Why the price of car insurance continues to soar

Oscar Scullion has one thing in common with most other teenage drivers in Northern Ireland - he's paying a small fortune on car insurance.

The 18-year-oldstudent sharesa Peugeot 206 with his brothers, and they are paying £2,200 - down from £2,600 when Oscar first passed his test - which means he has an annual bill of £700.

That is pretty good going considering the sky-high prices - figures from CompareNI indicate Northern Ireland is the most expensive region in the UK for younger drivers, outside of London, with premiums averaging more than £3,000 in some areas.

Another young driver told BBC News NI he was quoted £7,000 when shopping around for a policy.

It has been a long-term problem in Northern Ireland, and it shows no signs of abating.

So why are insurance prices still so high? And what can young people do to bring them down?

Experts say drivers in Northern Ireland are the hit the hardest, mainly due to a combination of higher claim costs and a poorer road safety record compared to the rest of the UK.

Seven of the councils areas have an average premium of more than £2,000 for teenagers, according to CompareNI.

Insurance expert at the comparison site, Helen Rolph, said road safety was one of the main reasons for "eye-watering costs".

"Northern Ireland has a higher rate of young people killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions than Great Britain, and the number is rising," she said.

She added that it was not just younger drivers feeling the pinch.

"Northern Ireland is also the second most expensive region in the UK for older drivers, again outside London, with current prices sitting at £466.

"Serious accidents among this age group are on the rise, which could lead to insurers raising premiums to offset the increased risk."

The comparison site also said "the number one driving offence in Northern Ireland was recently revealed as driving without insurance - with nearly 6,000 crimes detected over the past year", with men five times more likely to carry out this offence than women.

Oscar Scullion has been driving for just over a year - the joint insurance with his brothers was about £2,600 when he was on his R or restricted plates but it has come down a bit.

"It is around £700 a head and even with the current prices that I see around, dropping down to £700 can be a big difference, but it is still quite a large sum of money," he said.

Oscar, from Ballyclare, believes there is room for change by bringing down the prices.

"Having some sort of criteria, such as a free school meal equivalent that we have in school, that could even drop insurance prices, and make it more manageable for people who are struggling, or people who need it most," he said.

Kelechi Agoha, 18, passed his driving test in July 2024 and said he was quoted as much as £7,000 for a "cheap" old car.

The teenager, from Garvagh, believes the price was "simply down to the fact it was over 20 years old."

"No-one wants to pay that and that's a small 100 horsepower car," he added.

So the North West Regional College student ended up changing cars and opted not go with the £7,000 quote - his current policy is £2,200.

"I was in the mindset of paying anything, just to get on the road," he told BBC News NI.

"The cheapest quote, besides the one I ended up buying, was £4,700 and that was with my mum and stepdad on it as named drivers."

He said he considered the idea of a telematics box in order to reduce the price of his premium - this is an electronic device fitted to a vehicle to record and monitor the driver's performance.

What put Kelechi off the idea was "that it's impractical and it can be dead harsh on your driving".

Kelechi said he evened considered a motorbike when he was pricing insurance, but "a car is safer".

According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), car insurance prices have seen steep increases across the UK.

Mark Shepherd, head of general insurance policy at the ABI, said the reasons for this included "persistently high claims costs to wider inflationary pressures".

In Northern Ireland however, the organisation said "challenges are even more pronounced due to higher rates of serious road accidents, and the different legal and compensation systems".

The ABI acknowledged "the cost of cover remains a concern" and they have established a 10‑point roadmap which includes an array of actions that the insurance industry, government or regulators could take and areas where improvements could be made.

Davy Jackson is the chair of Road Safe NI, a charity which provides advice to drivers, as well as promoting safety on the roads.

He said a telematics box, insurance fronting and advanced driving courses were among the ways consumers could help bring their premiums down.

However, one of the biggest traps that buyers can fall into, which "many may not know" is sticking to comparison websites to shop for policies.

"Some insurance companies do not make themselves available through comparison websites," he said.

"They like to keep the cost as low as they can, as they don't pay commission."

There are some companies in Northern Ireland who specialise in insurance for younger drivers.

Jackson said he would "encourage people to shop around and certainly try local companies here for the best quote they can get".

Insurance companies look more fondly on those who have undertaken further driver training, he said.

"What you find about advanced driving courses is that it's more mature people who think - oh I'll take a bit of advanced driving," he added.

"It's the young people who should be encouraged."