Temporary car insurance slashes costs for learner drivers

New research conducted by leading flexible car insurance provider, Cuvva has revealed younger drivers (and their parent’s) are paying nearly nine times more when adding a learner driver to a car insurance policy. On average, learner drivers can save over £2,000.00 just by opting for temporary learner driver insurance by the hour instead of being added to a policy.

Temporary car insurance is essentially a standalone policy. Young drivers can get insured by the hour whenever they want to practise in the family car, and parents are able to protect their no claims bonus.

The average cost to add a learner driver to a parent’s annual policy worked out to be £2,253.37. As costs continue to soar, learning how to drive can set Brits back by almost £4,000.00.

According to the Driving Standards Agency (DSA), you need around 44 hours of lessons to pass your driving test. In addition, it’s recommended that drivers complete an additional 20 hours on average, of supervised practice, outside of lessons to get confident driving ahead of their test.

Through a price comparison website, it would cost a family living in Bristol £498.99 to insure a 2011 Vauxhall Astra Active. Adding their 19 year old son to the policy as a named driver, who’s learning to drive, would cost an additional £1,292.65, pushing their premium to £1,791.64.

If the same learner driver opted for temporary learner driver insurance instead, and got insured by the hour, at an hourly rate of £11.39, it would cost the young driver £227.80 to complete the additional 20 recommended hours, outside of his lessons.

Darryl Bowman, from Cuvva said: “So many learner drivers are paying over £2,000 to be added to their parent’s car insurance policy, when there are more cost effective and smarter ways to get practice time behind the wheel without breaking the bank. With household expenses spiralling out of control, there is a great opportunity to save.

“Tailored, temporary cover specific for learner drivers works out a lot cheaper as you only have to pay for the time needed instead of being added as a named driver to the family’s annual policy which doesn’t make sense as you are only practising occasionally. As the policies are seperate, should an accident happen, the car owner’s policy and no claims bonus are not affected.”

Breaking it down by region, Birmingham, Manchester and London saw the highest rise in premiums, when adding a learner driver to a policy, while Plymouth, Bristol and Dorset saw the lowest difference in premiums.