol did, or whatever they are called. They moved the lorry to a safe place to take his details. Then came back for me, to do the same. I made it home a few hours later etc. No doubt the car was written off.
Fast forward two weeks later, I'm having issues insuring my new car, or having to accept a ridiculously high premium as a result of such recent incided. Since it's an active claim which is probably going to take at least six months to conclude - what my current insurance told me since they have to chase around foreign insurance companies - I've been told by the companies I'm trying to insure with that they have to put me down as "at fault".
Now, don't get me wrong, did anyone expect me to get a full written declaration from the driver that he was at fault in the middle of the A13 at 8pm on a Sunday night? So I can give this to my insurer? Thankfully this doesn't happen to me very often, and the other guy stopped. In the state of shock I was in, we still exchanged details, took photos etc.
Police didn't even attend. What if the guy was under the influence? Not that there were any hints that he was.
When I spoke to my insurance, the first thing they said was that the guy was uninsured. Clearly they were looking for a foreign number plate in the UK Insurance database. It took me 30 mins on ChatGPT to find all the details of the driver including his foreign insurer and policy details and put this on a plate (well in an email) to my insurance. Gave them the reference numbers I got from the traffic patrol and any info I had.
Now I'm not writing this post for symphathy, but rather to ask a couple of things:
What can I do to do me justice - all I want is for my insurance company to do their job properly and to recognise who was at fault, although it seems I'm doing more on my side than they are on theirs. Can they not get the details from the traffic patrol log?
I mean I'm pretty sure the other foreign insurance company is probably going to negate everything, as is the other driver.

And did I do anything wrong on the night, or is there more or anything I should/could have done when something like this happens?

I've managed to get insurance now, three times the price, but would still want to clear my name.

Thanks for reading.

Hi

Do you think they would repair this or say its total loss they gave me 2 options either they will send me the cost of the repair or send it to a garage to get it repaired if it is repairable.
If so what option should I choose and the cost of the repair how much should I accept.

Let's say if they say its total loss then what price should I agree to and if I want to retain the car how much should I be willing to purchase it back for.

The car is 25 plate and has around 25k mileage and it's the GT version thanks for you help.

Has anyone had any experience with getting a cheaper quote with Aviva Zero? When I was with admiral, i clicked that i didn't want to renew my insurance and they instantly gave me a cheaper price, wondered if anyone had done this before?

Hi everyone! I’m an Italian resident with a Pakistani international driving licence, coming to the UK on a visit visa for 2 weeks. I want to borrow a friend’s car for 2 weeks and get temporary insurance in my own name, but my friend’s insurer won’t add me as a driver because of my licence.

I’ve checked the mainstream temporary insurance providers, but none seem to accept Pakistani licences.

Does anyone know a company that offers daily or 2-week insurance for drivers with a Pakistani licence? Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Even with all the same details there’s a £300 difference. Do I call them up to argue this, or cancel the renewal and accept the new quote?

Hi all,

Could someone please advise me on the best way to get this situation resolved?

I was involved in a non-fault accident, and the third party has accepted liability. My insurer, Aviva, arranged for my car to be repaired by their approved network repairer, Solus.
Unfortunately, they dropped the car off on Friday and have noticed several issues that were either not present before the accident or appear to have arisen following the repairs.

The wing that was repaired does not line up perfectly with the door. There is approximately a 1mm difference between the repaired side and the opposite side of the car.

The headlight was not damaged in the original accident, but it now has a small crack and a scratch.

The entire headlight assembly moves when pushed, suggesting it may not have been fitted correctly.

I’ve also noticed condensation inside the headlight, which was not an issue before the repairs.

I drove the car on the motorway for the first time yesterday and noticed a humming noise coming from the front of the car at speeds of 60mph and above. I hadn’t noticed this before the repairs.
When I collected the car on Friday, I immediately noticed the crack in the headlight. I am concerned about the quality of the repairs, particularly as the headlight was not damaged in the accident in the first place.
I have contacted the repairer and Aviva to report these issues and am currently waiting for a response.

What is the best way to escalate this?

Has anyone experienced anything similar with Aviva or Solus, and how did you get it resolved?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Hello everyone, today i was done first my trip with a black box, but its not showing up on the app, it says it looks you haven’t done any trips, what should i do?

They’re the cheapest quote for me atm, with my current insurance renewal being almost double what I’ve paid this year. Just wondering what people’s experience with them is

Hi folks, just a thought that has been bugging me.

My friend was in an accident recently and the insurer wrote off his car and paid him 20k. His car had several undeclared modifications such as a full maxton body kit, alloys, aftermarket exhaust and “stage 2” performance mods.

I don’t understand how his policy was not voided? Especially as there were visible cosmetic mods in the pictures taken at the scene.

I was wondering if this insurance is legit because it seems dodgy looking at the website

Hoping to get some responses as I’ve been searching

Does anyone have any particular recommendations for temporary cover for test driving cars I'm going to look at with a view to buying?

I'm looking for a new car, and I wouldn't buy one without a test drive. I've just checked my insurance and found the driving other cars extension doesn't cover test drives. That's OK for dealers (at least the better ones) but not for private sales.

I'm really after a company that will keep my details on file so I can get immediate (or short notice) cover at a reasonable and predictable cost without having to fill out a whole new form every time.

Just wondering if anyone has any particular recommendations or if there's a 'known good' company, or whether to just scour the web. Also interested in companies to avoid.

Thanks.