YOUNG DRIVERS' INSURANCE

Young drivers face an uphill battle in obtaining affordable insurance. We take a look at a scheme that promises just that. It's certainly innovative.

Teenagers today have it so easy. A world of information is at their fingertips via the internet, A-levels only require a vague approximation of the correct spelling of your name for a pass and they'll never know the misery of waiting half an hour for a game to load from a cassette tape only for your computer to blink RUNTIME ERROR at you.

Just when I thought young adults led some sort of charmed existence I recoiled in horror as a colleague's 17-year old son attempted to insure himself on a bottom of the range Vauxhall Corsa. Ashen faced, he hung the phone up and asked where he was going to find £5,000. I remember feeling aggrieved at having to hand over £400 for cover on my Alfa Romeo Giulietta 2.0-litre when I was that age. This situation just seemed ludicrous and one company has tried to offer a solution.



Insurance underwriting isn't a matter of guesswork. The insurance companies have a solid stack of statistics that demonstrate that younger drivers are more likely to crash within their first two years behind the wheel, spend a greater percentage of their time than is the norm driving at night, when risks are higher, and they are also sharing the burden of paying for no win, no fee, legal costs. But therein lies the dilemma. If premiums are so high that young people get the bus instead, the insurers make nothing. Young Marmalade is a scheme that aims to supply an insured vehicle to young drivers. But only the right sort of young drivers.



As part of the Intell...