Best Auto Insurance for New Drivers 2025

Liberty Mutual is our auto insurance pick for new drivers with add-ons. It also combines great coverage with a number of opportunities to save. And with an A rating from AM Best for financial strength, you can count on its ability to pay for a claim.

Discounts to Lower Premiums

With any insurer, some discounts only apply if you have a driving history or already have insurance. For example, certain discounts require that you’ve been accident-free for a certain amount of time, or that you buy a policy before your existing one expires. New drivers can’t apply these discounts, but there are a number of discounts they do qualify for with Liberty Mutual:

• Using RightTrack, an app that tracks your driving behavior (nighttime driving, braking, acceleration, and total miles driven) and awards you a discount up to 30 percent for good driving
• Owning a home.
• Being a military member, whether you’re active, retired, or reserved
• Being a student with a GPA of B or higher or a student away at school who only uses the car on breaks at home. (Explore other good student discounts for cheap car insurance, as Liberty Mutual isn’t the only car insurance company to offer this benefit.)
• Bundling multiple policies
• Enrolling in automatic payments or paying for your policy in one or two bulk payments
• Completing your insurance purchase online
• Enrolling in paperless billing

Deductible Fund

Liberty Mutual is known for its range of add-on coverage options, some of which you won’t find with every insurer. This includes Liberty Mutual’s deductible fund add-on. The purpose of this optional coverage is to reduce the amount you pay toward your deductible before your coverage kicks in after an incident. Here’s how it works:

1. You add $30 to your yearly premium ($2.50 per month), which goes to your deductible fund.
2. Every year, Liberty Mutual lowers your deductible by $100.
3. In the event of an accident, you pay less for your deductible.

For example, let’s say your initial deductible is $500. You’ve been enrolled in the deductible fund for two years, which reduces your deductible by $200. Then, you get into an accident. You’ll pay $300 for your deductible, saving you $140 overall ($200 minus the $30 you paid toward the deductible fund each year).

This coverage is a good option for new drivers, who might have taken a higher deductible to lower insurance premiums.

Benefits for Teachers

If you just got your driver’s license because you’re a teacher who needs to commute to school, Liberty Mutual is a good choice. It offers several benefits to teachers at no extra cost:

• No deductible if your car is vandalized on school property or at a school event, or if your vehicle sustains damage in a collision while you’re driving it for school-related purposes (except for drivers in Pennsylvania, where a $100 deductible applies)
• Coverage of up to $2,500 per incident if school-owned property or your teaching materials are damaged or stolen while in your vehicle.
• Special discounts

GEICO is one of the biggest insurers in the country and is known for offering affordable rates. Although new young adult drivers pay more on average than older drivers, GEICO offers a reasonable average rate of $2,329 per year for young adults, which is 12 percent lower than the national average.

DriveEasy Telematics Program

GEICO’s telematics program, called DriveEasy, is a great way for young drivers to save money, especially if they haven’t accumulated enough of a driving record to be eligible for safe driver discounts. DriveEasy works using the GEICO app, which will track your driving behavior and provide a discount of 5-15 percent based on how safely you drive.

You’ll need to opt into location tracking in order for the program to work. In addition, be aware that it may increase your rates if it detects unsafe driving, so make sure you’re confident in your driving before signing up. 

DriveEasy also has an Accident Assist feature, which will ask if there’s been an accident if the system detects hard braking. If there has, you can immediately request that emergency services or towing assistance be dispatched to your location.

MIlitary Discounts

GEICO is one of only a few car insurers that offers military discounts, which can be useful for new young drivers who are in the military and don’t opt for USAA insurance. Here are the military discounts offered:

• General discount of up to 15 percent for service members, including those on active duty, retired from the military or members of the National Guard or Reserves.
• Emergency Deployment Discount for those deployed to an imminent danger pay area designated by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and have a vehicle stored under one of GEICO’s approved storage protection plans.
• Discount for members of certain military-affiliated organizations, including the Association of the U.S. Army, the Armed Forces Benefit Association, and the Navy League of the U.S.

Easy Online Quotes

GEICO allows for quotes and policy purchasing entirely online, making the process simple and streamlined. You simply need to input details about yourself and your vehicle, and it will provide a quote to you in minutes. If you’re happy with it, you can go ahead and purchase it on the spot. Other insurers, like State Farm, require you to speak with an agent by phone before policy purchase. 

With a strong telematics discount, Nationwide is a solid choice for people who drive safely but don’t qualify for a clean record discount. It also scored highly for claims satisfaction in a recent J.D. Power Study.¹

Savings for Good Drivers

Even if you don’t have a driving history, you can prove that you’re a safe driver with your actions. When you allow Nationwide to track your driving habits with its SmartRide app, you can earn a discount of up to 40 percent. That’s the largest discount for using a tracking app among all of our top auto insurance picks for new drivers. The app uses four driving factors to determine your discount:

1. Acceleration and braking
2. Miles driven
3. Nighttime driving
4. Idle time

SmartRide is free to use and will never increase your premiums.

