Young Driver Car Insurance

Young drivers seem to get a lot of stick for little other than being young, and this is especially true when it comes to car insurance. Unfortunately, young driver car insurance can be more expensive than insurance for other age groups, but there are some ways to reduce your premium, so keep reading.

It’s commonly known that young drivers pay more for insurance than older drivers. But why is this the case? It comes down to the individual’s lack of experience, and the insurer’s lack of data on their driving. When you first start out driving, you have no indication what kind of driver you are going to be - and neither do insurance companies! Car insurance is calculated on probability, so simply looking at the numbers is a good way of working out why young driver’s car insurance is so expensive. 

Because young drivers usually haven’t had the time to Be Wiser and gain important driving history, insurance companies have to rely on statistics like these:

• One in five new drivers has a crash within their first year of driving after passing their test  (Source: ala.co.uk, 2017) 
• 9% of accidents are caused by drivers under the age of 19 (Source: ala.co.uk, 2017)
• Drivers aged 17-19 only make up 1.5% of UK licence holders, but are involved in 9% of fatal and serious crashes where they are the driver (Source: brake.org.uk, 2018)
• Drivers aged 16-19 are a third more likely to die in a crash than drivers aged 40-49 (Source: brake.org.uk, 2018)

For young drivers, this can feel like you are being punished for other motorists' mistakes. One way to counter this is and take back a little control over your premium is to take out black box car insurance, which we explain further below.

Read our top tips for keep down the costs of your young driver car insurance:

• Carefully consider the impact of your car on insurance – avoiding cars which have a “boy racer,” image is a good start. A car with a decent safety and security rating is most likely to push your premium down.
• You could also consider taking out black box car insurance. Black box, or telematics insurance, uses a device which is fitted into your car and monitors your driving style (Miles driven and behaviours, premiums, renewal premium could be substantially lower depending on your driving score and behaviours). Your premiums are based on how safely you drive, making the cost of your policy more fair to you.
• When you take out car insurance, you could choose a higher voluntary excess to help lower your premium. However, it’s important to make sure you would be able to pay both the excess and your voluntary excess in the event of a claim. 

Find out more about how to keep your insurance costs low in our article How to Reduce Car Insurance Premiums for Young Drivers and our guides to student car insurance and learner driver insurance.

While car insurance for young drivers is likely to stay high, there are ways to keep your insurance down – driving safely goes a long way towards helping with this. Get a young driver car insurance quote today.