Did you know the average driver faces an annual insurance premium of £680, with drivers under the age of 25 paying over £1,400? Here are our top car insurance cost-cutting tips for young drivers that can save you £100s.
Don't assume third party is the cheapest
There are three different types of car insurance: third party only, third party fire and theft, and fully comprehensive.
Logically, third party insurance should be cheapest for young drivers as it offers a lesser level of cover than fully comp, yet this isn't always the case.
The rationale is that insurers think people who choose third-party insurance are more of a risk. In one low-risk young driver quote, we found an annual £1,500 saving for having comprehensive cover over a third-party only policy.
Try adding a second responsible driver
Adding a second driver should push the cost up, yet bizarrely it can cut your costs. We tried adding a 40-year-old family member as an 'occasional' user (not a main driver) to an 18-year-old's policy which cut the premium by around £1,000. These five tips show how it can cut your costs...
- Car insurance is all about risk. That’s why it can work, if you’re a high-risk driver and you add someone who is a much lower risk as a 2nd (and/or 3rd) driver, they can bring down the average risk and you may get a cheaper policy.
- This isn’t just for young drivers. While it works well for young drivers as they are automatically seen as a high risk and know many people, like their parents, who may be lower risk it can work for anyone – but of course is especially powerful for those with costlier insurance.
- The better the driving history and lower their risk, the more impact it should have.Those with a good driving record are likely to help make the most savings, but anyone who's a lower risk can help. By law insurers can’t discriminate over gender, but age, driving experience and history can make a difference.
- This is about trial and error not logic. Your mum may increase the cost, your brother may cut it, or vice-versa. It's just a question of trying different quotes and seeing what happens.
- Different insurers respond in different ways: One may cut your costs adding your uncle, another may increase it. Therefore a quick way to check is by varying quotes on comparison sites – it's easy to do, see our top comparison sites list below.
- The second driver should be someone who would reasonably drive your car. So don’t add Lewis Hamilton, unless you happen to be his brother (and even then racing drivers are likely a very high risk so I wouldn’t bother) - but your mum, son, best mate or gran should be ok - as long as they would drive the car.
- Never add someone as main driver if they’re not. This is known in the industry as 'fronting' and is fraud. If you do it and are caught you can face a criminal conviction and your insurance will likely be invalid.
Here are some successes to inspire you...
As a young new driver my insurer wanted £5,000 but after adding mum and dad it dropped to £1,900.@Faevouritexox
Took your advice and added my mum to my car insurance and saved £500 #mumstheword.@mazzyb5
Ensure you always minimise your risk
Whether or not you're a young driver, insurance premiums (the payments made to insurance companies) depend on three things:
