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Guest Post – Should you pay for your teen’s car insurance?

This is a featured guest post from Sainsbury’s Finance Money Matters Blog

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Should you pay for your teen’s car insurance?

Teenage drivers are the most expensive to insure. So when they get behind the wheel, it represents the beginning of a costly period for either parent or child. The question is, should you foot the bill for your kids?

What are your options?

The most expensive option is for them to be insured to drive their own car. There is the initial cost of the car, and the insurance premium will comfortably run to four figures.

Another option is to add your child as a named driver on your own policy. This is less expensive, but it does mean you will have to give up your car from time to time!

However, you must continue to be the main user of the vehicle. If you use it less than your child, it renders your policy void or possibly fraudulent, as far as your insurance company are concerned.

You can also look at different levels of cover. Third party policies are known to be cheaper than fully comprehensive policies, but this might not always be the case. If you want to save as much as you can, make sure you cover all the bases and get car insurance quotes  for fully comprehensive and third party policies so you can be sure that you are getting the best deal.

Should you make your children pay?

This is a difficult question to answer, and much will depend on personal circumstances and the relationship you have with your child. One thing you have to recognise is that very few teenagers will be able to afford any insurance policy for themselves. It is not uncommon for premiums to be in the region of several thousand pounds for the year, which is clearly out of reach for many teenagers.

Some parents like to split the money and set up a direct debit, considering it important that their kids learn to take some responsibility for their own affairs.

Consider the consequences

Insurance premiums for 17- and 18-year-olds are high for a reason. You might consider your child responsible, but statistically teenagers are far more likely to crash a car than any other age group. If you are ready to pay for their insurance, you need to be prepared to pay out an excess fee on a claim, too.

It is also worth noting that some young drivers might actually run the risk of driving without insurance if they can’t afford to pay for it themselves – possibly resulting in the loss of their licence and some very hefty fines to boot. So that might be another consideration when deciding whether to help your child financially.

The final call

It is important for your children to learn to be responsible for themselves, but helping them to get insured and allowing them the opportunity to drive gives them the freedom they might need to flourish. Every situation is different, and only you will understand what is right for your family.

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My Dream Home

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Having boisterous children doesn’t do too much to keep our homes in pristine condition and I have a lounge that needs more work than I can shake a stick at.

I would love laminate flooring down, with an indestructible 3 x 3 seater combo, alongside some lovely chocolate-brown, or beige curtains for the windows.

I popped on to the Internet to see if I could find anything that I liked, and this just jumped out at me.  Yes, I might get tired of the colour scheme in time, but how fab does this look?

Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

After the lounge is cleared up, then I plan to move on to the kitchen and utility rooms.   My units are only a few years old, and they are similar to the colour of the ones in this picture.  This would be the perfect kitchen size.

Image: Paul Sutcliffe / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The only thing missing from this picture would be the appliances.  My old Belling Range cooker has seen better days, and with the slow cooker function out-of-order,  I looked for a new one.

I absolutely love this from the Stoves range – the colour is absolutely fabulous, and how much would that brighten up a bland and beige kitchen?

My second choice would be the beige version which is just as lovely, though the red one would be my secret passion.

Moving on to the utility room, there is the possibility of bigger washing machines and tumble dryers.  I will continue with my self-centred dreaming of perfection, and nothing less than a HUGE capacity washing machine and dryer would do for me as there are six people in the house.

I have a 9kg washing machine just now, but only a 5kg tumble dryer, so a bigger tumble dryer would be one of my first priorities if money were no object and I could choose absolutely any machine that I liked.

Look at this beauty for a tumble dryer.  It is an 8kg LG machine and very near to almost double the size of the load that I can get dried in one cycle with the dryer that I have got just now

Doing washing for 6 means the machines are never off.  Two of mine play outdoors football twice a week, so that’s 2 huge loads just on football kit and nothing else.  My 9kg machine copes quite well, but for that extra oomph, and the chance of being able to wash the superkingsize quilt, my wishful thinking leads me to my current ultimate machine for washing.

I have an LG already, so it’s easy for me to drool over this stunner.

This one has a MASSIVE 11kg load.  It is my current dream machine.

The only thing left on my list for downstairs would be the built-in dishwasher to replace the one I have which is not in very good working order.  The runners of the top tray keep popping off and the track is twisted, making sliding in the bottom tray very difficult and heavy.

Looking around, I would be happy to have the Zanussi.

What a machine this would be.

This covers the downstairs of my dream house.  Now  have to think about what I would put upstairs….

Looking forward to February, I am really excited to let you know that around half way through the month, there is going to be a super dooper giveaway for one of my readers who blogs and wants to benefit from a dream machine to go in their home.

You can keep watching my blog for it arriving, or you can leave a comment on this post with your twitter or email address in the comment and I promise that I will let you know when it goes live ……

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