Cars and bikes
Cars
Amazingly enough, quite a few students are car-owners, in spite of the massive costs involved in running a four-wheeled metal monster and the havoc they wreak on the planet.
Why oh why, you may ask. Well, a car may make sense if you’re living with your parents, as your other costs are likely to be fairly low and your folks are unlikely to have had proximity to a university campus at the top of their list of priorities when choosing the family abode.
The course you do can also tip the balance in favour of keeping a motor. If you’ve signed up for something that involves a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing to get to various placements – medicine or teaching, for example – you may find you’re wasting hours of each day on public transport or having to walk for miles unless you have your own set of wheels.
For the rest of the student species, however, a vehicle is a harder banknote bonfire to justify. After buying the car itself, the biggest expense is the insurance and new drivers under 21 are unlikely to have much luck finding anything that doesn’t blow their student income out of the water. The AA reckons annual insurance for the smallest car will set you back £360 a year on average.
Whether your car is shiny, new and sexy or clapped out and rusty, shop around for the best deal – you can save several hundred quid. It might be cheaper to take out car insurance from your home address rather than your university address or vice versa. Try a comparison site such as www.confused.com to compare prices.
If your car’s more than 25 years old, you may qualify for classic car insurance which cuts the cost like a machete through a mango. It’s still outrageously expensive, though, and hardly any student who cared about the state of their finances would ever even consider owning a car.
Bicycles
Bike insurance is pretty pricey too, believe it or not. Mainly because the student who doesn’t have their bike nicked at some point is probably the student who doesn’t own one.
Some of the banks offer good insurance deals also. If you’re getting a bike – which, by the way, is a fantastically economical thing to do as a student (so long as you use it) – best to stick with one that doesn’t look too flash. It’s also worth splashing out on the most intimidating padlock and chain you can find. (And, by the way, you can buy a metre of saw-proof chain at a hardware store much more cheaply than a tailor-made bike chain). And try to get a bike with a removable saddle.
Bike insurance is, however, usually cheaper than car insurance, although premiums usually take a hike every year. Always check the terms and conditions of your insurance documents very carefully.
Last updated on: 23 September 2008