Many people believe that if their teenage son or daughter wants to drive, they should at the very least be made to pay for their own car insurance policy. The reason behind this is that, as they have sole responsibility over the factors that determine the costs of their insurance, they will be incentivised to take measures to make themselves safer drivers and so reduce the costs they pay – to me this makes perfect sense.

There are a number of other things they can do to keep costs down:

1. Make sure any car they buy is equipped with modern safety features. Cars today fitted with ABS, airbags and crumple zones are much safer than they have ever been. Cars with these features have a much higher safety rating and this can help lower insurance rates.

2. Drive less – I know that might sound crazy, but the more miles you drive the higher your rates will be, so cut out any unnecessary journeys.

3. Take an advanced driving course – Programs like Pass Plus or a defensive driving course can mean a 10% saving and will make you a better driver.

4. Buy cheap used cars – when you first start driving, choose a car that is cheap to repair or replace if it ever gets damaged. Typically an expensive car will cost more to fix, so the insurance company will want more to insure it.

5. Use a number of Internet comparison websites to get as many quotes as possible. There are insurers who have a lot experience in the uk car insurance for young drivers market who should be able to offer you a better price than the high street agents.

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.