New data has revealed the costly consequences UK motorists face when gaining penalty points on their licence.
In Britain, the average quote for a car insurance premium for a driver who has zero points on their licence is £700, but drivers with three points only pay £5 more on average.
However, when a driver goes from having three to six points, their average insurance quote will leap from £705 to £937, according to data from Compare the Market. From here, accruing a further three points to make the total nine results in a £40 increase to an average quote of £977.
Drivers who build up 12 or more points on their licence are supposed to be banned by default, but thousands of motorists escape this punishment, with many using the controversial “exceptional hardship” argument in court. The average car insurance quote for a driver with 12 points is £1,009. If a motorist has 13 or more points, meanwhile, they can expect to pay an average of £1,356.
On average, receiving three points irrespective of how many you may already have results in a £131 uptick in insurance premiums.
In March 2021, 2.64 million drivers had points on their licence, according to Compare the Market’s analysis of DVLA (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency) figures. This represents a year-on-year decrease of three per cent.
The DVLA’s data also shows that 71 per cent of penalty points are given to men, while 60 per cent are accrued by drivers over the age of 40. The SL6 postcode in Maidenhead has 5,484 drivers with penalty points - more than anywhere else. Second is Northampton (NN3) with 4,994, while third is Slough (SL1) with 4,377.
Dan Hutson, head of motor insurance at Compare the Market, commented: “Motorists may not realise the long-term cost that poor driving can have on car insurance premiums.
“Our research shows the increase in premiums is often greater than the initial fine for irresponsible driving. Drivers will also face the more expensive premiums in each of the four years that the penalty points remain on their licence.”
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