In addition to SmartRide, Nationwide offers a pay-per-mile program, called SmartMiles. SmartMiles is a good option for low mileage drivers, for example people who work from home or households with a second vehicle they drive less often. You’ll pay a daily base rate, plus a variable rate depending on your monthly mileage. You can also get up to 10 percent off at your next renewal for safe driving habits.

Accident Forgiveness

Conversely, if you’re a new driver, maybe you still feel a little nervous on the road. That’s normal, especially considering that accidents happen even to the most experienced drivers. If you’re involved in an accident, the only thing you should have to worry about is your safety, not your insurance premiums increasing.

Nationwide offers an accident forgiveness add-on coverage, which will help you avoid an increase in your premiums after your first at-fault accident. The add-on applies to anyone on your policy, but you can only use it once per policy.

Regular Reviews of Insurance Needs

Navigating your insurance policy can be complicated, especially if you’re a new driver. After you sign up for a policy, Nationwide gives you the opportunity to talk with an insurance professional to review your insurance and answer questions at regular intervals. This assessment accomplishes the following:

• Understanding your policy and benefits
• Ensuring you have the right amount of coverage
• Applying any available discounts
• Determining whether life events will warrant a change to your insurance policy

You can use this benefit every year, or whenever you experience a major life event. According to the Insurance Information Institute, the following life events may change your auto insurance needs:

• Marriage or divorce
• Buying a home or moving
• Getting a new car
• Your teenager getting their driver’s license
• Joining a carpool
• Retirement

Travelers is an affordable option for new drivers, with cheap average rates overall. It also offers non-owners insurance, which is wise to purchase if you recently got your license but don’t own a car.

Non-Owners Insurance

If you’re a new driver who doesn’t own a vehicle, it may still be wise to purchase auto insurance. Some states require insurance to get a license, even if you don’t own a car. This type of policy is known as non-owner car insurance, and it’s good to consider if any of the following is true:

• You drive rental or Zipcar vehicles.
• You borrow vehicles from different friends or family members (if you frequently borrow the same person’s car, consider getting added to their policy).
• You take care of someone you don’t live with and drive their car.
• You have a company car that you also drive for personal use.
• You need an SR-22.

Travelers offers non-owner insurance. Most non-owner insurance is liability only, meaning that it only covers the other party’s bodily injuries and property damage in an accident. This protects you from financial responsibility for the other party’s damages, but it doesn’t pay for you or your passengers’ damages. Travelers’ non-owner insurance can include additional coverages to give you extra protection, like roadside assistance.

Coverage and Discounts for New Cars

For newly minted drivers who have purchased new cars, Travelers is a good option. If you purchase new car replacement coverage and total a new car within the first five years of owning it, Travelers will replace it with a new vehicle of the same make and model. It’s a strong offering considering most competitors with similar coverage options will only replace your vehicle for the first one or two years.

Additionally, Travelers offers a new car discount for vehicles that are less than three years old, which helps you save on premiums.

Roadside Assistance

Roadside assistance is additional coverage you can purchase for times when you run into unexpected car trouble, like a lockout or flat tire. This coverage can give you peace of mind, especially if you’re a new driver.

Travelers offers two roadside assistance options, depending on your needs:

State Farm is a well-known insurance company and has consistently high customer satisfaction scores across industry reports. It earned a spot on the list of our best auto insurance companies for teens and offers affordable rates for teens being added to a family policy, which is key to saving money.

Steer Clear

The cost of insuring teen drivers is higher than for any other age group. That’s because young drivers tend to get into more car accidents than older drivers.

State Farm has two telematics discount programs, Drive Safe & Save and Steer Clear. The latter is designed specifically for young drivers under the age of 25. In order to be eligible, they must not have had any at-fault accidents or moving violations in the past three years.

Steer Clear works the same way as other telematics programs, using the company’s mobile app to track driving habits — with some additional components. Young drivers must first complete the program’s training modules, which consist of videos and quizzes. Once the training is completed, drivers must log five hours of driving in at least 10 trips.

Upon completion of the program, young drivers will receive a certificate, which an agent will then use to apply a discount to the policy. State Farm does not specify possible discount amounts.

Other Discounts for TeenDrivers

State Farm offers young new drivers and their families a number of other ways to save on insurance premiums:

• Good student: You get a discount when the teen driver has good grades in school, though State Farm doesn’t specify the GPA required. With other companies, the typical requirement is a 3.0 GPA or higher. 
• Distant student: If a young driver is away at school without regular access to the insured vehicle, you’ll get a discount.
• Driver education: Drivers who take an approved driver education course can save money on premiums.

Rideshare Coverage

If you got your license in order to drive for a service like Lyft or Uber, it’s a good idea to purchase rideshare coverage. While rideshare services must offer some protection for drivers, there is typically a gap in coverage when you’ve turned the app on and are waiting to match with a rider. During this time, your personal policy doesn’t protect you because you’re working, and the service’s coverage doesn’t protect you because you haven’t yet matched with a rider. 

State Farm’s rideshare coverage extends the protections of your personal auto policy to the periods that the rideshare company doesn’t cover. That way, there’s never a concern about lacking coverage. You can add this coverage to an existing policy, or buy it with a new policy.