Young Driver Car Insurance: 2026 Costs and How to Cut Them

How much is car insurance for young drivers in 2026?

There is no single figure. Confused.com and Consumer Intelligence track quotes. MoneySuperMarket and Go.Compare report what their own customers bought. Each uses a different method, so compare figures from the same source rather than across sources.

Source: Confused.com Car Insurance Price Index Q3 2026 (23 Sep 2026); MoneySuperMarket (Oct 2026); Consumer Intelligence (July 2026); Go.Compare via Insurance Edge (21 Aug 2026). Checked October 2026.

For comparison, MoneySuperMarket’s median for drivers aged 60 and over was £378.87 in August 2026, so a 17–19-year-old typically pays around four times as much.

Cost by age from 17 to 24

Prices are highest in the first couple of years. In Confused.com’s Q3 2026 data, 18-year-olds were quoted more on average than 17-year-olds (£2,083 against £1,755), with 19-year-olds at £1,853. Confused.com doesn’t publish a separate band for 21–24-year-olds. Its 20–29 band averaged £1,254 in September 2026, and prices keep falling with age after that. The full table for every age group is in our car insurance guide.

Are young driver prices going up or down?

It depends on whose data you read. Confused.com found quotes for 17-year-olds fell 13% (£253) over the year to Q3 2026, and 18-year-olds’ quotes fell 11% (£259). But it also found drivers aged 23 and under saw rises of up to £64 (4%) in the latest three months.

Consumer Intelligence paints a sharper picture. Its July 2026 index showed under-25 quotes up 18.7% in a year and 14.8% in three months. Over the same year, quotes for 25–49-year-olds rose 10.2% and for over-50s 4.9%. Young drivers are taking the biggest increases.

Why is car insurance so expensive for young drivers?

Insurers price each policy on how likely you are to claim and how much a claim might cost. Aviva says young or inexperienced drivers “are more likely to claim”. A new driver also has no claims history to show and no no claims bonus to bring the price down.

Claims themselves are getting dearer, as repair costs rise for modern cars full of cameras and sensors. Our main car insurance guide covers those market-wide pressures, along with how your postcode and cover level affect the price.

Ways to cut the cost of young driver insurance

Black box (telematics) insurance

This is where the published evidence points most clearly. A Which? analysis (November 2025) found a telematics policy was the cheapest quote for 17–19-year-olds 82.8% of the time, and for 20–24-year-olds 74.6% of the time. Consumer Intelligence says telematics providers supplied 40% of the five cheapest quotes for under-25s in April 2026.

The trade-off is that your driving is scored. Which? says some providers may raise premiums or cancel cover for poor driving or speeding, and extra fees can apply, for example for changing vehicle or removing the box. Our black box car insurance guide explains how scoring, curfews and fees work.

Add an experienced named driver, honestly

Adding other drivers to a policy can lower the price. MoneySuperMarket found that quotes with three named drivers were £122 cheaper on average (enquiries April–July 2026), and Compare the Market also lists adding a named driver as a way to reduce costs.

This only works legally when the young driver is the policyholder and main driver, and the experienced person (often a parent) genuinely drives the car only occasionally. If it’s the other way round, that is fronting.

Fronting: why it’s illegal

Fronting is when a more experienced driver is named as the main driver of a car that a younger driver mainly uses, to get a lower price. Aviva says “Fronting is a type of insurance fraud”, and MoneySuperMarket calls it “a criminal offence”. According to Aviva, the consequences can include:

• the policy being void as if it never existed
• prosecution for driving without insurance, with fines, penalty points or disqualification, and a possible criminal record
• having to repay claims paid to third parties
• finding future cover harder to get and more expensive

MoneySuperMarket says claims will probably be denied, and that insurers detect fronting through claims investigations, CCTV, toll and congestion charge data, and social media. It is not rare: in Aviva research published in December 2024 (a Censuswide survey of more than 2,000 drivers aged 17–25), 17% admitted being on a fronted policy.

Choose a car in a low insurance group

The car you pick has a big effect on the price. The AA (December 2024) says group 1 cars are generally the cheapest to insure, and advises young drivers to avoid modifications such as alloy wheels and spoilers. Groups run from 1 to 50, and brand-new models launched since August 2024 are rated under a newer system called Vehicle Risk Rating. Our car insurance groups guide explains how both work and gives example models.

Security and parking

The AA’s December 2024 guide for young drivers suggests keeping the car in a garage, fitting an alarm and having the windows etched with the registration number. Tell the insurer accurately where the car is kept overnight.

Pass Plus

Pass Plus is a post-test course run by approved driving instructors (ADIs) registered with the scheme. GOV.UK’s guidance (as captured on 25 June 2026) says it takes at least 6 hours, normally with at least 5.5 hours of driving, across six modules: town driving, all weathers, rural roads, night driving, dual carriageways and motorways. It is most useful in the year after you pass.

GOV.UK says you “may be able to get a car insurance discount”, so it is not guaranteed. Fees vary, and some councils offer discounts on the course, including Hampshire, Wiltshire, Argyll and Bute, Fife, Inverclyde, South Lanarkshire and all councils in Wales. Confused.com’s guide (updated July 2023) put a typical course at £150–£200, and its July 2022–June 2023 data showed average premiums of £532 with Pass Plus against £627 without, though it says there is “no hard and fast rule” on discounts. Those figures are now over three years old.

Other ways to lower the price

The general tactics apply to young drivers too: buying a few weeks before your start or renewal date, paying annually rather than monthly, choosing your voluntary excess carefully and using an accurate job title. Our cheap car insurance tips set out the evidence for each.

Building your no claims bonus

A no claims bonus (NCB) is a discount for each year you hold your own policy without claiming. It is one of the main reasons prices fall as drivers get older, and the sooner you have a policy in your own name, the sooner it starts building.

Being a named driver on someone else’s policy generally doesn’t earn you a bonus of your own, although some insurers offer a separate discount for named-driver experience. Our no claims bonus guide explains how years build up, what a claim does to them and which insurers recognise named-driver history.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Confused.com – Car Insurance Price Index (Q3 2026)
• Confused.com – Q3 2026 Car Price Index report (PDF, Sep 2026)
• Consumer Intelligence – Young drivers taking the hit (July 2026)
• Consumer Intelligence – Car insurance prices rise (20 May 2026)
• MoneySuperMarket – Car insurance (Oct 2026)
• Insurance Edge – Go.Compare tracking data (21 Aug 2026)
• Which? – 1 in 6 who buy black box insurance don't know how it works (25 Nov 2025)
• Which? – How black box car insurance works (22 Jan 2026)
• Compare the Market – Car insurance (Sep 2026)
• Aviva – Fronting car insurance (updated 14 Jul 2026)
• Aviva – One in six young drivers admit to fronting (24 Dec 2024)
• MoneySuperMarket – What is car insurance fronting?
• The AA – Car insurance for young drivers (Dec 2024)
• GOV.UK – Pass Plus (National Archives capture, 25 Jun 2026)
• Confused.com – Is Pass Plus worth it? (Jul 2023)

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