Cheap van insurance for 17 year old

slaxbolts

Hello,

Well my son is 17 soon and he needs a van, theres no way around it, does anyone know where the best place to get insured is at his age? Have tried all the online quote sites etc and he will be on my policy as a named driver.

He's looking at 5 vans, transporter 1.9tdi, scudo/dispatch/expert 1.9tdi and a transit 2.0d

Any suggestions or loop holes on how to get the price down, im aware insurance is always going to be high with young drivers but we would be delighted if we could get it down to around 1500?

Also I don't own a business so will taxing/insuring it as a commercial be any hassle for me? Ive been googling it and it says if you insure it under someones business it could be cheaper?

Any suggestions appreciated, thanks.

Bpmull

If your going to try and insure it under someone's business it would have to be in the businesses name. Ie the log book would have to have the businesses name on it. You could be in big trouble if stopped by the gaurds. Did you try allianz for insurance they have a good commerical van policy but I don't know if you have to have a registered business or not. Does your son need the van as it sounds like a good bit of hassle tbh. Also when trying to get insurance quotes ring them the online quote won't give you an accurate price.

slaxbolts

Ok the business option doesnt sound like a runner, yes he needs the van theres no other way around it, will try Allianz tomorow and see what they say and will ring around a few others. thanks

Spugg07

Hi slaxbolts,

Having an Issue kind of like yours.

I am 22 and would like to be insured as a named driver under my fathers on a van kind of like what you and your son are trying to do.

I want to get insurance on a 1.9 Citroen Berlingo.

Rang Chill Insurance Allianz and a few others and they said they would not insure me under his name unless I was over 25, also if they were to insure me it would be considerably pricey given different factors such as the size of the van, what would you be carrying etc.

I would also like to ask anyone on this thread have a similar problem to this and how they may have over come it?

slaxbolts

If your having that problem at 22 its not looking great for my lad at 17?

Has anyone experienced this or had there young lad insured on there van, if so what were you paying?

corktina

i would guess that most Insurers would wonder what sort of business a 17 yo would be running that requires them to have a van. Fair play to him if he has set up his own business at that age, but I think they will suspect it's a ruse to get cheap insurance.

To be insuring it in your name implies you need to have a business, perhaps what you need to do is set up his business as if it is yours and "employ" him to do the work, whatever it is.

You don't want to be using the phrase "insuring it in my name" when talking to the Ins Co btw, I would say you need to approach a Broker saying " I am XYZ decorators/ landscapers/ plumbers and I want insurance for our van, oh and I want my Son who works for me down as a Named Driver"

Bpmull

It's possible to get insured on vans if they are company vans ie a business name on the log book and the person who wants to get insured on the van ie the 17/22 year old works for that company then its no issue. They will put you on for a low enough extra amount. Other than that it is going to be difficult. The best advice I can give is either ring every insurance company in the golden pages or get a decent insurance broker to look into it. They may know away around it. Also try insuryvan.ie

the irish fella

not a hope of getting insured on a van unless its a company van and you can nearly double 1500 for any insurance for a 17 year old i am 18 meself and my insurance is 1750 and nobody will insure me on a van no matter what

bitburger

im a named driver on me dads van with axa, im 22(doblo), when i was 18 i was named driver on another van of his, was quinn/liberty at the time.

corktina

the company I worked for had open Insurance, mind they were a Limited Company and that might make the difference

ted1

It doesn't sound like you'll be using it commercially , would you consider a car?

dgt

When I was 18, insurance was €600 on a TD100 van yet €2450 on a Ducato both on a comp policy. Worthwhile ringing around

slaxbolts

bitburger wrote: »

im a named driver on me dads van with axa, im 22(doblo), when i was 18 i was named driver on another van of his, was quinn/liberty at the time.

