What Are The Best Student Car Insurance Companies In The UK?
If there's one thing that most students are short of, it's money.
And it gets even worse if you're a student with a car, because you can end up paying way over £1,000 for even the most basic car insurance. Are you feeling hard done by?
Fortunately if you shop around, you can find a better quote and cut your insurance costs.
In this article, we're going to talk about why car insurance for students costs so much, what factors might affect your quote, and ways to reduce your car insurance premiums - leaving you more money to spend.
What is student car insurance?
Student car insurance - as standard car insurance - is a legal requirement in the UK.
As the name suggests, student car insurance policy covers you as a student driver on the UK roads. You must at least have the minimum Third Party Only level of cover before hitting the road.
What does student car insurance usually cover?
Student car insurance policies often include as standard:
- damage to vehicle
- loss or theft of keys
- great audio and sat nav cover
- personal belongings cover (no exclusions of laptops, mobile phone etc.)
- EU cover
- Legal liability.
Watch out!
Never drive after a student party! You will never be covered for any damage if you've been drinking and are involved in a car accident. Check if you are good to go first with our drink drive calculator.
What are the best student car insurance providers?
You definitely need to shop around and get a number of student car insurance quotes in order to find the cheapest.
An inquiry for insuring a Fiat 500 in Great London pulled up quotes from just over £2,000 to over £9,000 - a huge variance.
Some insurers are known for doing a good job of providing university student car insurance. However, to find the cheapest and best car insurance for students, you'll need to compare as many providers as you can.
Do I need student car insurance?
Yes. You absolutely need student car insurance as it is a legal requirement to drive in the UK.
If you are already insured before going to university, you might be able to update your existing policy with your new address and occupation and tailor it according to your new needs (Named driver, EU cover, loss of keys cover, audio and sat nav cover etc). However, even if you are already insurance, we will always recommend to shop around instead of getting increased premium at the same provider every year.
If you don't have any, then taking out specific and dedicated student car insurance will often give you access to great benefits as well cashback plans and discounts.
Can I just drive my parents’ car?
You won't be able to take your parents' car with you and keep it insured under their names or at their address. You'll have to reinsure it with you as the main driver.
You have to tell the insurance company who is the main driver when you insure a car. So if the car is your parents' but you're driving it more than they are, it would have to be insured for you as the main driver.
Doing it the other way round is called 'fronting' - and insurance companies take a very dim view of it.
But if you just want to be able to drive while you're at home, or maybe to move some of your stuff between digs, your parents may be able to make you a named driver on their car insurance. That would cover you for occasional use of the family car.
What level of student car insurance should I buy?
There are three levels of insurance cover available. To summarise:
- Third-Party Only
- Third-Party Fire and Theft
- Fully Comprehensive.
Third party is the legal minimum cover. You must have insurance and this is the basic minimum - if your car is uninsured you are in big trouble (a fine and points on your licence at the very least):
- covers damage you cause to other people and their cars, but
- doesn't cover any damage to your or your own car.
Third party fire & theft is like third-party only but adds:
- cover if your car is stolen and can't be recovered, and
- cover if your car is damaged by fire.
Fully comprehensive insurance, on the other hand, covers your car fully in the event of any damage:
- covers third party fire and theft;
- covers repairs needed to your car; and
- covers the cost of a replacement car if yours is written off.
Buying the most basic level of cover, third party, used to be a way of getting the cheapest car insurance for students. But because third party cover is so often bought by drivers who are not good insurance risks (for instance, those with points on their licence) it can actually end up being quite expensive. It's worth checking whether you can get fully comp at the same price - or even for less.
How much is student car insurance?
Car insurance for students is on average around £1,102 per year, more than two times more than for regular 40 - 50 years old driver.
However, some companies like Ingenie for instance might allow you to save hundreds of pounds per year driving well, only with a tracking app on your mobile or a box installed in your car.
Why is student car insurance more expensive?
Student car insurance is often more expensive because students as seen by insurers as higher risk drivers.
The average student premium comes in at just over £1,000 against an average £470 for UK drivers, and you could pay a lot more depending on where you go to uni and what car you drive.
There are several reasons for that.
First of all, most students are still young, and they don't have many years of driving behind them. That puts them in a high risk category as far as insurers are concerned. It also means they don't have years of No Claims Discount to set against the cost of their insurance. (While students gets discounts on lots of stuff - clothes, books, tech, travel - the idea of student discount car insurance has never taken off.)
However, even mature students will find that simply being a student is enough to up your car insurance. 'Student' is a job description that automatically brings up a red flag for many insurers.
Secondly, where students live doesn't help. Students often live in areas where they have to park on the street, and often in postcodes which insurance companies see as high risk. Student households are often attractive to burglars who know there will be plenty of laptop computers lying around - and that perception of higher risk feeds into your car insurance quote too.
If you're studying in a big city like London, Manchester, or Birmingham, you're in a high-risk area anyway. London drivers already pay a heavy premium for their car insurance - over £650 on average compared to £200 less for the UK as a whole. Car insurance for university students in these cities will be expensive. (If you're studying in central London, of course, you may find you don't need your car at all, in which case leave it at home, keep it off the road and make a SORN declaration to get out of taxing and insuring it.)
