Teenage drivers have always found it difficult and expensive to get car insurance, but in recent years things have definitely taken a turn for the worst. The reason behind this is that statistically the young drivers age group are far more likely to be involved in an accident because they drive faster, have less experience in risky situations, and they make more night journeys which is a time when more accidents occur.

An insurance company only looks at the level of risk you present as a driver, they do this by looking at the statistic averages for your age group, where you live, your gender and the type of car you drive. If you are a teenage boy living in a big city, you will fall in to the highest risk category which is why you will sometimes be asked to pay 5 or 10 more than your vehicle cost just to insure it for 1 year.

Why so much to insure a car that only cost a few hundred? Well, just say you cause an accident with a top of the range BMW, Mercedes or Jaguar, and your car is only slightly dented but the other car is totalled. The insurance company’s liability isn’t limited to fixing your dents, it will also have to replace the other car and that will cost tens of thousands.

There are a few things you can do to minimise the cost of insurance, such as buy a car with a small engine, keep a clean license, don’t modify your car in any way and pass an accredited advanced drivers course. These things won’t make your young driver motor insurance cheap, but they will reduce that cost by as much as possible.

Historically young drivers (particularly males) have paid big premiums to drive even the smallest cars, and many would argue that this situation is fair as this age group of drivers is statistically the worst, and present much higher levels of risk that the motor insurance companies have to carry. However, there a voices in the government who think it is unfair that the insurance companies automatically dump everyone under the age of 21 in to this group of ‘risky drivers’, despite the fact that under 21 year olds account for almost 20% of motoring convictions and are responsible for over 30% of dangerous driving offences.

The proposed bill is not aimed directly at the car insurance industry, but is designed to root out inequality in whichever industry it is found. There’s no doubt though that car insurance for teenagers is one area where it could potentially have a huge impact.

At the moment these are just proposals, but if they become law I foresee one of two possible outcomes:

1. Car insurance companies – such as Albany Car Insurance – will stop offering insurance to certain sectors of society which could actually make the situation worse for today’s young drivers. It might be expensive to get auto insurance at the moment, but at least it is available and young people can drive legally. If the companies clamp down, how will a young person ever establish themselves as a safe driver for insurance purposes? Unless of course the government force companies to accept young drivers as customers………

2. …….In which case we will probably all lose out. Insurance companies look solely at risk, but if they are prevented in some way from charging an appropriate amount for that level of risk from one group of customers, the cost of that risk will have to be met some other way. You guessed it; we will all end up paying more – I can assure you that it won’t be the insurance companies that lose out!

If this bill becomes law and is adopted by other governments, we will certainly see a big shake up in the teenage drivers insurance market, whether it will be for the better or not only time will tell.