Insurance With a Pass Plus Discount: Is It Worth It?

Yes, you can get a Pass Plus discount on your car insurance, but only from the insurers that still offer one, and the saving is not fixed. Where a discount applies it is typically worth somewhere between 5% and 25% off the premium, with Confused.com data suggesting an average drop of around 15% for those who qualify. Plenty of big-name insurers no longer factor Pass Plus in at all, so the certificate is worth far more if you shop around for a company that rewards it rather than assuming yours will.

That is the honest headline, and it is more nuanced than the “Pass Plus makes insurance cheaper” line you will see repeated everywhere. Below I will walk through who actually gives the discount, how much it tends to be, when it kicks in, and whether the course is worth doing once you weigh it against a black box policy. I teach intensive courses for a living, so I will also be straight about where the real value sits for a brand-new driver.

Can you get a discount on insurance with Pass Plus?

Sometimes. A completed Pass Plus course earns you a certificate from the DVSA, and you hand that to your insurer when you get a quote. gov.uk puts it plainly: once you have completed Pass Plus you “may be able to get a car insurance discount”, and you will need your Pass Plus certificate to claim it. The key word is may. There is no law forcing insurers to recognise it, so whether you save anything depends entirely on the company you choose.

A few years ago far more insurers offered a Pass Plus line on their pricing. Today the market has thinned out. Many large providers have quietly dropped it because their own claims data, built on telematics and millions of policies, gives them a sharper read on a young driver’s risk than a six-module course certificate does. So the discount has not vanished, but it has narrowed to a smaller pool of insurers, mostly specialist young-driver and new-driver brokers.

The practical takeaway: do the course for the right reasons, then treat the discount as a bonus you go looking for, not one that lands automatically.

How much cheaper is insurance with Pass Plus?

Where a discount applies, expect roughly 5% to 25% off the premium. That is the range cited across insurer guides, and it is wide for a reason – your saving is shaped far more by your age, postcode, car and the specific insurer than by the certificate itself.

Confused.com’s own data suggests drivers who qualify see premiums fall by around 15% on average. Specialist brokers sit at the top end: Adrian Flux advertises up to 25% off for drivers who have completed Pass Plus. At the other extreme, major insurers such as LV= state plainly that they do not currently give a discount for the Pass Plus test, so with them the certificate changes nothing.

To put the range in pounds, a new driver paying £1,800 a year might save anywhere from roughly £90 (a 5% reduction) to £450 (a 25% reduction), or nothing at all, depending purely on who they buy from. That spread is exactly why the discount is not a reason to pick an insurer on its own – the headline premium matters far more than the percentage knocked off it.

Which insurance companies offer a Pass Plus discount?

The honest answer is that the list changes, so always confirm at the point of quoting rather than trusting a stale article. As a 2026 snapshot:

• Adrian Flux – a specialist broker that advertises up to 25% off for Pass Plus holders.
• Churchill – states that with Pass Plus, car insurance “should be cheaper”, reflecting the experience the course builds.
• Specialist young-driver and new-driver brokers – generally the most likely to factor Pass Plus into a quote, as their whole book is built around newly qualified drivers.

And on the other side of the ledger:

• LV= – confirms it does not currently offer a discount for the Pass Plus test.
• Many large mainstream insurers – no longer have a specific Pass Plus line, pricing instead on telematics and their own risk models.

Because the picture is mixed, the single most useful habit is to get quotes from several insurers and tick the Pass Plus box on each, including specialist brokers a comparison site might not surface. Two quotes can differ by hundreds of pounds for the same driver, and the one that values your certificate is not always the cheapest overall – so compare the final price, not just the discount.

When could the cost of your insurance be reduced with the Pass Plus scheme?

A Pass Plus discount applies at the point you take out or renew a policy, not retrospectively on one you already hold. To benefit you need three things lined up: a completed certificate for all six modules, an insurer that recognises the scheme, and a quote where you actually declare it. Miss any one of those and the saving does not happen.

Timing matters too. Pass Plus is designed to be taken soon after you pass your test, while you are at your newest and your premiums at their steepest. That is also when a discount, if you can get one, has the biggest cash impact, because new-driver premiums are high to begin with. Leave it a couple of years and you will have built some no-claims history anyway, which tends to lower your premium more than the certificate ever would.

