How to lower car insurance as a young driver

The short answer

Young drivers pay more because they're more likely to claim. You can't buy your way out of that. But six things move a first quote, and two shortcuts cost you the policy.

Here they are. Start with the car and pick one in a low insurance group. Then try a black box quote, and add a genuinely experienced named driver.

Look beyond the comparison sites and raise the excess only to an amount you could pay. Pass Plus comes last, because even gov.uk can only say it "may" help.

The two shortcuts are a parent posing as the main driver, and a quote that isn't quite true. Both end the same way.

And no, none of this makes a first policy cheap. The quotes really are that bad at 17. The aim is a quote you can afford on a policy that pays out.

Why the quote is so high

Insurers are allowed to price on age, within a limit. From 18, the Equality Act 2010 lets a financial service consider your age only on one condition.

The risk assessment must use "information which is relevant to the assessment of risk and from a source on which it is reasonable to rely". That's Schedule 3, paragraph 20A, which applies in England, Wales and Scotland. At 17, the Act sets no limit at all, because section 28 leaves under-18s out of the Act's age protection for services.

The information they rely on is claims data, and it isn't kind. The Department for Transport says drivers aged 17 to 24 hold 6% of driving licences in Great Britain. They were involved in 24% of fatal and serious collisions in 2024.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) puts the pricing logic plainly. Young drivers are "far more likely to be involved in accidents than drivers aged 25 and older", so they're more likely to claim. That's the whole reason, and no form you fill in changes it.

Where you live matters too, and the postcode effect is covered in our guide to why postcode affects car insurance. What's left is what you can change.

Start with the car

The car is probably the biggest lever you control. Most cars sold in the UK are given an insurance group, and a used car almost always carries one from 1 to 50. Lower means cheaper to insure.

The group is set per engine and trim, not per model. One Ford Fiesta can sit anywhere from group 2 to group 30. Our guide to the best used cars for new drivers works through which cars sit low and how to read a listing's group.

Before you look up a group, pin down exactly what the car is. Our free check shows the make and model on the car's DVLA and MOT records from the number plate. Then look up the group for that car's exact engine and trim, not the one in the advert's headline.

A black box, for the right driver

A black box policy, also called telematics, prices you partly on how you drive.

The ABI publishes no savings percentage at all, and says a black box won't always be cheaper. So get a black box quote alongside a standard one for the same car.

Curfews, mileage caps, night-driving scoring and what a poor score does to the policy all vary by insurer. Our guide to black box insurance goes through them, with a real Ombudsman case.

Add an experienced driver, the right way round

Adding a parent or another experienced driver to your policy can bring the price down.

That condition is the whole point. You, the young driver, must be the main driver if you drive the car most. Putting a parent down as the main driver to get a lower price is called fronting. It's fraud; it can leave you uninsured, and our guide to what fronting is explains where the line sits.

Excess, mileage, parking and security

The ABI's page on reducing the cost of motor insurance gives no figure for any of these four, and doesn't mention parking. Here's what it does say.

Excess first. The ABI's advice is that raising your voluntary excess "could reduce your premium", with the obvious catch that you pay more yourself if you claim. Set it at a number you could find next month. An excess you can't pay is a policy you can't use.

Mileage. If you can get about another way, the ABI says "it may be worth reducing your declared annual mileage". It gives no figure for the saving.

Comparison site Quotezone has published average premiums by mileage band, from a sample of 100,000 policies in 2024. Those compare different drivers, though, not what cutting your own figure would save. Our guide to how mileage affects car insurance covers how to pick an honest number.

Parking and security. The ABI says "some insurers will offer discounts" for improving the car's security, and gives an immobiliser or wheel locks as examples. Some, not all. Insurers usually ask where the car is parked overnight, so give the address where it's actually parked.

Pass Plus: ask before you pay

Pass Plus is a practical course of at least six hours with a Pass Plus registered approved driving instructor (ADI). Gov.uk says it can be taken at any time, and that it "should be most useful to new drivers in the year after passing their test".

Will it cut your premium? Gov.uk says only that it "may help you get a car insurance discount". It adds that "not all insurers offer Pass Plus discounts", and that the amount depends on the insurer.

Gov.uk gives no figure. Some guides quote percentages, but I couldn't trace one to a current insurer's own page, or find a list of which insurers take part.

So ask the insurer you're about to buy from, before you book the course. Ask again if you passed your test more than a year ago, because gov.uk says to check in that case. And if you don't have a car yet, gov.uk says you might be able to put the discount on hold for up to two years. Check that with the insurer first too.

The course has no set price. Gov.uk says fees depend on where you live, the instructor and how long the training takes. Some councils offer discounts, and gov.uk lists a few in England and Scotland.

In Wales, Pass Plus Cymru costs £20 if you're 17 to 25, hold a full licence, passed within the last 12 months and live in Wales. I couldn't find an official Northern Ireland page for Pass Plus, so ask an instructor there.

Compare properly and pay properly

Comparison sites are the right place to start. They aren't the whole market. The ABI's own advice is that "not all insurers appear on these websites", so it's worth getting quotes direct from a few as well.

Get all three levels of cover on the same comparison. Third party only is the legal minimum, but don't assume it's the cheapest. Price all three yourself.

Pay for the year if you can. Paying monthly usually means credit, with interest on top. Which? has looked at what monthly instalments cost, and our guide to paying monthly for car insurance has its figures.

One tip you'll read everywhere doesn't apply to you yet. The ABI says motorists "typically pay less" if they renew a couple of weeks early. That's for year two, when you have a renewal date. A first policy has nothing to renew.

The two ways to save that cost you the policy

Both traps are the same move: telling the insurer something that isn't true. Fronting is one version and gets its own page. The other is quieter.

Shaving the mileage. Giving a parent's address because it's cheaper. Leaving a modification off the form because the previous owner fitted it. Each one trims the quote today and surfaces at claim time.

The law on this is the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012, usually shortened to CIDRA. It covers policies bought wholly or mainly for purposes unrelated to your trade, business or profession. Section 2 gives you one duty: "to take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation to the insurer".

What happens next depends on how the mistake was made. Section 5 sorts a misrepresentation into deliberate or reckless on one side, and careless on the other. Schedule 1 then sets the remedies.

Deliberate or reckless, and the insurer "may avoid the contract and refuse all claims". It need not return your premiums, except where keeping them would be unfair to you. That's what an invented mileage or a false address risks.

Careless is treated more gently, and it turns on what the insurer would have done with the truth. If it wouldn't have insured you at all, it can avoid the policy but must return the premiums. If it would have used different terms, it can treat the policy as if it had them. If it would only have charged more, it can reduce the claim payment in proportion.

So a careless mistake that only made the quote cheaper can come back as a smaller payout on your own claim. A deliberate one can cost the whole policy. Our guide to undeclared modifications covers the one that catches honest buyers of used cars.

How to tell what's worth it for you

You don't need anyone else's figures for this method. Run one quote on a comparison site with your honest answers. Then change one thing at a time, on the same site, the same day, and run it again.

Raise the excess by £250 and see what moves. Add a parent as a named driver. Switch to a black box, or try a car two groups lower.

Each run tells you what that lever is worth to you, at your postcode, this month.

If I had to pick one run, it'd be the car.

If you're still on a provisional licence, the cover you need now is different, and our guide to learner driver insurance covers it. Once you've passed, the ABI's view is that "a history of a clean driving record and no claims can make a significant difference". That's the one lever that only works with time.

This piece is part of our guide to car insurance.

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