Young Driver Car Insurance

Car insurance for young drivers is never cheap - prices have risen dramatically over the past few years and some of the most competitive firms in the market have been forced to increase rates considerably as car insurance claims from young drivers continue to rise. The introduction of EU Gender Equality legislation in December 2012 meant that insurers were no longer able to take gender into account when pricing insurance policies. This has been good news for young males who have seen premiums drop slightly but bad for females who can no longer benefit from their better driving statistics.

Using our guide, however, we hope to shortcut you to some of the most competitive premiums in the market - as mentioned by the AA recently, this does mean looking beyond car insurance comparison sites alone - so bear with us!

Do start with a quote from the MoneyMaxim cheap car insurance comparison service - we offer specialist young driver insurance companies including Admiral, Diamond, Elephant, and Endsleigh (who specialise in students and young professionals) as well as others whose marketing activity targets young women drivers. Additionally, for those looking for car insurance for provisional drivers, we feature Collingwood who only offer provisional licence holders insurance. Having widened our young driver specialist insurers significantly, we are now seeing the cheapest quotes displayed at even lower levels - good news for the newly qualified driver!

There are, however, other niche insurers in this market which are well worth considering.

Provisional Drivers

See our full article on Provisional and Learner Drivers Insurance

Newly Qualified Drivers

The Co-op Young Drivers policies also offer benefits making them ideally suited to those under 25 including fitting a 'Pay how you Drive' smartbox This allows safe drivers discounts to be earned and enabling drivers to track their driving style online and adapt it to earn bigger discounts. (Coop have temporarily paused sales of young driver insurance but please check back with them at a later date as they will resume.)

Coverbox now BeWiser are now quoted on the MoneyMaxim car insurance comparison service - they offer a tracker device free - but then track usage of the car and charge on that basis - rates vary - dependent on the time of day or night the vehicle is used - but those using their car during the day for a few miles can find it competitive for young drivers. Be aware that they only offer comprehensive policies and do not cover drivers who have a secondary occupation - which can be problematical for students with a part time job.

Multi Car Policies

If you have more than one car in the family it's well worth getting a quote from Admiral Multicar- not only are they competitive when it comes to young drivers, but they offer 'multicar' discounts, which can increase depending on the number of vehicles you insure - given the size of younger driver premiums this can make a huge difference. Their online quotation system even takes into account different renewal dates on different cars so you can see the saving you can make over the coming months.

The main downside is that after the first year all the car insurance premiums fall at the same time - which can be a bitter pill to swallow, and Admiral's monthly payment option comes at a price. We have seen some customers though use an interest free purchase card or a 'interest free balance transfer facility' allowing a premium to be paid on an existing card and then switched to the new interest free card to spread the premium at little or no extra cost, rather than the sometimes high interest rates charged by insurers - we have a fuller article on cutting the costs of paying for monthly car insurance premiums.

Tips on minimising the cost of young driver cover

Named Drivers

Whilst 'fronting' (naming one driver, say Mum or Dad as the named driver, but the car actually being used mainly by the newly qualified driver) may result in a cheaper quote but it is in fact illegal and can nullify your insurance policy - the 'main driver' should be the 'main driver' and the insurer may look for proof (so keep a driving record book if you think this might be asked for).

However adding a second more experienced driver with a clean driving record, who might use the vehicle occasionally, is perfectly legal and often reduces quotes considerably.

Wait a month or two

Quotations for a driver who passed their test a week ago are considerably higher than those who passed a year or even three months ago. Run a test through our quote comparision and see the difference!

If you can delay buying your insurance a little while you will probably make big savings.

Get a car in the right insurance group

Getting a sporty little number from the word go might be attractive but the insurance group on a car makes a huge difference - if you are buying a car make sure it's in the lowest insurance group - Check out insurance groups on the Association Of British Insurers Website.

This rule might also apply if you are inheriting a car from a relative - it might be cheaper to sell that car and start again rather than taking on a car from a high insurance group

Finally, if you would like further assistance, just give us a call on 0118 321 8197 (option 3) and we will be delighted to help you.

If you do come up with another insurer you think we should be shouting about - please let us know using the 'Contact Us' button at the foot of the page.

This content was last reviewed on 01/11/2021

Image courtesy of: Ben Schonewille at FreeDigitalPhotos.net