Was he/you using it for business purposes though (was it down on the insurance you were employed by him and therefore needed to drive the van)

bitburger

not then and not now, when i was 18 it was a provisional license with no no claims and now it is a full license with 1 years experience on his car(which was written off and thats why we got the van) im not sure if theres private or commercial tax on it at the moment, the last one was definitely commercial but this may be private tax, it hasnt run out since its been bought, its only a 1.3 so the price is much of a muchness

slaxbolts

bitburger wrote: »

not then and not now, when i was 18 it was a provisional license with no no claims and now it is a full license with 1 years experience on his car(which was written off and thats why we got the van) im not sure if theres private or commercial tax on it at the moment, the last one was definitely commercial but this may be private tax, it hasnt run out since its been bought, its only a 1.3 so the price is much of a muchness

Ok, things are looking up, so what your saying is when you were on the prov and 18 was your oul lad wasnt running a business/ didnt have you down as an employee? Even though the van you had back then was a 1.3, he doesnt mind payin more then he would for a car but he hasnt the money to be forking out thousands. Were looking at a transporter 1.9tdi, what I dont get is his mate was insured on a passat 1.9tdi (not a commercial) now I dont know how much it cost him, but he was insured on his oul lads policy and payed it himself so cant have been that much! whats the difference, is it just because its a van - id beat money a passat would be far faster then an oul knackered transporter?

Edit: I just saw now when you were 18 the van was commercially taxed/insured? How did he do this, was he running a business at that time/still is?

bitburger

when i was 18 it was a 1.9d small van taxed commercially, my dad has never been self employed, whilst legally you need private tax unless you are running a business (it is possible to get commercial tax if you lie but thats another argument)

there is no such thing as private insurance for a van last time i checked, you have to get commercial insurance, you do not need a business for this, even if you go onto the websites you can get commercial quotes once you are in the commercial section eg http://www.libertyinsurance.ie/van/

as for his mate on his dads insurance, at a rough guess i would wager hes paying at least 2 grand to insure that passat.

the first thing i was insured on was a mazda 323 1.3 petrol and it was 1200 for my first year named driver under dad, second was a polo and that dropped to 900, prices have gone up a bit since then though,



the pitfalls of named driver are that if you use your ncb to get him a lower price you cant use the ncb on another car, not always a bad thing though as my dads insurance was only marginally dearer without the ncb and without it on the car/van i was driving it shot up.

the other thing is that with named drivers they are not intended to be the main driver of the vehicle or somthing to that effect, if the insurance finds out he was using it as his van and you werent driving it they could refuse to pay out, this is fairly hard to prove however, im fairly lucky in that i have 2 motorbikes insured with a nice sized ncb and i use the bikes as my main transportation, this is an argument for another thread though

slaxbolts

Ok thanks very much, that clears a few things up, the other way around the commericial tax would be to buy a van taxed for the year and then worry about it next year!

Will start ringing around and see what the dreaded insurance companies have to say!

Bpmull

bitburger wrote: »

the other thing is that with named drivers they are not intended to be the main driver of the vehicle or somthing to that effect, if the insurance finds out he was using it as his van and you werent driving it they could refuse to pay out, this is fairly hard to prove however, im fairly lucky in that i have 2 motorbikes insured with a nice sized ncb and i use the bikes as my main transportation, this is an argument for another thread though

I wouldn't say fairly hard to prove more like impossible. How can an insurance company prove that a named driver is driving the vehicle more than 49% of the time. They can't prove it. Anyway it makes no difference as with commerical insurance the named driver rule doesn't apply. As the vast majority of commerical policies are in the company. Ie the company insures the van not a person. So there is no main driver most policies are open driving over 25 years old and any employee under 25 can be named for small money. If an employee drives the van 100% then it makes no difference as it is open driving anyway.

If what your saying is true then every company with a fleet of 20 vans etc in order to be legally insured the owner of the business would have to drive all 20 vans 51% of the time. Granted your point is correct when applied to private car insurance. As for the insuring a van with no company I don't see any difference. My grandad who doesn't have a business even has open driving over 25 on his van. I still think for the ops situation a broker might be the best option as they may no some loop hole. But I certainly wouldn't be worrying about the named driver being the main driver it's about the least of your worrys tbh.