Adding a learner driver to your insurance
Call your insurer and ask to add a named driver with a provisional licence. It is usually cheap and sometimes free. The risk is not the price: if the learner crashes, it is your claim and your no-claims bonus.
How to do it
Contact your insurer, not a comparison site, because you are changing an existing policy rather than buying a new one. You will need the learner's licence number, their date of birth and how long they have held the provisional.
Most insurers do this over the phone or in an online account in a few minutes. Many charge a small admin fee, some charge nothing, and the premium change is often modest because a supervised learner is statistically a low risk while they are supervised.
Hastings Direct is one of the few that will do either route for you: add a learner to an existing policy, or sell the learner their own. Useful if you want to compare both without telling the story twice.
The part that is not about money
A named driver goes on your policy. So if the learner has an accident:
- it is your claim
- your no-claims bonus takes the hit, protected or not, because protection limits the effect
- your renewal quote carries it, typically for five years
- you have to declare it on every quote you get from anyone
A no-claims bonus takes years to build and one afternoon to lose. Nine years of bonus on a family car is worth a great deal more than the difference between adding a learner and buying them their own policy.
Which is actually cheaper
Adding a learner is usually cheaper on the day. A separate learner policy is usually cheaper across the risk, because it keeps your record clean.
The rough shape:
- A few hours of supervised practice, and you are relaxed about the risk: add them
- Regular practice over months: their own policy, and your bonus never enters into it
- A protected no-claims bonus you have spent years building: their own policy, and it is not
Tell the truth on the form
Declare the learner properly. Insuring a car in a parent's name when the learner is the main driver is "fronting", it is fraud, and it voids the policy at the exact moment you need it. Insurers look for it and they are good at finding it.
Anything above about what the law requires is Great Britain law and comes from GOV.UK. Anything about a provider comes from that provider's own published material, read on 18 September 2026. How we check.
