The tricks one young driver used to slash a staggering £18,601 off his car insurance

Seventeen-year-old Conner Robinson was proud to have paid for his first car himself and was eager to hit the road after passing his driving test three weeks ago.

The apprentice welder, from Doncaster in South Yorkshire, always expected his first insurance cover to be expensive as he was a newbie on the road.

But he was horrified when he entered his details into price comparison website Go Compare and saw that the only insurance quote available to him, from Insure247, would cost him £21,601.

Conner doesn’t own a Ferrari sports car, but a modest second-hand Ford Fiesta that cost him £5,500, meaning the insurance would cost almost four times the price of the car itself.

He says: “I love cars and was really excited to pass my test. I bought the Fiesta in March with a loan as an incentive to make sure I got behind the wheel.

“But when I saw the quote I nearly fell out of my chair. It was a horrible feeling to have passed a driving test and suddenly find out I was stuck and couldn’t enjoy driving. No other insurer had offered me such a deal.”

Conner, who has proven his driving skills by completing a Young Driver Training Day four years ago, could not understand why the price was so exorbitant.

Research by comparison website Confused.com shows that drivers aged 17 to 21 pay on average more than £2,000 for their car insurance.

But after speaking to a friend who was also a young driver but had gotten a much more acceptable quote, Conner discovered a series of insurance tricks that would allow him to get coverage for a tenth of the cost he had been quoted.

She also learned about the mistakes he had made that caused insurers to even refuse to offer him coverage, leaving only the most expensive rate available.

Money Mail was alerted to Conner’s plight by his grandfather, Darryl Robinson. The retired aeronautical engineer, married to Janet, 73, says: ‘Conner was very excited to have passed his test and, as a keen car enthusiast, was excited by the prospect of driving freedom.

“It is a mistake for the insurance industry to exclude young drivers from the market.”

At his friend’s suggestion, Conner called Hastings Direct, which specializes in helping young drivers, and was told he could get a much lower quote if he reduced his mileage.

The 17-year-old’s modest Ford Fiesta cost just £5,500, meaning the Insure247 quote was almost four times the price of the vehicle itself.

Unaware of how much this would affect his cousin, Conner had estimated he would drive 10,000 miles a year to cover a 40-mile round trip to Rotherham, where he works.

Otherwise, you’ll have to rely on taking a bus or having your grandpa drive you.

She was told that if she used the car only for social travel and reduced the mileage to 4,000 miles a year, she could get cover for £3,400 from Hastings Direct.

Conner also found, by testing different parameters on comparison website Go Compare, that waiting 12 days before starting the policy on 1 September dropped the price to £2,800.

This equates to a saving of £50 for every day you postponed your trip. If you had tried other comparison websites, such as Confused.com and Compare the Market, you could have found even better prices.

The insurance industry often offers the best prices to drivers willing to delay starting a policy for three or four weeks, because providers take advantage of drivers who leave it until the last minute or need a policy to start right away to increase premiums.

Another cost-cutting measure Conner was forced to take was to agree to have a black box installed in his car.

These devices use telematics technology to monitor when and where you drive, and whether you exceed the speed limit or drive erratically, such as braking too hard. More than a million drivers have one of these devices installed in their cars, and they are especially popular among younger drivers.

Comparison website Compare the Market says a black box can cut the cost of insurance by £500 a year, but for a younger driver the saving can be as much as £1,000.

Rhydian Jones, motoring expert at Confused.com, says: ‘Having a black box fitted removes any guesswork made by insurers and means the price is calculated into how, when and how often they drive.

‘There may be some restrictions, such as a curfew or mileage limit. Check the policy details to avoid breaking the rules.’ Younger drivers often bear the brunt of expensive car insurance because they are less experienced, putting them at greater risk of making a claim.

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), drivers aged 17 to 19 account for just 1.5 per cent of all driving licence holders, but are involved in almost 12 per cent of fatal and serious accidents.

This makes them a hot topic in the world of auto insurance.

Another option for younger drivers is to add a parent to their policy as a named driver. If they are older and have more driving experience, this can likely reduce the price. But new drivers should not consider asking their parents to take out a policy for them to get a cheaper price, as this is called “fronting” and is considered insurance fraud.

Conner discovered that by including his 50-year-old father as a named driver, he reduced the final quote by at least £1,000, to £2,800. He had originally included his grandfather as a named driver, but removed him after realising that insurers consider older drivers to be a greater risk than middle-aged motorists, so they increased premiums.

The trick to finding the cheapest deal is to call the providers directly to see if they can beat the quote you’ve found. The best insurers to haggle with are Admiral, AA, Churchill and Hastings Direct.

Although Conner has limited his car use, if he gets a discount for staying accident-free, his annual premiums will soon drop, so next year he could drive more and perhaps use the car to commute to work.

The ABI website says: ‘No-claims discounts vary from insurer to insurer, but can be as high as 30% for one year without claims, and 60% for five years without claims.’

Some insurers also allow you to protect a no-claims discount that has built up over a number of years for an additional fee (in some cases as little as £20) in case you need to make a one-off claim and don’t want to lose this large discount.

The type of car you drive will also have an impact: a car with a small, one-litre engine is less likely to increase premiums than a three-litre sports car.

It is also worth paying for coverage annually rather than monthly, because it works out cheaper over the course of the year.

Choosing a higher deductible (the amount you have to pay towards the cost of a repair) will also reduce your premiums, but make sure you can afford it. Conner agreed to a £750 deductible to get his insurance.

Comprehensive insurance, like the one chosen by Conner, is often the best policy option because it not only covers damage to your own vehicle and the vehicles of others, but it tends to be more affordable than just covering damage to third parties.

This is because comprehensive insurance tends to attract fewer high-risk drivers than policies that only cover third party.

On Sunday 2nd November, Conner will finally be able to travel after securing his £2,800 insurance cover with Hastings Direct.

Insure247 did not respond to a request for comment.

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