Bedford Driving Lessons

A new form of insurance will allow young learners to drive your car without prompting a massive rise in premiums or endangering your no-claims bonus. Young Marmalade, which specialises in offering cars and insurance to new drivers, has come up with the policy aimed at learners called Provisional Marmalade. The cover costs between £90.95 and £99.50 per month. The price is based on where you live, and you will be excluded only if you’re looking to add a learner to a high-powered car. Because it’s a separate, fully comprehensive policy in the name of the learner driver, the parent’s no-claims discount is not in danger. The policy tackles the dilemma facing many youngsters, who can’t practise in their parents’ car because insurers won’t cover them. Around half of insurers won’t offer cover to those aged under 21 – some place the restriction at 25 – and most won’t allow you to put a provisional driver on your insurance. Even those who will allow learners to be added as a named driver frequently charge between £1,000 and £3,000 for a year. Yet the Driving Standards Agency advises learners to have 22 hours’ practice after they have had 45 hours of professional driving instruction and before taking their test. Nigel Lacy, of Young Marmalade, says: ‘The high cost of insurance has put off youngsters learning to drive or they are tempted to practise without insurance. We want to encourage safer motoring. The more practice they get, the better drivers they will be.’ The policy, which is underwritten by Chaucer, is being sold by motoring accessory store Halfords, where details of the scheme are included in packs of L plates, as well as by brokers and through the company directly. It covers only young drivers in the car you’ve stipulated at the outset. The AA is also planning to bring out monthly provisional driver cover, though it hasn’t yet decided how much it will cost. Learners can be covered to drive your car as long as it’s not worth more than £20,000. As with Provisional Marmalade, friends or other family members can supervise the learner in your car provided they have been driving for three years. The supervisor must be aged over 25 with Marmalade and over 21 with the AA. Once the learner passes their test, the policy ends or you can add them to your existing policy as a named driver. Some insurers, such as Admiral, Direct Line and More Than, will allow you to add a learner to your policy on a monthly basis. And if you have protected your no-claims discount, you won’t lose it if your youngster has an accident. More