Student life and the car insurance crisis

Whether you're still studying at college or leaving home for University, getting car insurance for a student like you is not an easy task. At this point in your life, you are either working part-time in McDonalds and earning only a little bit of money or not working at all and relying on EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance). So you should be looking for the cheapest insurance deals to afford having your own transport, shouldn't you? Well, in the real life, students pay the most to get their cars insured but there are things which can be done to bring a smile back on your faces.

Insurance is a business to evaluate risks and the problem with students is that they are a big risk to insurers and are therefore more costly to business as a result. Below are a few characteristics common to students which car insurance companies use to increase their premiums:

• A lot of students live in shared accommodation with limited off-street parking. Insurers want to know that your car is safe at night so if you can get a parking space for your car in a garage/driveway, this will significantly lower your insurance quote.
• Many students live in expensive city-centre postcodes because either it is closer to their university/college or it is easier for them to get to bars/restaurants/clubs etc. If you rent a place somewhere less expensive but not too far from university/college, then you will pay less to insure your car and at the same time enjoy the great benefits of having everything close to you.
• Students have either driven as a named driver on their parents' policies or have not been driving long enough to earn any NCB. As a named driver, you don't earn No Claims Discount (NCD) for your good driving as it only goes to the policyholder (meaning your mum/dad). You just need to be patient and drive carefully to get your very first year of driving without any claims so that your car insurance renewal can be a lot cheaper than what you paid for during the 1st year.

Of course it is not easy to tackle the points discussed above and that is why student car insurance quotes are so expensive. However there are various other things which can be done to reduce the premiums of a student driver. These include opting for a higher excess, getting a car which falls into a low car insurance group, choosing Third Party, Fire and Theft cover instead of comprehensive and doing less mileage in a year. These are the logical things to do to reduce your premiums.

There are also some not-so-obvious things to take into consideration. It is common for students to have expensive sound systems installed in their cars to show how cool they are. This unfortunately makes your car more prone to thefts and it is therefore not really advisable. Avoid modifying your car as well because that's something that insurers don't like at all.

Some insurers are working towards a greener future and are showing their support for the protection of the environment by rewarding carpooling. So if friends/family drive with you for part or the whole journey, then it's worth asking whether you'd be entitled to any sort of discounts.

And last but not least, a couple of insurers will give you discounts for having good grades. Being a top achiever shows that you're a responsible person and things like extra-curricular activities and personality report will all count towards a cheaper student premium.