Parents urged to shop around for car insurance

Over 1.78 million parents are paying car insurance premiums for their children but research from Sainsbury’s car insurance indicates that 25% only obtain one quote.

The bank’s research reveals that Mums and Dads who help their children pay for their car insurance contribute around £574.97 a year towards their premiums, or collectively £1.02 billion. Despite this, the bank warns that many parents are not shopping around for competitive cover when insuring their children’s cars.

Sainsbury’s Bank is urging motorists to shop around to make sure that they obtain competitive quotes. It estimates the average motorist could cut their premiums by a third if they shop around and make sure they purchase cover from the most competitive providers.

Joanne Mallon, car insurance manager, Sainsbury’s Bank said: "With some parents deciding to pay the premiums for their children's own insurance policies as well as their own, they could find insuring all the family’s cars an expensive exercise. Premiums can be very expensive especially when you consider the substantial differences in price available to those aged between 17 and 19. Despite this, many don’t shop around to make sure that they are paying fair and competitive premiums."

Of those parents interviewed who are contributing towards the cost of their children’s car insurance, the research found that they are paying around 72% of the premiums, but 53% claim that they are covering the full cost of cover. An estimated 193,000 parents claim to be paying £1,000 or more in car insurance premiums for their children.

Despite the huge amount of money that parents interviewed said that they were paying in car insurance premiums for their children, 25% only obtained one quote. Only 15% obtained more than five quotes.