Best Car Insurance for Young Drivers

If you can't wait to get behind the wheel of your first car, the cost of car cover could put a damper on things. That’s because car insurance quotes for young drivers tends to be more expensive compared to other age groups. But that doesn’t mean you can’t find a good deal – it’s all about knowing where to look.

• Best car insurance for young drivers
• Cheap car insurance for young drivers
• Cheap car insurance for young drivers by area
• Cheapest young driver insurance quotes
• Methodology

To help you get great value for money, NimbleFins analysed quotes from over 50 car insurance companies available on two major comparison sites. From here, we found the cheapest comprehensive plans across major English cities for new, young drivers.

Best car insurance for young drivers

The car insurance experts at NimbleFins gathered more than 50 young driver quotes for an 18-year-old male student.

The study results showed that the cheapest quote by some distance, was from General Accident (GA) Insurance. In fact, our data revealed GA was about 62% cheaper compared to the average for all the quotes we found, and 18% less expensive than the top three cheapest quotes.

It's worth knowing that a number of these brands hail from some of the UK’s biggest UK car insurance companies. For example, General Accident is part of Aviva and both Churchill and Privilege are part of Direct Line. In most cases, you’ll find that these larger parent companies aren’t particularly competitive when it comes to young driver car insurance, but will offer better deals through their subsidiary brands.

Cheap car insurance for young drivers

We’ve listed the 15 cheapest providers for young driver car insurance based on our study, including annual premiums and total excess.

What is an excess?

Almost all insurance policies come with an excess. This is an amount you have to pay if you want to make a claim. It’s vital that the excess you agree is affordable because if you can’t pay it, your claim simply won’t go ahead.

There are two types of excess which will apply to your policy:

Remember that quotes will vary so the cheapest provider on our list might not be cheapest for you—which is why it’s so important to shop around and compare quotes.*

*The quotes in this article reflect data for our sample driver, and should be used for informational purposes only.

What is young drivers car insurance?

Young driver car insurance is essentially the same as standard car cover, but policies are designed specifically for drivers under 25.

When you compare car insurance for young drivers, you’ll be able to choose from three levels of cover:

Young driver insurance quotes tend to be a lot more expensive, so comparing quotes is critical to finding cheap car insurance for young drivers. You might think that comprehensive cover would be the most expensive, but it's still worth comparing rates for that as it may actually be cheaper or at least comparable to the lower tiers. Why? Drivers who want insurance to protect their own car tend to be safer drivers (e.g. they take care with their car).

Cheap car insurance for young drivers by area

Our study found that not all quotes were available in all parts of the UK, and a handful of providers simply don’t offer young driver car insurance in some areas. For instance, we discovered that young drivers in Manchester were offered 45% fewer quotes compared to under 25s in other major cities. You can read more about our findings in our article on comparing the cost of young driver car insurance by area.

Cheap car insurance for young drivers in the north

From the quotes we found, General Accident Insurance was the overall cheapest insurer for young drivers in Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Manchester, and Liverpool.

Across these cities, the average price for GA was £1,569 for a young driver, nearly 63% less than the average cost across all the insurers in our study. So, if you live in any of these areas, GA may be your best bet for affordable insurance.

However, More Than's Smart Wheels, Churchill Drivesure and Ingenie were also competitive alternatives for young driver car insurance, with the second, third and fourth cheapest average car insurance for young drivers in northern England, respectively.

Cheap car insurance for young drivers in the south

In most cases, General Accident was also the cheapest car insurance provider for young drivers in the Southwest and the Southeast of England. For example, in London and Bristol, GA’s quotes for our example young driver were £1,027 and £991, respectively.

Cheapest young driver insurance quotes

Bear in mind the quotes we gathered were based on our sample profile so the cheapest quote for you in your area, might not be the same as the cheapest quotes we found. Plus, don’t forget that some brands only provide quotes in certain areas.

To give you an idea of what’s available and from who, here’s a summary of the top three cheapest providers by area.

How to cut the cost of young driver insurance

Insurance for young drivers is expensive and it’s not something that’s likely to change anytime soon. That said, there are ways to keep car insurance costs as low as possible; here are our tips:

1) Choose your car carefully

The make and model of your car can have a dramatic effect on your premium (and you might be surprised by the cost differences). For instance, the ever-popular Ford Fiesta costs on average £200 less a year to insure than the Ford Focus.

To compare how different cars stack up against each other on cost, take a look at our article on What Does it Cost to Insure the UK's Most Popular Vehicles?

2) Add a responsible driver to your policy

Adding a more experienced named driver to your policy, such as your mum, dad or other relative, could cut premiums by as much as 50%. Just remember that to get the lowest quotes, named drivers should not have any driving convictions or have made any recent car insurance claims.

3) Install a telematics device

Telematics policies base premiums on the way you drive, rather than generic data for your age group. If you take out telematics insurance, a device will be fitted to your car and linked to your insurer. The device will collect data on your driving style, including, speed, acceleration, braking, and cornering. Some insurers may also monitor the times of day that you drive. If you drive consistently well (based on the data gathered) you could see premiums fall much faster compared to standard car insurance policies.

4) Avoid fronting

Fronting is when you take out a policy and say someone is the main driver instead of you, in order to get cheaper car insurance. It can be an easy enough mistake to make but the consequences can be serious. Not only can it invalidate your policy, it’s a form of insurance fraud and can lead to prosecution.

Car insurance for young drivers under £1000

As you can tell from the pricing analyses above, finding car insurance for young drivers under £1,000 will take some doing. First, keep in mind the tips listed above to try to bring your young driver car insurance under £1,000. Also, take stock of how much you actually plan to drive.

If you won't actually drive a lot, you might find it more cost effective to buy a low-mileage policy (e.g. By Miles) or pay for temporary car insurance, which you can purchase by the hour, day, week or month.

Note: temporary (short-term) car insurance is NOT cost effective if you end up buying it over and over to cover the majority of time. It only works if you need sporadic cover. Be sure to check prices and consider how often you'll need to buy it before going that route.

Temporary car insurance for young drivers

Temporary car insurance for young drivers is useful if you're learning, borrowing someone else's car, driving a new vehicle home or just getting cover while you're home from uni. It can be set up in minutes and doesn't require a black box.

You can either buy short-term car insurance for young drivers from a company that has one product, or from a broker that has a few offerings at different price points. For the latter, click on the blue button below to get quotes from our partner, Go Shorty. They work with household names such as LV= and Ageas, as well as specialists like Mulsanne and KGM.

Van insurance for young drivers

It's particularly important to compare rates for van insurance before you buy if you're a young driver. Why? Van insurance is typically more expensive (than car insurance) and young driver insurance is typically more expensive (than for more experienced drivers)—combine these two and young drivers of vans can pay a hefty premium. For short-term van insurance for young drivers, you can get a quote from Go Shorty. For longer-term cover, compare quotes here.

Best insurance for young drivers without black box

A lot of the telematics insurance providers will also insure young drivers without a black box—but it will certainly cost more.

For example, our study on how much you can save with telematics showed that among insurers offering both types of cover to young drivers, the telematics plan was 31% cheaper on average.

If you're really want young driver insurance without a black box, we have seen that big names like Admiral and Hastings will offer cover. It will just cost more than if you opt for their telematics cover.

Remember, going for a telematics plan now doesn't mean you'll be tracked forever—it's only for the time you have that particular policy. And once you get a bit older you'll be able to find a cheaper rate without telematics. As you can see in our analysis of the cost of car insurance, rates drop significantly as a young driver gains experience.

Methodology

To find quotes and determine what a young driver might typically pay for comprehensive car insurance, we gathered quotes for a sample 18-year-old male driver with a full UK licence, driving a 2015 Ford Fiesta (the UK's most popular car).

In total, we collected over 300 quotes for a driver living in London, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle and Sunderland.

Quotes were based on driving 5,000 miles annually and we opted for a courtesy car, breakdown, personal accident and legal cover. Using our sample quotes, we then chose the cheapest providers for young driver insurance.

Quotes were gathered from plans from the following car insurance companies: