Free insurance for young drivers

A new insurance and car buying scheme has been set up to help cash-strapped young drivers afford a safe, reliable car at a low cost.

As all new drivers – and their parents – will attest, insurance premiums are often very high for young people, pushing them into old cars that are cheaper to insure. The problem is that these bangers tend to lack essential safety items such as air bags and anti-lock brakes. However, car services provider Young Marmalade has come to the rescue with a scheme designed to provide a new or nearly new car and free insurance (depending on the driver's age) at prices young people and their parents can afford.

Student guide to buying a car

This is how it works. You buy a new or nearly new car through the scheme – with flexible payment plans to suit most people – and the insurance comes at a reduced price or even free. For instance, the most popular car Young Marmalade provides is a one-year-old Toyota Yaris. On a personal contract plan monthly payments are £102 a month, based on a £1,000 deposit, an optional final payment of £3,085 if you want to keep the car and an APR rate of 8.9%. There are plenty of cars to choose from on youngmarmalade.co.uk and nearly all have achieved at least a four-star EuroNCAP crash test rating.

This then qualifies you for the fully comprehensive insurance, which works on a fixed scale and shuns the typical norm for insurance providers to base premiums on postcode. To start with, men up to 18-years-old pay £700 a year, which goes down to £500 for 19-year-olds, £250 at 20 and insurance is then free for those aged 21-25. The premiums are a lot cheaper for women who usually don’t take the same risks when behind the wheel as men. They pay £300 a year up to 18 and insurance is then free up to the maximum age of 25. After the first nine months every new driver automatically gets a 40% no-claims discount if they have been accident free, while parents and older siblings can be added to the policy as named drivers free of charge.

Top student tips on lowering your car insurance premium

To qualify for the scheme, young drivers must have had no own-fault accidents, no more than three points on their licences and mileage is limited to 5,000 miles in the first nine months. Since the scheme started in February, Young Marmalade has noticed some surprising results.

Nigel Lacy, a spokesman for the company, said: “Every month 160,000 people take a driving test in the UK and the accident rate among first drivers in nine months after passing their test tends to be 25%. However, under the Young Marmalade scheme the accident rate over the same period has fallen to 1%.”

Anyone who wants to sign-up to Young Marmalade must take the Pass Plus motoring test which teaches young people about driving at night, on motorways and driving in various weather conditions.

Visit the Young Marmalade website