Low deposit insurance for young drivers
Drivers under the age of 25 form the largest group of motorists who buy no deposit car insurance, and there is a very good reason for this. If you are a middle-aged driver with a zero accident record and no convictions as far back as you can remember you will be buying your insurance at the lowest possible price and so the yearly premium is not such a problem for you. Leaving that to one side, you are probably financially secure with your own home at least partly paid for and a few bob in the bank.
Contrast that with the fate of the average young driver, particularly a male one. He is under 25 which means that he is paying the highest premiums of any age group in the UK, and before we get too sympathetic it would be as well to remember that youngsters, unfortunately, tend to have many more accidents, and more serious ones to boot, than people in the older age groups and if our young male is between 17 and 21 he will probably struggle to find affordable insurance at all. Throw in an accident or the odd brush with the law involving a speeding offence or, heaven forbid, driving without insurance and our hero is virtually uninsurable. To cut a long and depressing story short young people inevitably have to face very high insurance premiums, often higher than the price of the cars they drive, and as a result a very large proportion of them cannot afford to pay their premiums in one huge dollop particularly if they are unemployed, or students.
A few enterprising insurance companies offer zero deposit policies but there is a catch; all is not quite what it seems. A deposit is actually paid; 1/12th of the premium is paid by credit card, which technically means that the youngster does not have to pay right away but he will still have to do so when the credit card bill becomes due. The remainder of the premium is paid off in 11 equal instalments.
Let us not imagine for a moment that the insurance companies are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts; most of them impose extra charges to cover the fact that the odd few people every now and again default on paying the full balance outstanding, and we have to bear in mind that insurance companies can have cash flow problems like everyone else, and cash a year in advance is always better than seeing it dribbling in month by month. Nevertheless, it is a useful facility to bear in mind when buying insurance on a monthly basis like this can make all the difference between a young person being able to have insurance, or having to either forget about driving or, as is happening increasingly, taking a huge gamble and driving without insurance. This is a very unwise thing to do as well is being extremely antisocial; the penalties if caught (and with a central police database of insurance policies, being nabbed is extremely likely) are Draconian to say the least, and could even include imprisonment for repeat offenders.
Sometimes being middle-aged has its benefits.
Nevertheless, there is light at the end of the tunnel! A number of price comparison websites now specialise in insurers that offer no deposit car cover of this type; this means that you can not only search for their cheapest possible quotation, but also compare the monthly repayments as well, and these can vary considerably since some insurers charge heavy management fees but some do not, and occasionally you will find zero extra charges, which means that paying over 12 months could cost you no more than had you paid the whole lot upfront in the first place.
Contrast that with the fate of the average young driver, particularly a male one. He is under 25 which means that he is paying the highest premiums of any age group in the UK, and before we get too sympathetic it would be as well to remember that youngsters, unfortunately, tend to have many more accidents, and more serious ones to boot, than people in the older age groups and if our young male is between 17 and 21 he will probably struggle to find affordable insurance at all. Throw in an accident or the odd brush with the law involving a speeding offence or, heaven forbid, driving without insurance and our hero is virtually uninsurable. To cut a long and depressing story short young people inevitably have to face very high insurance premiums, often higher than the price of the cars they drive, and as a result a very large proportion of them cannot afford to pay their premiums in one huge dollop particularly if they are unemployed, or students.
A few enterprising insurance companies offer zero deposit policies but there is a catch; all is not quite what it seems. A deposit is actually paid; 1/12th of the premium is paid by credit card, which technically means that the youngster does not have to pay right away but he will still have to do so when the credit card bill becomes due. The remainder of the premium is paid off in 11 equal instalments.
Let us not imagine for a moment that the insurance companies are doing this out of the goodness of their hearts; most of them impose extra charges to cover the fact that the odd few people every now and again default on paying the full balance outstanding, and we have to bear in mind that insurance companies can have cash flow problems like everyone else, and cash a year in advance is always better than seeing it dribbling in month by month. Nevertheless, it is a useful facility to bear in mind when buying insurance on a monthly basis like this can make all the difference between a young person being able to have insurance, or having to either forget about driving or, as is happening increasingly, taking a huge gamble and driving without insurance. This is a very unwise thing to do as well is being extremely antisocial; the penalties if caught (and with a central police database of insurance policies, being nabbed is extremely likely) are Draconian to say the least, and could even include imprisonment for repeat offenders.
Sometimes being middle-aged has its benefits.
Nevertheless, there is light at the end of the tunnel! A number of price comparison websites now specialise in insurers that offer no deposit car cover of this type; this means that you can not only search for their cheapest possible quotation, but also compare the monthly repayments as well, and these can vary considerably since some insurers charge heavy management fees but some do not, and occasionally you will find zero extra charges, which means that paying over 12 months could cost you no more than had you paid the whole lot upfront in the first place.