Motor insurance
Car Insurance Quotes
compare UK cover, including the risks mainstream sites turn away
Compulsory cover for any car used on a UK road, in three legal levels, with the risks mainstream sites decline going to specialist brokers instead.
- Third party, fire and theft, or comprehensive
- Young, convicted, modified and imported
- Enter your reg and compare
- FCA authorised and regulated
Quick answerCar insurance is compulsory for any vehicle used on a UK road, and comes in three legal levels: third party, third party fire and theft, and comprehensive. What decides your premium is mostly the things you cannot change, but what decides whether a claim gets paid is almost always something you could have declared and did not.
At a glance
Car Insurance at a Glance
Short answers to what UK drivers ask before they compare anything.
| Question | Quick answer |
|---|---|
| Is car insurance compulsory? | Yes, for any vehicle used on a road or other public place. Keeping one off the road needs a SORN. |
| What are the three levels? | Third party, third party fire and theft, and comprehensive. Third party is the legal minimum. |
| Is comprehensive always dearer? | No, and it surprises people. It often comes back under the other two, because of who tends to buy each one. |
| What voids a policy fastest? | Something you did not declare: a modification, the real main driver, or what you actually use the car for. |
| Who is the main driver? | Whoever drives it most. Putting a parent on the front of a policy for a child is fronting, and it is fraud. |
| Does a black box help? | It can, particularly for younger drivers, if you are willing to be measured on how you actually drive. |
| What if I have convictions? | Mainstream sites often decline. Specialist brokers price these deliberately rather than turning them away. |
| What moves the price most? | Age, postcode, the car, your claims and no-claims history. Most of it is not in your control. |
The basics
What Is Car Insurance?
Car insurance is the cover UK law requires before you use a vehicle on a road or in any other public place. At its core it pays what you owe other people when something goes wrong: their injuries, their car, their property. Everything beyond that, including damage to your own car, is a choice you make.
The legal minimum is third party only. Most drivers buy comprehensive, and the reason is not simply that it covers more. It is that an insurer decides what to charge based on who tends to buy each level, which is why the widest cover frequently comes back under the narrower ones. If you also drive for work, that is a different product: see fleet insurance or courier insurance.
What a policy has to do
- Cover for what you do to other people, which is the part the law insists on
- Cover for your own car, if you choose a level that includes it
- A price built from your details, not from an average driver
- A route to a broker who will look at a risk an aggregator declined
Three legal levels
What each one reaches
- Other peopleInjury, their car, their propertyAll three
- FireYour car, if it burnsTPFT and comp
- TheftYour car, if it is stolenTPFT and comp
- Accidental damageYour car, when it was your faultComp only
- Windscreen, personal effectsDepends on the policyUsually comp
How it works
How Does Car Insurance Work?
You describe the car, the drivers and the use, insurers price that specific risk, and the policy runs for twelve months. Anything that changes during the year has to be declared, because the price was built from what you told them at the start.
You describe the car and the driving
The registration pulls most of the car details. What you add is who drives it, where it sleeps, how far it goes and what you use it for. Every one of those is a rating factor and every one is checkable.
Insurers price you, not an average
Two people in the same car on the same street can get very different numbers, because the parts of the calculation that move most are age, claims history and postcode rather than the car itself.
You tell them when things change
A new job title, a change of address, a modification, a new named driver. Mid-term changes cost a small admin fee. Not declaring them costs the claim.
The single most useful habit is to treat the proposal questions as things that will be checked, because they are. Insurers verify licence and claims data directly, and the moment a claim is made, the answers you gave are read back against what actually happened. If the answer to "what do you use it for" is anything involving work, you are looking at a different product: taxi insurance, courier insurance or fleet insurance.
