Why are young drivers charged so much for vehicle insurance?

Posted on September 23, 2018 by Darren Slate

Young driver and insurance premiums.

Insurance companies have always been biased against young drivers and rarely do they try to cover up their increased charges to young drivers. You are technically classed as a young driver until you are over the age of 25 but you are classed as an inexperienced driver for the first two years after passing your driving test regardless of age. It is unfortunate for those young drivers out there who do drive safely and don’t have accidents but there is an overwhelming amount of data and statistics that back insurance company’s stigmatism against young drivers.

It is also further biased in the case of young men. Young men have far higher insurance premiums that that of a young girl of the same age. Again this is due to the fact that the statistics for young male drivers are far worse than those of young female drivers. It is often argued that these statistics are unfair and not proportioned correctly. It is fact that there are more young male drivers on the road than young females so the odds are always going to be stacked against young male drivers.

However, the overall statistics for young drivers are alarming and are the major reason for insurance companies choosing to penalise young drivers on their premiums.

Below are some of the startling statistics on young drivers.

1 AA statistics have shown that young male drivers under the age of 21 are ten times more likely to have an accident than males over the age of 35.

2 The AA also showed that accident claims made by male’s drivers under 21 are three times more than those made by those over the age of 30.

3 In 2012 an ITV reports highlighted that 40% of 17 year old males have an accident of some description within their first six months of driving.

4 The ITV report also showed that as many as 5,419 were killed or seriously injured in road accidents involving a young driver in 2011.

5 In a recent survey carried out by Admiral Insurance it was found that a driver aged between 17 – 21 is four times more likely to receive a conviction for careless driving than the average driver.

6 In 2011 the Police released figures showing that the proportion of young drivers under the age of 25 failing or refusing a breath test had risen by as much as 15 % in one year.

7 It is a fact that the largest recorded reason for deaths amongst youngsters aged between 16 – 25 is road accidents.

Can we really blame insurance companies for wanting to charge higher premiums when these are the kinds of statistic published year on year? However, do some insurance companies take the increase too far? Many young drivers who have passed their tests and purchased relatively standard an inexpensive cars have reported that they cannot afford insurance for their vehicles and are left with no choice but to not drive at all. Many of those youngsters arrested for driving with no insurance blame the insurance companies for their overpriced premiums forcing them to break the law.

It does seem that until there is a significant drop in the shocking statistics against young drivers, insurance companies will continue to penalise young drivers as they appear to be much higher risk than those aged over 25.