The Independent’s journalism is supported by our readers. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn commission. Why trust us?
When you’re young, getting a car can unlock a world of possibilities. But it comes at a cost, as young driver insurance is typically the most expensive kind of cover you can get. Fortunately, there are still ways to find cheaper car insurance quotes for young drivers, as we explain in this guide.
Young driver insurance is car insurance that is suitable for drivers aged 17 to 24. It’s not a specialist policy or a separate product, but it’s usually more expensive than other car insurance types. This is because young drivers are considered more of a risk for insurance providers due to their lack of driving experience.
Car insurance for young drivers works in the same way as other car insurance types and is designed to protect you financially if you’re involved in a road accident. Your exact cover levels will depend on the policy type you choose and what your chosen provider offers.
There are three main types of car insurance cover available for young drivers. It’s important to consider each one carefully before choosing what works best for you.
On top of your base policy, you can increase your cover by including a range of optional extras.
Make sure you choose these carefully, however, as you’ll usually pay more for this additional cover. Depending on your provider, and what is already included in your level of cover, you might be able to choose from:
When you’re looking to get car insurance as a young driver, you’ll likely need to have the following to hand to compare quotes:
The bad news is that, as a young driver, you’ll be paying some of the most expensive premiums around. The good news is that, if you’re a careful driver, that premium should only get cheaper year-on-year.
For instance, the average annual comprehensive car insurance policy costs £1,732.08 for drivers aged 17 to 19, while it drops to £1,159.83 for drivers between 20 and 29. That’s a 33.03 per cent reduction in the average premium between these age groups.
Meanwhile, for drivers aged 50 to 59, premiums fall as low as £447.47. These figures are based on policies purchased from MoneySuperMarket in March 2024.[1]
| Age bracket | Average annual premium[2] | Percentage change as you age[3] |
|---|---|---|
| 17 to 19 | £1,732.08 | N/A |
| 20 to 29 | £1,159.83 | -33.03% |
| 30 to 39 | £711.08 | -38.61% |
| 40 to 49 | £568.66 | -20.13% |
| 50 to 59 | £447.47 | -21.31% |
| 60-plus | £409.74 | -8.43% |
Your car insurance will likely cost more if you’re between 17 and 24 because drivers in this age range are less experienced on the road and are statistically more likely to cause more expensive accidents compared to older drivers.
According to the most recent data from the ABI, in 2022, the average claim made by drivers aged 17 to 20 cost £6,651 – almost £800 more expensive than the second highest age group, drivers aged 86 to 90.[4]
| Age bracket | Average claim (£) |
|---|---|
| 17-20 | £6,651 |
| 21-25 | £5,192 |
| 26-30 | £4,078 |
| 31-35 | £3,839 |
| 36-40 | £4,007 |
| 41-45 | £3,848 |
| 46-50 | £3,815 |
| 51-55 | £3,760 |
| 56-60 | £3,444 |
| 61-65 | £3,770 |
| 66-70 | £3,687 |
| 71-75 | £3,843 |
| 76-80 | £4,333 |
| 81-85 | £5,244 |
| 86-90 | £5,859 |
| 91+ | £4,923 |
Younger drivers are also more likely to make a claim. In 2022, nearly 8.8 per cent of policies taken out by 17 to 20 year olds saw a claim made, easily more than any other demographic.[5]
Insurers have to mitigate this increased risk by charging higher premiums. However, the exact cost of young driver insurance will also depend on factors such as your occupation, the type of car you own, your driving habits, your car’s security and your annual mileage.
One in five drivers (20 per cent) crash within a year of passing their test and more than 1,500 young drivers are killed or seriously injured on UK roads each year, according to Brake.[6]
We ran more than 110 quotes using our 21-year-old driver profile. In our analysis we found that Hastings YouDrive – a telematics policy – was the cheapest policy 86.73 per cent of the time.[7]
We also found that 95.46 per cent of the cheapest policies for young drivers were telematics policies.
| Policy | Frequency as cheapest policy (%) | Is it a telematics policy? |
|---|---|---|
| Hastings YouDrive | 86.73% | Yes |
| Admiral Littlebox | 3.54% | Yes |
| Privilege DriveXpert | 3.54% | Yes |
| Quotemehappy.com Connect | 2.65% | Yes |
| Hastings Essential | 2.65% | No |
Although it can be hard to find cheap car insurance for young drivers, there are a number of ways you can reduce the amount you pay for your premiums. We’ve put together the following tips to help you find the cheapest car insurance as a young driver available:
There are certain types of car insurance that are designed to help young drivers save money. These are outlined below.
With telematics or black box car insurance, a black box tracker is fitted to your car so your insurance provider can monitor your driving. Insurers will be tracking your speed, how sharply you brake, the time of day or night you drive, as well as how far and where you drive. Insurers then use this data to adjust your premiums accordingly. Someone who sticks to the speed limit and drives during quieter times and on quiet roads, for example, will pay less compared to someone who drives fast at night or during rush hour on busy roads. Some insurers might adjust your premiums every month, while others will offer a discount at renewal.
Benefits of telematics insurance:
Short-term or temporary car insurance is a flexible way to get cover for a short period of time. Policies can last for as little as one hour and up to around 30 days, although some policies will last up to three months. This can be helpful (and potentially cheaper) if you’re using someone else’s car to learn to drive or if you’re at university and only need to use a car when you’re home for the holidays. Policies include cover for loss, theft, fire or vandalism, legal liability, personal accident costs and legal expenses. As an added bonus, the car owner’s no-claims history won’t be impacted if you have an accident and claim on your temporary policy.
Benefits of short-term car insurance:
With pay-as-you-go car insurance, also known as pay-per-mile insurance, a device tracks the number of miles you drive. You’re then billed at a pre-agreed rate depending on the number of miles or number of hours you’ve racked up.
