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Whether you are taking your car to university or leaving it parked on your parents’ drive, it’s important to make sure you have the right car insurance. But with money likely to be tight, you don’t want to spend any more than necessary. Find out what type of cover you need and how you can keep costs down with our comprehensive guide to student car insurance.
Don’t let the name student car insurance confuse you; it’s just an ordinary car insurance policy that is bought by students. However, while policies might not be specifically aimed at students, you might find there are ways to tailor your cover and make sure it properly suits your needs while you’re studying.
Car insurance for students can be expensive, but while there might be plenty of things you would rather spend your money on, it’s essential your car remains insured – whether it comes to university with you or stays at home and only gets driven during school holidays.
Driving on UK roads without a minimum level of car insurance is a criminal offence; get caught and you will end up with a fixed penalty of £300 and six points on your driving licence. In a worst-case scenario and your case went to court, you could be disqualified from driving and be stung with an unlimited fine.
If you already have car insurance, you don’t need to switch it when you go to university. However, you will need to tell your insurer you are going to be a student and give them your new address if you will be living away from home.
If you aren’t going to be driving your car while you are at university, you might be tempted to cancel your car insurance. However, the only way you can legally avoid insuring (and taxing) your car is to declare it off-road with a statutory off road notification (SORN).
However, this will mean you will not be able to drive your car at all – even when you are home during the holidays. To drive it legally, you would need to tax it again and arrange insurance – not necessarily something you would want to do every time you came home.
It is also important to be aware that once you have cancelled your student car insurance, it would no longer be covered if it was stolen, vandalised or damaged by fire.
Students have the choice of three different levels of cover when they buy car insurance. These are:
As third-party offers the lowest level of cover, lots of drivers think it will be the cheapest option. However, this is often not the case. Third-party cover often attracts higher risk drivers, which means it can end up costing more than you would expect. This means that for most drivers, fully comprehensive is actually the cheapest type of car insurance.