By the way, if you're at Oxford or Cambridge, you'll get some of the cheapest student car insurance going - a little known advantage of attending these universities! Durham, Exeter and Southampton also have lower bills.
What factors affect my student car insurance quote?
Car insurance for students away at university is complex because it is affected by a number of factors. Your student driver insurance will be priced by the insurance company to reflect:
- the risk you pose as a driver
- where you live and where the car is parked
- the value of the car
- the car's acceleration and top speed
- what level of insurance cover you want
- who else drives the car.
Can a black box policy save me money?
Some insurers now offer 'black box' telematics policies. These use a telematic device in the car to assess your driving and your insurance premiums could be changed based on the information the insurer gets. If you're a careful driver you could see your premiums decrease.
The telematics unit also operates as a tracking device, so your car is more likely to be recovered if it's stolen. Again, that makes your car a lower risk for the insurer and is often reflected in a lower quote.
Black box schemes are often suggested as car insurance for students at university, and for younger, less experienced drivers generally. It makes up for the fact that you don't have a track record as a driver - insurers can actually see whether you're a good driver or not. Black box can sometimes be the best insurance for young drivers.
Sometimes black box will also penalise you. If you have to drive at night, because you're working (eg working in a restaurant, or medical students doing night shifts), you might end up paying more as driving at night is considered higher risk.
Here is a small comparison of companies with fully comp black box insurance for driver aged 17-24 driving a Fiat 500:
| Insurance company | Annual cost, Greater London | Annual cost, East of England |
|---|---|---|
 | £7,565* | £2,142 |
 | £2,087 | £1,810 |
 | £2,696 | £2,045 |
 | £2,432 | £2,037 |
*third party fire & theft
The cost of Admiral Little Box policy for a student in the area of London gives indication on the number of accidents, damages and claims that may have happen in the past years for this age-range of drivers in this living area.
Compare black-box policies in seconds.
What to avoid when getting cheap student car insurance?
Insurance is a tricky area with a lot of detailed regulations. Make sure you avoid the potential traps.
- Make sure you do actually get insurance! There are a lot of myths about 'you can borrow someone else's car' (you almost certainly can't), and so on. If you're driving a car, you need to be insured for that car, either as the main driver or as a named driver.
- Don't get involved in 'fronting' (when you say someone else is the main driver). It will invalidate your insurance.
- Don't insure your car for uni if you're going to leave it at home. Declare it off-road with SORN (remember, it has to be kept on private property to do this, not on the road) and you'll save tax and insurance till you decide you need to drive it again.
Always look at the proposed policy documentation in detail. Cheap car insurance for students sometimes has exclusions or conditions in the policy that you need to comply with. If you don't, your cover could be invalidated - and ignorance is no excuse.
Top tips to get cheaper student car insurance quotes
There are some other ways that you can reduce the cost of your insurance.
- Getting one of your parents added to your policy as a named driver might bring down the total cost a little. That's because your parents are probably a better risk than you are, being more experienced drivers. (This won't work if mum has been caught speeding and has points on her licence, though.)
- Make sure your car is in a low insurance group. Insurance companies use these groups to decide their premium pricing. Generally speaking, a small car with low value and relatively unassertive performance is going to be cheaper to insure than one with faster acceleration and a more powerful engine, in a higher price bracket. Cheap cars for students might include the Fiat 500 Pop, Renault Clio, or Ford Ka - but out of these the lowest spec Ka comes in a much lower insurance group than the other two. Getting cheap student cars insured is already quite costly - you really don't want to try taking a high spec Mercedes to university, unless you (or your parents) are made of money.
- Take Pass Plus if you haven't already, and you may be able to get better insurance. It's not certain that you'll save the entire cost of the course in a single year - but Pass Plus will also make you a much better driver. And that could help you build up a nice No Claims Bonus by the time you're making enough money to buy a really nice set of wheels.
- Get a black box policy that charges you for how much, and how well, you drive. A telematics device is fitted to your car, and reports on your driving style and total mileage. That could be cheaper than a standard policy.
Where should I insure my car - at home or at uni?
The first principle is that you really need to be honest with the insurance company about where you keep your car most of the time.
If you're at uni more than half the year and keep your car there, you need to say so.
Dishonesty could invalidate your insurance and at worst, you could find yourself being investigated for insurance fraud, which is a crime and could invalidate any of your claim.
However, if you leave your car at home, and it's kept off the road, you could apply for a Statutory Off Road Declaration (SORN). That would mean you don't have to insure it (or pay car tax) while it's not being used. You'll need to get it insured and taxed again when you go home and want to drive it, though. You may be able to get temporary car insurance for the vacations.
What is international student car insurance?
If you are an international student in the UK you can drive on an international driving permit together with your own licence from home (for twelve months).
Otherwise, you'll need to either exchange your licence for a UK licence (if you come from some mainly, mainly Commonwealth and EEA - though Brexit may change things), or to pass the UK driving test and get a UK licence.
If you're driving on an international licence, you may find it's difficult and expensive to get insurance. But you should still be able to get it, at a price.
Can I get temporary student car insurance?
If you only need car insurance policy for a short period of time, you can take out temporary student car insurance.
Compare temporary student car insurance in seconds.
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