Car Insurance for 18 Year Olds in Ireland
Caeva O'Callaghan | July 18th, 2023
What’s The Best Way For Me To Insure My 18-Year-Old Daughter On My Car?
When a child starts driving, it can be nerve-wracking enough for a parent without worrying about car insurance. But you need to make sure they’re fully insured before you go out.
If you have a young driver in your household, you can insure them on your car by calling your provider. Your car insurance company will be happy to give you a quote if they can provide one.
Different insurance companies have different policies however, and different prices for adding younger drivers to your policy. As with most insurance matters, it pays to shop around.
In this article, we’ll answer questions like:
- How much does it cost to add a young driver to my insurance?
- Can I add my niece or nephew to my car insurance?
- How can my son or daughter get named driver experience?
When you’re learning to drive, it can be extremely useful to be added to an older relative’s policy. It helps you get named driver experience, and lets you get on the road. But, it’s important to get full cover first.
Getting a young drivers car insurance quote
Start off by contacting your car insurance company or your insurance broker and asking for a quote. Either your car insurance company will be happy to give you a quote for a named driver, or they’ll tell you they cannot. Some insurance providers simply will not cover a driver less than 25 years of age.
Once you have a quote from your own car insurance company, call us next. We may be able to find a cheaper quote for you elsewhere, or fuller coverage for the same price.
Keep in mind that your son or daughter’s learning status as a young driver will impact your quote. Oddly enough, a quote for a learner’s permit may be substantially less than the quote you would receive if they held a full licence.
This seems contradictory, as in normal circumstances the more experience a driver has, the better and cheaper the quote. But in the case of young and learner drivers, it is illegal in Ireland for a holder of a learner permit to drive a car without a full licence holder accompanying them.
This is the case for every journey, no matter how short, a learner driver makes. But having a full licence holder in the car reduces the risk so significantly that this factor outweighs their relative inexperience driving the car itself.
Young drivers and car insurance
Some insurance companies simply will not add on a driver who is less than 25 years of age. One insurance provider that we know of will add on a temporary additional driver for a month for €140 if the driver is less than 25 years old.
But, there are some car insurance products on the market which are specifically for helping young drivers build experience. Allianz’s Family Car Insurance is based on use of their Safe Driver App. The app is free to download to your child’s Android or iOS smartphone. Once downloaded, it monitors and scores their driving behaviour based on factors like braking, acceleration, and speed.
The safer your child drives the higher their score. If they achieve a driving score of 80 or more, you’ll get a 30% discount off their portion of your next renewal premium.
Has your child only got a learner’s permit? To accompany them, you must have held your full driving licence for a continuous period of two years prior. Also, you need to be sober and fit when you accompany the learner on a drive. So going to a party and getting your daughter to play taxi and drive you home after a few bottles of wine is not a good idea.
If your child drives unaccompanied or the accompanying driver does not meet the criteria above, the insurance may be invalid. Insurance companies have the right to reject a claim if a driver was driving outside the terms of their licence.
Getting their own insurance
Eventually (hopefully) your child will pass her test and want their own vehicle. Having named driving experience for a year or longer will really help reduce the quotations when they go to buy insurance in their own name.
But this means your child will need to replace the L (learner) plates with N (novice) plates for a minimum of 2 years following their test. Non-display of N plates is an offence under traffic law and is punishable by a fine of up to €1,000 for a first offence. (And no, car insurance won’t cover it!)
When your child gets their full licence, you no longer need to accompany them when they’re out and about. But driving alone for the first time can be intimidating, so you might want to ease them out of this habit.
When your child has a full licence, this means they’ll need full insurance, just like you. They can remain a named driver on your policy, but this kind of cover is really for emergencies only.
f your child is about to get their full licence, give us a call today and we can help sort out their cover.
Talk to our car insurance experts, if you are looking to get your children insured.
If you are looking for car insurance for your children, pick up the phone and talk to our motor insurance experts. We can walk through all the options that are available when insuring young drivers and make sure you understand all the options. We are available for calls by phone, Mon-Fri between 8.30am and 5.30pm on 0818 224433 or 042 9359051.