Cover levels
The Three Legal Levels of Car Insurance
Third party only is the legal minimum and covers other people. Third party fire and theft adds your own car for those two causes. Comprehensive adds damage to your car whoever was at fault, and often comes back under the other two.
| Third party | Fire and theft | Comprehensive | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Injury to other people | Covered | Covered | Covered |
| Damage to their car or property | Covered | Covered | Covered |
| Your car, if it is stolen | No | Covered | Covered |
| Your car, if it catches fire | No | Covered | Covered |
| Your car, in an accident you caused | No | No | Covered |
| Windscreen and personal items | No | Sometimes | Usually |
Comprehensive coming out under third party is the thing drivers refuse to believe, and it is worth understanding rather than just exploiting. Insurers are not pricing the cover in isolation, they are pricing the people who tend to buy each level, and third party only has historically attracted a higher-risk group. So the level with the least protection can carry the highest price. Always get all three quoted, every year, and never assume the narrowest cover produces the smaller figure. It costs nothing to ask for all three and it is the single easiest check on this page.
Exclusions
What Isn’t Covered, and What Voids a Policy
Wear and tear and mechanical failure are never covered. What actually costs people their cover is different: undeclared modifications, the wrong use class, and naming the wrong main driver. Those are declaration problems rather than exclusions.
Fronting
Naming an experienced driver as the main driver when somebody else does most of the mileage. It is fraud rather than a technicality, and it is the reason a claim gets refused and a policy cancelled.
Undeclared modifications
Alloys, remaps, suspension, body kits, and with some insurers even a towbar. Declared, most cost little. Undeclared, the payout can be cut in proportion to the premium you underpaid.
The wrong use class
Social and commuting does not cover business use, and no ordinary policy covers delivery or hire and reward. This is what catches people who started a side job.
Wear, tear and mechanical failure
Insurance covers sudden and accidental events. A worn clutch or a failed gearbox is a maintenance cost, not a claim.
Driving under the influence
Your own damage is not covered, and the insurer can recover from you what it pays out to other people.
Details that were not quite right
An optimistic mileage figure, a job title chosen to look better, an address that is not where the car sleeps. Each is checkable.
There is a useful distinction buried in that list. An exclusion means the policy does not cover one thing and you still have a policy. A non-disclosure means the insurer priced the wrong risk, and what follows depends on how it happened: an honest mistake usually means the claim is cut in proportion to the premium you underpaid, while something deliberate can cost you the policy. If a conviction is already on your licence, declare it and go to convicted drivers insurance.
Add-ons
Which Car Insurance Add-Ons Are Worth It?
Motor legal protection is cheap and frequently useful. Breakdown, courtesy car and windscreen depend on what you already have. Protected no-claims bonus protects the discount rather than the price, which is a distinction worth understanding.
Motor legal protection
Funds recovering your excess and losses from an at-fault third party. Cheap, and the one people are gladdest they bought.
Courtesy car
A replacement while yours is repaired. Check whether it is guaranteed or subject to availability.
Breakdown cover
Roadside, recovery, home start. Often cheaper bundled, but check what your bank account already gives you.
Windscreen cover
Included on most comprehensive policies, with its own excess. Worth checking rather than assuming.
Protected no-claims bonus
Lets you claim without losing your discount. On a good many contracts it protects the bonus and not the price, so the base rate can still rise.
Excess protection
Refunds your excess after a claim. Weigh its annual cost against the excess itself.
Key cover
Replacement keys, expensive on a modern car. Check your home insurance first, because it is often already there.
Charge point and cable cover
For electric cars. Cable theft and home charge point damage are real claims that a standard policy may not reach.
Before buying any of these, check what you already hold. Breakdown cover comes with a great many current accounts, key cover often sits inside home insurance, and legal expenses cover appears in both. Paying twice for the same protection is the commonest avoidable cost on a motor policy, and it is worth ten minutes before renewal. The same logic applies to business protection insurance if you are self-employed.
Who it’s for
Who Needs Specialist Car Insurance?
Drivers a price comparison site declines or overprices: convictions and points, modified and performance cars, imports and classics, young drivers, electric vehicles, and anyone whose driving is part of their work.
Drivers with convictions
Points, a DR conviction or a ban. Mainstream sites frequently decline outright rather than price it: convicted drivers insurance.
Modified and performance cars
Remaps, suspension, wheels, body work. A specialist underwriter will rate the modifications rather than refuse the car.
