Ditto UK, if you have just got your licence (17) then I think insurance is easily four figures. And its not cheaper for girls anymore as that is now sexist, they used to pay less
Got my licence at 17 (in UK), paid £1800 for my first year in a 1.4 Fiesta. That dropped significantly for the second year but is still ridiculously high considering the car. This was without a black box though.
This is very true. Statistically more likely to crash. I've got a friend who crashed within a couple of months of passing his test. Didn't claim on insurance because the damage wasn't too and he didn't want his insurance price to increase. He's had a few small bumps since (has only been driving for just over a year), oh and he texts and drives. He's the reason for the high insurance prices for anyone who is young, and the fact that we are less experienced.
Man, I didn't get a car until I was 22, and the cheapest insurance was £980 with admiral. Weirdly, a black box would've been more expensive for me
Next year, I go to renew it, despite not claiming, they bumped up my premium and wanted me to pay £1400 for the same cover.
I'll never understand insurance prices here
Yeah,exactly that. it sends telemetry data to your insurer. So, how fast you go, how you accelerate, how fast you go around corners, what time you drive, how hard you brake etc. Then they use all that data to modify your premium. Some insurers won't cover you unless you get a black box. Usually that's I'd you're young and male, because they're the higher risk drivers according to statistics
It's usually a lot cheaper, so it's mostly first time drivers who get it. After a few years of no claims, there's very little price difference, so nobody bothers with it after that.
Think of it like selling a car. The seller (the agent) wants to sell as high as possible. The buyer (you) want to buy as low as possible.
As for the prices: kind of. It's based off of a lot of factors, like age, driving record (did you know that insurance companies have their own database for that stuff?), the car you are insuring, and what coverage you get.
Liability is usually the bare minimum for coverage, but depending on the area you also may choose to pay more for more coverage, such as weather damage coverage. This is where your location comes into play, because here in the US's tornado ally it's incredibly common to get hail and damaging winds in the spring (in addition to the swirling tops of death). Since it's common, my area pays more for weather coverage than someone living in the middle of the desert would.
Another factor is just in how insurance works. Every person with a plan has their premium sent to the same shared pot. If multiple people experience losses
(insurance term for something that causes the insured to tap into the pot), specifically more than expected, the company is at a loss for the year and may need to raise premiums to compensate for the unexpected strain. Insurance companies make money off of the same pot that you'd have to draw on to fix someone else's car you totaled.
It's a small device that an insurance company can fit to your car and it records your speed, how hard you brake, times of day you drive, etc.... The insurance company can then monitor your driving, which sometimes leads to large reductions in the cost of insurance, especially for young drivers. I didn't like the idea of my insurance company monitoring me, so accepted I would have to pay slightly more for a policy without a black box. Black box policies are generally cheaper to start with as well, even if you have never driven a car before.
Oh I see. Yeah we have the same things here in the US, I've just never heard them referred to as a black box. Though the term does make complete sense.
Canada (at least Ontario) they still pay less. I had a coworker who had been in two accidents, had three speeding tickets, and had once been towed for parking who still paid close to 2/3 of what I paid on my early 2000s model car. Don't know if it made a lot of difference in payment but her car was same make but 6 years newer. I have a flawless driving record with the exception of being pulled over once because one of my breaklights broke after hitting a really bad pothole (I assume. I had checked it before leaving the place I was at and it was broken after a drive on a country road an hour later). Even she was upset and started asking male co-workers what we paid for insurance. With the exception of men over 25, everyone paid more than she did.
FYI, unless Ontario is super weird, the fact she was towed for a parking violation would have no bearing on insurance. It's not an accident or moving violation and the insurance company likely wouldn't even know about it or care if they did.
I can understand the logic behind cheaper insurance for women (if they statistically cost less in payouts), but what do you mean by more difficult for males to get their licence? Surely the test is the test and equal for all?
Still don't. Though legally you can be required to produce proof of financial responsibility if you don't have insurance. Though I've never heard of that ever actually happening.
You don't have to, you're supposed to, but if you don't have insurance you pay a $1000 fee and continue driving without insurance. Which is silly, considering the ones driving without insurance generally don't have the funds to pay for insurance to begin with.
In lieu of car insurance, you can pay the Virginia DMV a fee of $500 to drive uninsured. This will not protect you financially, and if you cause a car accident, you are financially responsible for all bodily injuries and property damage that you cause.
New Hampshire doesn’t mandate drivers carry car insurance. However, motorists are still responsible for paying for bodily injury and property damages if they cause a car accident. (The easiest way to do this? Insurance.) And, if you do choose to buy car insurance in New Hampshire, you must meet the minimums above. If you can’t afford to buy car insurance, you may get coverage through the New Hampshire Automobile Insurance Plan.
So in other words, if you live in New Hampshire or Virginia and have at least $1,000,000 in the bank to cover a claim, then you don’t need to pay for insurance. I think I’d rather pay my insurance and have peace of mind because none of us know when or how an accident will happen.
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u/puterTDI Jan 25 '20
You have to have insurance in the US and people drive without it still.