Insurance for 21 year Old

[Joshua Thomson]

Hi, I took a test drive of a Tesla on Wednesday and absolutely loved the car. It was fantastic, I went to put an order in on the day on a stock Model S P70 however, since the day I have been struggling to find any insurers who would insure the vehicle in my Company name. (For tax purposes)

What doesn't help is that I am also 21 years old, and the Tesla being classed as a "performance vehicle" nobody will insure me until I am 25. Me and my secretary have been ringing round all week and have tried:

• NFU Mutal as mentioned by Tesla
• Home and Legacy
• Liverpool Victoria
• Admiral (who quoted £4,500 pa in my name - which is not possible)
• Insurer Wise (who quoted £10,965.00 pa in the Companies name - which is just silly)

Tesla Bluewater mentioned that they have sold a Tesla to a 21-year-old who is paying around £2,000 per year for insurance. (My upper limit would be £2,000 if I was to go ahead) but I just can't see who that would be with?

Please can anybody help point me in the right direction or advise me of a possible insurer if you are in a similar position.

I am a safe driver, with no accidents since I started to drive with the insurers refusing because of my age.

 

[tfboy]

Hi Joshua,
I saw your post int he P85 insurance thread, but thought I'd add here.
I'm in a similar situation regarding the company car / tax thing, but am (un)fortunate enough to be just under 40 so don't have the 21 / 25 yo limitation.

However, as it will be a company car, I wonder if that doesn't give some flexibility as to the named driver. Depending on your usage, could it be insured under someone else's name who's older but have you as a named driver? In the case of H&L who quoted me around £1700 for a 37 year old with 9 years NCB, it's still a bit pricey, particularly with a £1500 excess. But it does specify that <21yo can drive with an extra £250 excess or 21-24yo for an extra £150 excess.

So would that be an option? It might be worth trying H&L / NFU mutual again seeing if they can suggest another option.

I realise you've probably tried this already. The issue I see with either a cheap generic insurance or someone more unique is that they're less likely to know about Teslas and the whole EV thing so you'd need to check the fineprint in terms of approved garages for repair, etc.

Good luck!

 

[zag2me]

Yep insure your parents or someone older as the primary person and add yourself as a named driver.

 

[PeteW]

Yep insure your parents or someone older as the primary person and add yourself as a named driver.

Just be aware that that is fraud and in the event of a claim the insurance company would investigate this very thoroughly (ie, go knock on the neighbours doors and ask 'who normally drives that car', etc). They work very hard not to pay out if they don't have to.

 

[zag2me]

Just be aware that that is fraud and in the event of a claim the insurance company would investigate this very thoroughly (ie, go knock on the neighbours doors and ask 'who normally drives that car', etc). They work very hard not to pay out if they don't have to.

I'm not sure that's correct. I was insured on my parents car for years and had a crash. There was no problem with the insurance company at all.

 

[Lokolo]

Well worth reading this What is 'fronting' and how can you avoid it? - The MoneySupermarket Blog

If you put a parent/other person as the Main Driver when they are not, this is then illegal and called fronting.

 

[PeteW]

I'm not sure that's correct. I was insured on my parents car for years and had a crash. There was no problem with the insurance company at all.

If it really was their car, and you were just an occasional driver, then there isn't a problem.
The problem would be if you were the main/only driver pretending to be an occasional driver to get a lower premium - that is illegal.

I've worked in the industry - if insurers can avoid a payout, they will find a way - don't make it easy for them.

 

[zag2me]

If it really was their car, and you were just an occasional driver, then there isn't a problem.
The problem would be if you were the main/only driver pretending to be an occasional driver to get a lower premium - that is illegal.

I've worked in the industry - if insurers can avoid a payout, they will find a way - don't make it easy for them.

Really interesting, i've never heard of that in my life! good to know.

But as I said, I had a crash (about 10 years ago mind, and had no issues making a claim)

 

[Samram10]

Im quite baffled that they refuse to insure you due to your age...i am the same age as you and out of interest tried to get a quote on a p70...i was quoted 2500 fully comp in my own name with admiral. Im sure a phonecall and some haggling would be able to knock that down further.

Have you tried getting quotes in your own name rather than the company's as i think that might possibly be playing a role in this rather than the age

 

[Samram10]

Im quite baffled that they refuse to insure you due to your age...i am the same age as you and out of interest tried to get a quote on a p70...i was quoted 2500 fully comp in my own name with admiral. Im sure a phonecall and some haggling would be able to knock that down further.

Have you tried getting quotes in your own name rather than the company's as i think that might possibly be playing a role in this rather than the age

Nevermind just noticed the 4500 quote was indeed in your name.

 

[1208]

What about Directline or Churchill?

Have you tried the compare the market websites?

 

[FinnDriver]

Admiral

 

[Candleflame]

seeing how you look like you have some connections and money. Try registering it abroad, i.e. germany. insuance will be significantly cheaper there. just need to get a postbox and someone who sorts out the german stuff for you. (spain or france also an option)

 

[tfboy]

seeing how you look like you have some connections and money. Try registering it abroad, i.e. germany. insuance will be significantly cheaper there. just need to get a postbox and someone who sorts out the german stuff for you. (spain or france also an option)

If you go down that route, check what the terms are for travelling abroad. If you're based mainly in the UK, then that will count as abroad and you're normally limited to something like 90 days / year, at least that's with UK insurers. Maybe it's different in Germany?

 

[Gerasimental]

If you go down that route, check what the terms are for travelling abroad. If you're based mainly in the UK, then that will count as abroad and you're normally limited to something like 90 days / year, at least that's with UK insurers. Maybe it's different in Germany?

Would be very interested in the answer to this for my ICE. 23yo, never had an accident in 5.5years of driving, being asked over £1000 pa for me £3500 classic car. Since my parents are in Germany and I spend a good amount of time there, this could be an attractive option for me.

 

[vitz]

I've been trying to find information on how insurers are quoting for Teslas and with regard to Autopilot safety features. In theory, it should reduce the insurance group (like they do for the low speed emergency braking that's fitted to most cars these days - it lowers a VW Golf's group by 5). I wrote to my current insurance company (Admiral) and they couldn't tell me anything about the Model 3 and what groups they were leaning towards.

Have you have any luck finding anything out, or can you advise on what we can expect? I appreciate that because only Tesla can action repairs etc (as oppose to any garage that fixes ICE cars) it would drive up the price of premiums. But the fact that all Model 3s will ship with autopilot safety features must count for something.

Admiral have sent me an email to say that aren't saying anything about the effect of Autopilot on insurance premiums. Tesla's wording on (the full) Autopilot package is that it's twice as safe as a human driver - and I imagine that all the insurance companies have got together to discuss this. But as far as I can tell, nobody really knows if the insurance companies are scared of this and will demand a super high premium as it effectively threatens their lively-hood.

 

[TC56]

The trouble is that insurance companies look at the well publicised you tube videos of people playing cards, reading books and falling asleep at the wheel of a Tesla and go "we aren't going to have anything to de with that, and it's Beta test anyway". Either the will put premiums up, or refuse to insure Tessa's with autopilot, which will be a great shame. All because of a few people who view youtube hits above being sensible.