Imports and classics
Japanese, American and European imports, and older vehicles where the value is agreed rather than assumed.
Young and newly qualified drivers
Where the price is highest, telematics makes the most difference, and fronting is most tempting and most dangerous.
Electric and hybrid drivers
Battery, charge cables and the repair networks qualified to touch them. Still a little dearer on average than petrol, but the gap is closing.
Anyone driving for work
Business use, deliveries or passengers all need something other than a standard policy: taxi insurance and courier insurance.
This is the part of the market MyMoneyComparison.com exists for. A mainstream aggregator is built to price the common case quickly, and its answer to an unusual one is often no answer at all. A declined quote is not a verdict on the risk. It usually means the question was asked in the wrong place.
Pricing
What Affects Your Car Insurance Premium?
Age, postcode, the car, your claims history and your no-claims bonus do most of the work, and most of that is outside your control. What you can move is the car you choose, where it sleeps, your excess, your mileage accuracy and how you pay.
| Factor | Can you change it? | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Your age and experience | Not in your control | The single biggest factor, and it improves every year you drive |
| Where the car is kept overnight | Partly | The postcode is fixed, but a driveway instead of the road is not |
| The car itself | In your control | Insurance group is published before you buy. Check it while choosing |
| Claims and convictions | Not in the short term | Claims are asked about for five years. Most endorsements come off a licence after four, drink and drug after eleven |
| No-claims bonus | In your control | Years without a claim. The discount is large and worth protecting |
| Mileage and use class | In your control | Be accurate rather than optimistic, in both directions |
| Voluntary excess | In your control | Raises it and the price falls, but only set what you could actually pay |
| How you pay | In your control | Monthly instalments are credit, and carry interest. Annual avoids it |
No price examples appear on this page. Motor premiums move quarterly, vary enormously by driver and postcode, and any figure printed here would be out of date before most people read it. The factors above are stable. The numbers are not. If you run more than one vehicle, fleet insurance is priced on a different basis again.
Before you start
What Do You Need for a Car Insurance Quote?
The registration, every modification, where it parks overnight, honest mileage, licence details for every driver, five years of claims, any points or convictions, your no-claims years and what you use the car for.
About the car
- Registration, or make, model and engine
- Any modification, including a previous owner’s
- Where it parks overnight
- Honest annual mileage
About the drivers
- Licence type and issue date
- Everyone who drives it, and who drives it most
- Five years of claims, fault or not
- Points, convictions or pending prosecutions
About the policy
- The cover level you want quoted, all three ideally
- Your no-claims bonus in years, and proof of it
- The voluntary excess you could actually afford
- What you use the car for, including any work use
Two of those are worth extra care. Modifications include anything changed from factory specification, including by somebody who owned the car before you. And who drives it most is a question of fact, not of whose name is on the logbook. If there are several cars in the household, look at any driver fleet insurance as well.
Compare with MyMoneyComparison.com
How to Compare Car Insurance Quotes
Get all three cover levels quoted, add the compulsory and voluntary excesses together before comparing, and treat a declined quote as the wrong question rather than a final answer.
Quote all three cover levels
Not just the one you assume will cost less. Comprehensive frequently comes back under third party, and you will not find that out by only asking for third party.
Compare the excesses, not just the premium
A cheaper policy with a compulsory excess twice the size is not cheaper. Add the two excesses together and compare that number.
Check what happens if you are declined
A mainstream site that will not quote you has not priced your risk, it has skipped it. A specialist broker will look at the same facts and put a number on them.
Tell us about the car and the driving once and specialist UK brokers can come back to you. MyMoneyComparison.com is an introducer rather than a broker, so we do not sell the policy or recommend one. Our editorial policy sets out how we work, and our jargon buster explains the words a quote uses.
Cutting costs
How Can You Reduce Car Insurance Costs?
Telematics for younger drivers, a realistic voluntary excess, off-street parking, an experienced named driver, quoting a few weeks before renewal and paying annually rather than monthly.
Consider a black box
Telematics prices you on how you actually drive rather than on your age. For a younger driver it is often one of the biggest savings available, though around a third do not come out ahead.
