Driving a hard bargain

Ella took her first driving lesson this week, and, being a driven girl at the best of times, she is anxious to pass her test asap – by the end of the summer if she can manage it. So that means, being car-less at the moment, we have to find a way for her to practise between lessons. As those old enough to remember the bumper stickers: “our other car is a bus”. Thank heaven for decent public transport where we live. Anyway, a brave family friend has offered to take her out in his car to practise in – which used to be our car, I know confusing isn’t it? So all I had to sort out this afternoon was the insurance.

I started off with my old favourite, Martin Lewis, and clicked through his moneysavingexpert.com site to find Ella some cheap insurance. The ‘cheapest’ turned out to be £1472.90. Excellent value – not – I thought, especially when she will be at home for precisely four weeks before she takes off on holiday and then hotfooting it back to Uni before her feet have touched the ground.

I flirted with Coverbox, an insurance company that specialises in insuring young drivers by fitting a tracking device into the car to check the hours and quality of their driving, but unfortunately it took exception to the age of our (ex) car…

They recommended tempcover.com, which offers temporary cover and after five more minutes tapping on my computer I found we could insure Ella for a month for £125.81 – not exactly a bargain over a year – but it might just tide her over till she can start giving us a lift home…

Posted by Amanda Blinkhorn