Young drivers car insurance

Drivers in the UK are legally required to have at least third-party car insurance in place, as a result of the continuous insurance enforcement rules brought in as part of the 2006 road safety act. Unless your car is legally registered as off the road with a SORN or in the process of being sold or bought, you may be fined for not insuring the vehicle.

Things are no different for young drivers – who are more likely to cause expensive accidents.

Your excess payment is the amount you contribute towards the cost of a claim before your insurer pays out the rest. For example, if you need to claim for £500 worth of damage and your total excess payment comes to £100, you’ll pay the £100 and your insurer will cover the remaining £400.

Excess payments are generally divided into two types – your voluntary payment and your compulsory payment. Your insurer will decide your compulsory excess amount, and the voluntary amount is decided by you to pay on top.

You might want to increase your voluntary payment on top of the compulsory excess amount as it can help you get cheaper car insurance premiums. This is because offering to pay more excess indicates to insurers you’re unlikely to bother making small claims that aren’t worth the excess.

However be sure it’s an amount you will still be able to afford to pay if you do need to claim, otherwise you might find yourself paying for cover you’re unable to use.

While driving courses such as Pass Plus or IAM do improve your driving, they won’t always get you cheaper car insurance premiums. The average driver won’t see any difference in premiums whether or not they have Pass Plus on their licence – but that doesn’t mean it won’t benefit you at all. Younger or inexperienced drivers might be able to save a few quid, but it’s better to shop around and compare options – this way if insurers do offer discounts you’ll be able to take advantage.

As a parent or guardian, you are allowed to add a younger driver to your car insurance, which allows them to drive your car. This will increase the cost of your insurance, as there’s now a less experienced driver at the while from time to time, but if they use the car occasionally it’ll be a lot cheaper overall than buying them a separate policy.

What you shouldn’t do is declare yourself the ‘main driver’ of a car that’s mostly driven by a younger person. This is illegal insurance fraud, often known as fronting.

Adding someone to your policy as a named driver should allow them to drive your car even if they don’t live with you – but you must always ask your insurer before you try.

When you take out car insurance as a young driver, be careful about the additional features you choose – they do bolster your cover, but you’ll generally need to pay more for the extra protection. Depending on your provider, you’ll usually have the choice of:

• Breakdown cover, which gives you access to roadside assistance if your car breaks down
• Windscreen cover, which lets you claim for the cost of replacing a cracked or shattered windscreen
• Legal cover, which will pay out for certain legal costs related to a claim by you or another party
• Driving abroad cover, which insures you for taking your car overseas and driving in the EU
• Courtesy car cover, which provides a replacement vehicle for you to use while yours is in repair
• Multi-car cover, which lets you drive more than one car under a single policy
• Personal accident cover, which pays out in the event that you’re injured or killed in a road accident
• Replacement keys, which covers the cost of replacing a set of keys if they’re lost, damaged or stolen
• Wrong fuel, which pays for repair costs if you accidentally top up the tank with the wrong fuel

Car insurance premiums generally get cheaper every year, so long as you don’t get any claims or convictions on your record. However, you’re likely to pay over £1000 a year for most of your early twenties – insurers will still probably see you as a young driver until you reach 25 years old.

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