Drivers Aged 19 Now Pay £1,853 for Car Insurance, Confused.com and WTW Show

• Drivers aged 19 now pay an average of £1,853 for car insurance, up 4 percent in three months, against a UK average of £713, says the Confused.com and WTW Car Insurance Price Index.
• The UK average fell 1 percent (£6) to £713 in the three months to August 2026, but Northern Ireland rose 4 percent to £1,059 and 17-year-olds now pay £1,755.
• Drivers aged 51 saw the biggest fall, down 5 percent (£28) to £582, so a 19-year-old pays £1,271 more a year than a 51-year-old.

The headline number in the latest car insurance data is good news. The average price of full cover car insurance in the UK fell 1 percent, or £6, in the three months to August 2026, taking the average to £713. Confused.com and the insurance adviser WTW published the figures in the third quarter edition of their Car Insurance Price Index on 29 September 2026.

Look at who is paying what, though, and the average hides a very different bill for the youngest drivers. The index puts the average 19-year-old at £1,853 a year and the average 17-year-old at £1,755. Both groups saw premiums rise 4 percent over the quarter while most other age groups saw them fall.

A 19-Year-Old Now Pays 2.6 Times the National Average

The maths is simple. A 19-year-old paying £1,853 is paying £1,140 more than the £713 national average, which works out at roughly 2.6 times the going rate. A 17-year-old paying £1,755 is £1,042 above the average.

Both figures rose 4 percent in a single quarter. Working back from the 4 percent rise (our calculation, not a figure published in the index), that is a jump of roughly £71 for a 19-year-old and £67 for a 17-year-old in just three months.

Older drivers had the opposite quarter. Drivers aged 51 saw the largest fall of any age, with premiums down 5 percent, or £28, from £610 to £582. Drivers aged 47 came next, down 3 percent, or £20, to £634. Put those two numbers next to the teenage figures and the gap is stark: a 19-year-old pays £1,271 more than a 51-year-old, and a 17-year-old pays £1,173 more.

The split is a big deal for families. A household with a teenager on the policy did not share in the 1 percent fall that the headline average shows. Its bill went up by the sort of amount that many other households saved over the same quarter, and it started from a much higher base.

The index is built from anonymous quote data submitted through Confused.com. The prices it reports are an average of the best five quotes returned for each enquiry, so they show what drivers were being offered when they shopped around, not necessarily what they pay at renewal. The index says it draws on more than six million customer quotes each quarter.

Where the Bill Is Highest and Where It Is Rising

The quarterly change also varied sharply by place. The five most expensive regions in the August 2026 index were:

• Inner London at £1,079, down from £1,088 in the previous quarter.
• Northern Ireland at £1,059, up from £1,020.
• Outer London at £888, down from £899.
• The West Midlands at £848, down from £860.
• Manchester and Merseyside at £790, down from £807.

Northern Ireland recorded the steepest percentage rise of any region, up 4 percent, or £39, over the quarter. The South West of England had the next largest increase, up 3 percent to an average of £520.

The best falls came in Leeds and Sheffield, where premiums dropped 3 percent from £798 to £778. Manchester and Merseyside fell 2 percent to £790, and South Wales fell 2 percent to £558. At a finer level, the City of London and Halifax in West Yorkshire both saw prices fall 6 percent, to £980 and £754.

West Central London remains the most expensive postcode area in the UK for car insurance, where the average edged up 1 percent to £1,281. Llandrindod Wells in Powys is still the cheapest, at £474. It is now the only postcode area where the average sits below £500, after price rises of 1 to 4 percent lifted Shrewsbury, Torquay and Dorchester to £503 and Exeter to £505.

Why Prices Are Steady for Some and Climbing for Others

Price falls have slowed sharply this year. The index says prices rose in four of the first eight months of 2026: 0.4 percent in February, 2.3 percent in April, 0.3 percent in the month after and 1.9 percent in June. Falls in July (1.6 percent) and August (1.1 percent) were enough to leave the quarter slightly lower.

The £713 average is £282 below the peak of £995 recorded in December 2023, when the market hit its most expensive point. It is still only £22, or 3 percent, cheaper than a year ago, so the big drops of the last two years are over.

Tim Rourke, EMEA property and casualty leader for insurance consulting and technology at WTW, said drivers had benefited from a more stable pricing environment in 2026, but the underlying cost of settling motor claims remains under pressure. He pointed to rising repair complexity, rising repair costs and continuing uncertainty over inflation. Steve Dukes, chief executive of Confused.com, said many customers are also seeing their renewal price increase, which can push more of them to shop around.

That renewal point is worth holding on to. The index measures new business quotes, the prices a driver sees when they go looking. Renewal prices are set separately, and the two can sit a long way apart.

Can You Avoid It?

You cannot change your age, and you cannot change what an insurer thinks of a 19-year-old. You can change how much of the gap you pay. These are the levers that work for young drivers and their families.

• Choose the car before you price the cover. Every model sits in an insurance group from 1 to 50, and the higher the group, the higher the premium. A small engine in a low group is usually far cheaper to insure than a hot hatch, before the driver has done anything differently. Check the group on the quote page before you agree to buy.
• Look at a telematics (black box) policy. These price on how you drive, not just your age. Speed, braking, cornering and night driving all count, so a careful teenager can earn a lower bill, and a careless driver loses the discount. Read what the policy does with late night driving before you sign.
• Add a Pass Plus certificate. This DVSA-run course of extra lessons after passing the test is accepted by some insurers as a reason to lower the quote. Not every insurer applies a discount, so ask.
• Raise the voluntary excess, but only as far as you can afford. A higher excess usually lowers the premium. It means a larger payment from you on any claim, so pick a figure you could find in a week.
• Shop 26 days before renewal. Go.Compare’s Q2 2026 price index, published on 19 August 2026, found that buying 26 days before renewal saved over £150 on average.
• Pay annually if you can. Monthly payment plans usually add interest, so the same policy costs more spread across twelve months.
• Never use fronting. Naming a parent as the main driver of a car that a teenager really uses is illegal. It can void the policy and leave the family without cover after an accident, and it counts as insurance fraud.

Two further checks apply to everyone. Give the address where the car is actually kept overnight, and the job title that truly describes the driver. Both feed the price, and wrong answers can undo a claim. Then compare at least four quotes, including insurers that do not appear on comparison sites.

Timing also helps. The index shows prices moving month to month, with rises from April to June and falls in July and August. A quote that looked expensive in early summer can look different now, so run fresh quotes near the renewal date rather than accepting the automatic offer. Insurers that want new business are pricing sharply, according to Confused.com, and that is where a switch tends to pay off.

For a household with a 17 or 19-year-old, the index makes the scale of the problem plain. The £713 average is real, and it is falling. The bill for a teenager on the policy is not that number, and it went the other way this quarter.

Sources

• Confused.com in association with WTW, Car Insurance Price Index, third quarter 2026 (data to August 2026), published 29 September 2026 and reported by Insurance Edge on the same date; Confused.com, Car insurance average costs price index page.
• Go.Compare, Car insurance costs price index, Q2 2026, published 19 August 2026 (for the 26 days before renewal saving).