Great value for young drivers. (Direct Line)

Member Name: thingy25

Product:	Direct Line
Date:	18/04/04 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap for under 25s.

Disadvantages: Lack of courtesy car.

First of all I never yet needed to make an insurance claim, so I am not in a position to comment on their claims procedure.

In my experience I have found Direct Line to offer the best quotes for drivers under 25. I got my first car when I was 23 and for both of my first two years insurance Direct Line?s quote was over £200 cheaper then the second best I received after obtaining quotes from all the major insurance companies listed in Yellow Pages.

I found their call centre staff to be friendly helpful and not pushy at all. After initially taking out my cover with them online my details must have got processed twice or something, as I received two confirmations for two identical policies. Fortunately this was resolved quickly without hassle in a single telephone call to them and no evidence of the second policy appeared on my bank statement.

Now a question, if you are constantly told that your premiums are high because you are under 25, is it then reasonable to expect your insurance to drop when you reach 25? In Direct Line?s case, apparently not. When it came to renewal time at 25, their premium was not a lot different from the previous year. I found that a few companies, who previously were not in the ballpark, were now offering me more competitive quotes then Direct Line. These also included a courtesy car should I need it, something that Direct Line does not offer.

It does appear to me that Direct Line penalise driving convictions quite heavily. Whilst I was insured with them a named driver on my policy picked up an SP30. My premium went up by more (both in terms of amount and percentage increase) then their own premium did for their own car. I have no driving convictions myself.

Summary: