How much can drivers really save with telematics car insurance?
Given the rising cost of car insurance, it is very important to understand the ways to save money—can telematics be a cheaper way to buy young driver car insurance? To find out, the car insurance experts at NimbleFins gathered data across dozens of car insurance quotes to establish whether or not telematics is really cheaper, and if so, by how much.
The cheapest new driver insurance we found for our sample driver were telematics policies. In fact, 4 of the 5 cheapest offer in our study were telematics. But in previous iterations of this study, we found that some telematics plans were quite expensive, so "telematics" is no guarantee of cheap car insurance.
Here's a scatter plot of the telematics (purple) and regular car insurance (teal) offers for our sample young driver in March 2026 so you can see how the quotes compare on excess and premium.
Let's have a look at how the prices broke down across the 60+ car insurance offers in our tests.
The cheapest plans are telematics
The absolute cheapest car insurance offer in our study was a telematics policy, at a cost of £464 for our sample driver. This is 25% cheaper than the cheapest regular car insurance policy on offer, which cost £618.
What's the cheapest: telematics or regular car insurance? | |
|---|---|
| Cheapest regular policy | £618 |
| Cheapest telematics policy | £464 |
| Telematics savings | £154 |
| Telematics discount | 25% |
One policy can be an anomaly, however. So let's expand the analysis and consider the 3 cheapest telematics vs the 3 cheapest regular policies. How do the prices compare now that we include more data? Telematics still comes out cheaper, this time by 12%.
| Comparing costs of the 3 cheapest telematics vs 3 cheapest regular car insurance offers | |
|---|---|
| Average of 3 cheapest regular policies | £672 |
| Average of 3 cheapest telematics policies | £589 |
| Telematics savings | £83 |
| Telematics discount | 12% |
On average, telematics has a lower excess, too
Another benefit of choosing a telematics policy could be getting coverage with a lower excess, but this is not always the case. We took a look at the excesses for the 3 cheapest telematics and 3 cheapest regular car insurance offers, and found that the average telematics excess was £382, which was 30% less than the average excess of £548 on the regular plans.
| Lower excess on telematics policies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Average excess on 3 cheapest regular policies | £548 | |
| Average excess on 3 cheapest telematics policies | £382 Difference | -30% |
But note that some telematics plans do come with a higher excess that can make the cheaper premium less appealing.
Cancellation fees are usually higher on telematics plans
There is a hidden cost to telematics car insurance, however—the cancellation fees can be significantly higher than on regular car insurance. For example, NimbleFins research has shown that the cost to cancel telematics car insurance can be as high as £247 during the cooling off period and £155 afterwards—these fees are 2-4X higher than the cost to cancel a regular car insurance policy.
Why are cancellation fees so high on telematics plans? Because the company needs to recoup some of the costs associated with setting up a telematics plan, like sending out the black box and having an installer fit the box to the policyholders car. This should be less of an issue on telematics plans that use phone GPS as opposed to a black box that is fitted to the car. But always check the cancellation fee to be sure.
Telematics is cheaper than regular car insurance from a single brand
If you look at telematics vs regular car insurance for a given brand, the telematics policy should theoretically be cheaper. And that is, in fact, what we found. In March 2026, of three brands offering both telematics and non-telematics options to our sample driver, the telematics was cheaper on average by 29% compared to the regular car insurance option (with a range of 8% to 41%). In terms of £ savings, telematics was cheaper on average by £265 (with a range of £63 to £440).
| Brand | Telematics plan name | Telematics cost | Regular plan name | Regular cost | Telematics £ savings | Telematics % discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admiral | Littlebox | £726 | Admiral | £789 | £63 | 8% |
| Hastings | youdrive | £464 | Hastings Direct | £755 | £291 | 39% |
| QuoteMeHappy.com | Connect Plus | £636 | Plus | £1,076 | £440 | 41% |
| Average telematics savings/discount | £265 | 29% | ||||
These figures reflect a 25-year-old driver. For a younger driver with a higher underlying car insurance premium, the £ savings are likely to be even greater. For example, saving 29% on a £2,000 policy (e.g. typical for an 18 year old) could translate into savings of nearly £600 by opting for a telematics policy over an equivalent regular policy.
Methodology
We gathered 63 car insurance quotes from a major UK comparison site. Of these, 4 were telematics and 59 were regular car insurance policies.
Our sample driver was 25 years old, has been driving for 7 years and has a clean driving record. They drive a 2017 Vauxhall Corsa valued at £7,000 and clock 7,000 miles each year.
Learn more about the cost of car insurance and how premiums can vary here.
Regarding the last section on comparing telematics to non-telematics per brand, note that we compared the telematics plan to the regular, non-telematics plans on offer for each brand that most closely matched on features to get the best understanding of how much you can save with telematics (comparing like for like).