Why Do Younger, Inexperienced Drivers Pay More For Car Insurance?

A car insurance company base their premium on the potential risk of having to pay out and how much they may have to pay out in the event of receiving a claim due to the likes of an accident or theft of the vehicle that is being insured. Several factors impact on the premium such as where you live, the value of the car, what type of car it is, your driving and claims record and your age.

Younger,inexperienced drivers pay more for their car insurance than an older, experienced motorist

Why should how old you are affect the premium? Well, it is worth noting that whilst age has a significant bearing on the premium the number of years driving experience that you have (or don’t have) also makes a considerable difference to the premium.

The perception is that someone who is 22 years of age who passed their driving test and owned a car from the age of 18 is going to be at greater risk of having an accident that someone who passed their test and drove a car from the same age but is now 30 years of age. This is based upon factual statistical data that is held by car insurance companies.

A 22 year old is no doubt perceived to spend more time driving their car late at night or into the early hours when he or she is more likely to have a car accident with someone that has been out clubbing and had a drink or two. The 22 year old is probably going to care less about where they park their car when out and about i.e. they may park it in a side street whereas an older motorist may prefer the greater security offered by a well-lit, supervised car park. The writer of this post is 57 years of age and would concur with the latter point.

The younger motorist is more likely to travel at greater speed than the 30 year old so is at greater danger of being involved in a car accident. In theory, you are more likely to cause more damage in a car accident the faster you have been travelling so this would mean the car insurance company would pay out more in repair costs or to replace the vehicle(s) if it/they were written off.

Hopefully, the above explains some of the reasons why a young driver is likely to pay more for their car insurance than an older, more experienced driver.

One possible way of getting cheaper car insurance is to look into telematics (Black Box) car insurance as this also takes into account how the car is being driven by a young motorist.