Drivers

Car insurance for convicted drivers: what sets the price

No single price fits car insurance for convicted drivers. See how the offence code, its age, any ban and the spent date change what you pay.

There is no fixed figure for car insurance for convicted drivers, because every insurer prices a conviction in its own way, using the offence code, how long ago it happened and whether you were banned. What you can control is how accurately you describe the conviction, knowing when it stops counting, and the other parts of your quote that insurers also price.

Does a driving conviction affect insurance?

Yes. Insurers are allowed to ask about convictions, and most do. The Ministry of Justice guidance on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act says most insurance companies will ask because convictions can be relevant to risk, that you do not need to disclose if they do not ask, and that you do not have to disclose a spent conviction.

When an insurer does ask, the law says you must take reasonable care not to make a misrepresentation. Getting this wrong is expensive. The Financial Ombudsman Service explains that if a wrong answer is found to be deliberate or reckless, the insurer can cancel the policy from the start, keep the premium and refuse a claim. If it was careless, what the insurer can do depends on what it would have done had you answered correctly: for example charge more, apply different terms, or treat the policy as if it had never existed if it would not have offered cover at all.

So a cheaper quote built on a missing conviction is not really cheaper. It may simply leave you without cover when you need it.

How much is insurance for a banned driver?

While you are banned, you cannot drive, so there is no car insurance to buy for yourself as a driver. GOV.UK is clear that you cannot drive until the disqualification has ended. The question becomes what happens afterwards.

1. Check the end date. You can see your disqualification and penalty points by viewing your driving licence record.
2. Reapply if needed. If the ban was 56 days or more, you must apply for a new licence before you drive again.
3. Pass any retest the court ordered. Some drivers must retake the test or take an extended test before getting a full licence back.
4. Clear the medical if you are a high risk offender. For drink driving, this applies if you had two drink-driving offences within 10 years, a reading of at least 87.5 microgrammes of alcohol per 100ml of breath, or refused to give a sample. DVLA will not return your licence until you pass a medical with one of its doctors.

On price, the past ban becomes part of your history. Bans for totting up follow a set pattern: 6 months for reaching 12 or more points within 3 years, 12 months for a second ban within 3 years and 2 years for a third. A drink-driving conviction brings a ban of at least one year, and GOV.UK warns that your car insurance costs will increase significantly. If you were banned for 12 months or more for drink driving, you might be able to reduce the ban by taking a drink-drive rehabilitation course.

Which conviction codes push the price up most?

Each code tells an insurer what kind of risk it is looking at, how many points were given, and how long the endorsement stays on your record. Here is how some common ones compare, using the official endorsement code list:

Insurers each set their own view of these codes, which is why one driver can see very different quotes, or be declined by some insurers, for the same history. A single speeding code is a different risk to an insurer from a drink-driving, dangerous driving or no-insurance conviction, and several codes together, or a code plus a ban, add up.

Being newly qualified adds another layer. Your licence is revoked if you get 6 or more points within 2 years of passing your test, which means going back to a provisional licence. For more on how age and experience affect premiums, see cheap insurance for young drivers: what really moves the price.

How should the price change as a conviction gets older?

This is the part most guides skip. There are two separate clocks, and they do not always finish together.

Clock one: your driving record

The endorsement stays on your driving record for 4 or 11 years, as shown in the table above.

Clock two: when the conviction becomes spent

The Ministry of Justice guidance for England and Wales says:

• An endorsement, whether from a court or from a fixed penalty notice, may become spent after 5 years (two and a half years if you were under 18).
• Penalty points and a court ban may become spent when they stop having effect. Points have effect for 3 years for totting up.
• Where more than one penalty was given for the offence, the longest rehabilitation period decides when the conviction becomes spent.
• A ban "until test passed" is not spent until you have passed that test.
• A new conviction before an earlier one is spent stops either becoming spent until both periods are over.

The rules work differently in Scotland, and Northern Ireland has its own legislation, so the dates there can differ.

Once a conviction is spent, you do not have to disclose it to insurers, so it no longer needs to be part of any renewal or new quote after that date.

For example, with made-up dates: you are caught speeding on 10 January 2022, convicted on 1 March 2022, and given a fine and 3 points. The SP30 leaves your driving record on 10 January 2026, four years after the offence. But the endorsement is not spent until 1 March 2027, five years after the conviction. If your insurer asks about unspent convictions, you would still declare it at a renewal in, say, June 2026, even though it no longer shows on your record. By a renewal in June 2027 it would be spent.

A ban works the same way. If the ban is longer than 5 years, the ban length is the longest period and decides the spent date. If it is shorter, the 5-year endorsement usually does.

Once spent, the conviction no longer needs to be part of your quote, but only if you check your dates at each renewal rather than repeating last year's answers.

How to bring down the cost of car insurance for convicted drivers

No one can promise a low price, but these are the things people with convictions commonly look at to bring the cost down:

1. Get the dates and codes exactly right. Use your licence record and court papers. A conviction declared after it is spent is information you did not have to give, and one wrongly left off can put your cover at risk.
2. Read each question closely. Some ask about the last few years, some about unspent convictions, some about all motoring offences. Answer the question asked, as the Ombudsman says insurers' questions should be clear and specific.
3. Look at the car itself. The car you choose is priced alongside your record, so the same history can cost different amounts on different cars.
4. Think about the excess. A higher voluntary excess may lower the premium. For example, with a £250 compulsory excess and a £250 voluntary excess, you would pay the first £500 of a claim, so it only helps if you could afford that.
5. Telematics policies. A black box records how you drive, which some insurers use to price risk. See how long it takes to fit a black box, and whether you are covered.
6. Keep the history clean from here. A new conviction can drag out the spent date of an older one, which keeps both in play for longer.
7. Specialist brokers. Some brokers work with drivers who have convictions and can approach insurers that consider particular codes and bans.

Through Kompare you can get convicted driver insurance quotes: you fill in a short form and a specialist FCA-authorised broker from the panel contacts you with quotes. Kompare itself is not an insurer and does not give advice.

What to have ready before you ask for quotes

Having these to hand makes each quote accurate the first time:

• Your driving licence number and a check code, which you can create on GOV.UK and which lasts 21 days.
• Each conviction's code, offence date, conviction date and penalty (points, fine, ban length).
• The date any ban ended and whether you had to retest or pass a medical.
• Any claims or accidents in recent years.
• Details of the car, where it is kept overnight and your estimated annual mileage.