This can make it a much cheaper option if you don’t drive far or if you don’t drive on a regular basis – for example, if you sometimes drive your parent’s car. An additional fixed cost will also cover your car while it’s parked. Fully comprehensive cover is usually offered as standard and you can still build up your NCB.
Benefits of pay-as-you-go car insurance:
Being added as a named driver to another driver’s (typically a parent’s) policy can be a lot cheaper than taking out a separate policy for a young driver. However, as a named driver, you must drive the car less often than the main driver, otherwise you could be found guilty of something called fronting, which is illegal. Alternatively, you could add a more experienced driver to your own car insurance policy to reduce the cost. In this case, you (as the main driver) must drive the car more frequently than the named driver.
Benefits of being added as a named driver:
One of the biggest decisions you’ll make as a young driver is picking which car to insure. That’s why we’ve created an index to work out the best car for drivers aged between 17 and 27.
This Gen Z car index looks at the median second-hand price when buying the car, the cost of insurance, its fuel efficiency in miles per gallon (mpg), and its Euro NCAP safety rating. From that, we calculated a Gen Z suitability score out of 10.
| Rank | Model[8] | Second-hand price[9] | Insurance cost per year with parents on policy[10] | Insurance cost per year without parents on policy[11] | Fuel efficiency in mpg[12] | Gen Z suitability score (out of 10)[13] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Citroën C1 | £2,648 | £2,081 | £2,658 | 69 | 8.89 |
| 2 | Vauxhall Corsa | £2,127 | £2,495 | £2,758 | 55 | 8.59 |
| 3 | Renault Clio | £2,273 | £3,099 | £3,717 | 60 | 8.58 |
| 4 | Smart Fortwo | £2,997 | £2,269 | £2,510 | 69 | 8.49 |
| 5 | Honda Jazz | £2,997 | £2,988 | £3,579 | 63 | 8.41 |
| 6 | Nissan Note | £3,273 | £2,526 | £2,792 | 68 | 8.40 |
| 7 | Toyota Yaris | £3,299 | £2,589 | £2,863 | 63 | 8.38 |
| 8 | Vauxhall Meriva | £2,873 | £2,541 | £2,809 | 57 | 8.29 |
| 9 | Peugeot 208 | £3,995 | £2,522 | £2,787 | 59 | 7.89 |
| 10 | Renault Megane | £2,493 | £3,111 | £3,702 | 51 | 7.22 |
Overall, the Citroën C1 came out on top, in large part thanks to its fuel efficiency rating and the fact it was the cheapest for young drivers to insure if they added a parent as a named driver. Without parents, the cheapest car to insure was the Smart Fortwo.
The Vauxhall Corsa, meanwhile, was the cheapest of the top 10 to actually purchase, with a median second-hand price of £2,127.
It may be no surprise that younger drivers – the age group with the most expensive claims – are also the most likely to fail their theory test were they to sit it today. But it’s still shocking that less than a third (32 per cent) of 17 to 24 year olds would pass, according to our survey.[14]
We asked respondents the following five basic road safety questions:
And with the exception of question four, 17 to 24 year olds were significantly worse than the UK average when it came to getting the answer correct.
| Question | 17 to 24 year old correct answers (%) | Overall average correct answers (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Triangular road signs | 67.83% | 78.46% |
| Lights on motorway at night | 42.66% | 69.15% |
| Motorway speed limits | 48.25% | 79.00% |
| Wet road time gap | 34.27% | 26.17% |
| Slowing down on motorway | 61.54% | 72.14% |
It’s evidence that, as a young driver, you shouldn’t assume you know the rules of the road, even if you’ve only recently passed your test.
Refreshing your knowledge of the Highway Code won’t only keep you on the right side of the law; it could mean you avoid making the mistake that leads to a costly car insurance claim.
As long as you’re a safe driver and you don’t make any claims, your car insurance should become lower each year you drive. For example, the average annual car insurance policy for 20 to 29 year olds was almost 33.03 per cent cheaper than the average premium for 17 to 19 year olds, based on policies purchased through MoneySuperMarket in March 2024.
The cheapest car insurance group is Group 1. There are 50 insurance groups, and group one is the cheapest, while group 50 is the most expensive. Cars in group one tend to have good security and safety features, are cheap to repair, have a low market value and a smaller engine size.
Depending on the provider, you may need to pay an additional excess for being below a certain age (usually 25 years old), or for having your licence for less than 12 months. This will be on top of the standard compulsory excess and your chosen voluntary excess.
Depending on the insurer, this will be when you are over 24 or 25. Generally, young drivers are considered to be between the ages of 17 to 24.
If you take a driving course, you probably won’t save a huge amount on your insurance costs, but it can still be good practice, as it can help you to improve your driving skills. Some insurers offer a discount if you take an advanced driving course such as IAM RoadSmart’s Advanced Driver Course or the Pass Plus course. However, it’s still important to shop around and compare quotes elsewhere, even if you qualify for this discount.
If you intend to drive your car at any point, even if it’s infrequently, you’ll need some kind of car insurance, whether that’s an annual policy or temporary cover.
However, if you don’t intend to use your car for a significant period of time, you can register it as ‘off road’ using a Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN). Once you’ve issued a SORN, you wouldn’t need to have car insurance.
It is possible to add your child to your car insurance policy as a named driver. This can make it much cheaper for young drivers to get on the road. However, you’ll be committing car insurance fraud if you add your child as a named driver and they’re actually the main driver of the car that’s been insured. This is called fronting.
You’ll need to report an accident to your insurance provider whether you want to make a claim or not. Your provider will list its contact details online and in your insurance policy documents.
You should make a note of as many details as you can following an accident and keep any receipts or documents that can support your claim.