Raise the voluntary excess
It lowers the premium directly. Only raise it to a figure you could genuinely pay on the day of a claim.
Get it off the road overnight
A driveway or garage instead of the street. If you have one and the policy says otherwise, fix it.
Add an experienced named driver
A second, more experienced driver can reduce the price. Naming one who is really the main driver is fronting, and that is fraud.
Renew early rather than late
Quotes are usually cheaper a few weeks before renewal than on the day, and auto-renewal is rarely the best price.
Pay annually if you can
Monthly instalments are a credit agreement with interest attached. Paying in one go avoids it.
We publish no savings figures. Any headline savings number is only meaningful with a stated sample and method behind it, and most of the ones in circulation describe somebody else’s customers on somebody else’s platform. If the driving is for work, the savings are in buying the right product rather than the one with the smaller figure: fleet insurance for several vehicles, motor trade insurance if you handle customer cars.
Jargon buster
Car Insurance Jargon, Explained
The words on a motor policy, in plain English. There is a longer general list in our insurance jargon buster.
- Third party
- Anyone other than you: their injuries, their car, their property.
- Comprehensive
- The level that also covers your own car in an accident you caused.
- No-claims bonus
- A discount earned for each year you do not claim, and lost in steps when you do.
- Compulsory excess
- The part of a claim the insurer sets, which you cannot change.
- Voluntary excess
- The extra you choose to carry on top, in exchange for a lower premium.
- Use class
- What the policy allows you to drive for: social, commuting, or business.
- Fronting
- Naming the wrong person as main driver to lower the price. It is fraud.
- Telematics
- A box or app that prices you on how you actually drive.
Why MyMoneyComparison.com
Comparing Specialist Car Insurance
MyMoneyComparison.com is an FCA-authorised UK comparison service that introduces drivers to specialist brokers. We do not sell insurance and we do not give advice: the broker you choose arranges the policy. Comparing is free and there is no obligation.
Form, however many quotes
Describe the car and the driving once, instead of filling in the same twenty questions on site after site.
Advice given
We are an introducer, not a broker. We do not sell policies and we do not recommend one. Read our editorial policy.
Authorised and regulated
MyMoneyComparison.com Ltd appears on the FCA register under FRN 916241.
Comparing since
A UK company since 2013, working with specialist brokers across the country.
FAQs
Car Insurance FAQs
The questions UK drivers ask most.
Is car insurance a legal requirement in the UK?
What are the three levels of car insurance?
Is comprehensive really cheaper than third party?
What is fronting, and why does it matter so much?
Who counts as the main driver?
Do I have to declare modifications?
What does use class mean?
Does my policy cover me to drive other cars?
How does a no-claims bonus work?
Is protected no-claims bonus worth buying?
Will a black box policy actually save me money?
Can I get insured with points or a conviction?
Do I have to tell my insurer about a conviction mid-policy?
Is electric car insurance more expensive?
What is a ghost broker?
How much car insurance cover do I need?
What happens if I cannot get a quote anywhere?
How much does car insurance cost?
Ready when you are
Compare Car Insurance
Enter your registration and tell us about the driving, and UK brokers can come back with quotes, including for the risks mainstream sites turn away. Free to use, with no obligation to buy.
- Third party, fire and theft, or comprehensive
- Young, convicted, modified and imported
- FCA authorised and regulated
Free to use · No obligation · UK brokers
About this page
This page explains what car insurance is, what the three legal levels reach, what actually voids a policy, what moves the price and what you need to get a quote, for UK drivers. It is general information rather than advice. Policies differ, so read your own documents and put the questions raised here to your insurer or broker. If you drive for work, that is a different product: see taxi insurance, courier insurance or fleet insurance.
How we approached this page
- Government guidance on compulsory insurance, registration plates and declaring a vehicle off the road
- Regulator and industry material on non-disclosure, fronting and motor insurance fraud
- Current UK motor policy documents, for what the three cover levels actually reach and where the add-ons sit
- The Financial Conduct Authority register, for checking a firm before paying it