There is also an indirect, longer route. Even with an insurer that offers no Pass Plus line, the extra experience – motorway miles, night driving, poor weather – can help you drive more safely and avoid the early claim that wrecks a new driver’s premium. Stay claim-free and your no-claims discount builds faster, which is where the genuinely large savings come from over time.

Is Pass Plus worth it for insurance?

It depends on the price you are quoted for the course versus the discount you can find. Pass Plus typically costs £150 to £200 for the six modules, a figure backed by cost guides from MoneySuperMarket and Confused.com. If you can line up an insurer offering a meaningful percentage off a high new-driver premium, the course can pay for itself in the first year. If your preferred insurer ignores Pass Plus, the maths for the discount alone simply does not add up, and you would be doing the course purely for the skills.

Two things tilt the decision in your favour. First, council funding: gov.uk confirms some local authorities subsidise Pass Plus to encourage safer young driving, and in Wales the Pass Plus Cymru scheme is often available at a heavily reduced rate. A subsidised course changes the sums completely, so check your council before you book. Our guide to how much Pass Plus costs goes through the funding routes in detail.

Second, be realistic about telematics. For most new drivers, a black box or app-based policy delivers a bigger, more reliable saving than a Pass Plus discount, because it prices you on how you actually drive rather than on a certificate. If the saving is what you are chasing, a telematics policy is usually the stronger lever – and there is nothing stopping you doing both.

Does the Pass Plus scheme still exist?

Yes. Pass Plus is still a live, DVSA-managed scheme in 2026. It is a structured course of six modules – town driving, all-weather driving, out-of-town roads, night driving, dual carriageways and motorways – delivered one-to-one by an approved instructor, with no test at the end. You are assessed continuously and receive a certificate once your instructor is satisfied you have reached the standard across all six areas.

What has changed is not the scheme but the insurance market around it. Fewer insurers offer a dedicated discount than they once did, which is why you will read mixed accounts online. The course is alive and well; it is the guaranteed premium saving that has become patchy. If you want the full rundown of what the six modules involve and the case for and against doing it, our Pass Plus scheme guide covers it end to end.

What did Martin Lewis say about car insurance?

Money Saving Expert, founded by Martin Lewis, does not push Pass Plus as a reliable way to cut insurance. The site’s consistent message on young and new-driver cover is that the biggest savings come from shopping around at renewal, comparing across multiple sites and brokers rather than auto-renewing, and seriously considering a telematics (black box) policy, which is often the single most effective discount available to a newly qualified driver.

That lines up with what the insurers themselves say. Pass Plus can help with the right company, but it is rarely the lever that moves a premium most. The MSE-style approach – don’t auto-renew, compare widely, and weigh a black box – is sound advice whether or not you hold a Pass Plus certificate, and it tends to beat chasing a single course discount.

Is Pass Plus worth doing beyond the discount?

For a lot of new drivers, yes, and the insurance angle is the least of it. Reddit threads and the RAC forum are full of drivers reporting the course made little or no difference to their actual quotes, yet many of the same people rate the experience highly: structured motorway practice, proper night driving and bad-weather miles that a typical learner barely touches before their test. That confidence in the first solo months is where a lot of people find the real value.

There is a road-safety case too. New drivers are statistically over-represented in collisions in their first year, and Pass Plus exists specifically to plug the experience gaps the standard test cannot cover. Avoiding one early prang protects both your no-claims discount and, more importantly, you. So even if the discount is thin, the course can still be a sensible buy – just go in expecting skills and confidence, with any premium saving as a welcome extra rather than the headline.

If you have not actually passed yet and you are weighing how to get test-ready efficiently, an intensive course is a faster route than spreading weekly lessons over many months. Our most popular Improver course suits drivers who already have some experience behind the wheel, and you can weigh the options side by side on our intensive course comparison. If you are not sure which level fits you, the guide on how to choose an intensive driving course walks through it. And if budgeting is front of mind, our breakdown of how much driving lessons cost sets out the going rates.