- What is Direct Line?
- Direct Line car insurance key features
- What does Direct Line car insurance cover?
- How much does Direct Line car insurance cost?
- What is the excess on Direct Line car insurance?
- How to make a claim on Direct Line car insurance
- Direct Line car insurance customer reviews
- Pros and cons of Direct Line car insurance
- Alternatives to Direct Line car insurance
- Summary
What is Direct Line?
Direct Line launched in 1985 with a sole product, car insurance, which could be bought over the phone. Since its launch, Direct Line says it has been committed to prioritising customers and expanded its insurance offering to include home, pet, travel, life, landlord and small business insurance. It has recently stopped offering life and travel insurance. Direct Line did not used to appear on insurance comparison sites, however at the end of 2024, it launched 3 new car insurance products which are available solely on comparison sites and differ from the policies you can purchase directly. The main difference being the new policies can only be managed digitally except from when making a claim. In this review we will be focusing on the car insurance policies you can buy directly from Direct Line.
In 2025, Aviva plc completed the acquisition of Direct Line Insurance Group which also includes Churchill Insurance. Direct Line's car insurance policies are underwritten by U K Insurance Limited.
Direct Line car insurance key features
- Choose between comprehensive or third party, fire & theft car insurance
- Multi-car insurance discount
- Specialist insurance for drivers aged 26 and under
- Guaranteed hire car when your car is being fixed (Essentials policy excluded)
- Optional add-ons including No Claim Discount Protection, Breakdown cover and Motor Legal Protection
- Uninsured driver promise - if you're in a non-fault accident with an uninsured driver, your excess will be covered and your claim-free years protected
- Online claims process
- 5 year guarantee on repairs made by a Direct Line approved repairer
- 5 star Defaqto rating for their Comprehensive and Comprehensive Plus and Drive Plus cover
- No admin fee for mid-policy changes
What does Direct Line car insurance cover?
You can choose between fully comprehensive or third party, fire & theft car insurance with Direct Line. Fully comprehensive car insurance is the most extensive with cover for damage to both your vehicle and a third party's vehicle, as well as property. Third party, fire & theft car insurance is less comprehensive as it only covers damage to third party vehicles or claims for your vehicle related to fire and theft. You can also get third party only car insurance but this is not currently offered by Direct Line. More information on the different car insurance types can be found in our article, 'What are the different types of car insurance?'
Direct Line offers a range of car insurance policy cover levels. You can choose between three comprehensive car insurance policies; Essentials, Comprehensive and Comprehensive Plus, and a third party, fire & theft policy. In addition, you can also insure more than one vehicle on a multi-car insurance policy or choose a telematics DrivePlus policy for drivers aged 26 and under. Direct Line also provide insurance for vans and electric cars.
In the table below, we compare the different levels of cover with Direct Line car insurance.
Direct Line car insurance policy summary
| Essentials | Comprehensive/DrivePlus | Comprehensive Plus | Third party, Fire & Theft | |
| Replacement car keys | Theft only | Yes | Yes | No |
| Guaranteed hire car | Courtesy car | Yes | Guaranteed Hire Car Plus | No |
| Child car seat replacement | Yes | Yes | Yes | Fire & Theft only |
| Misfuelling cover (for damage to car) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Windscreen cover | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| New car replacement | No | Yes (if car is less than 1 year old) | Yes (If car is less than 2 years old) | No |
| Personal accident | £5,000 | £5,000 | £10,000 | No |
| Uninsured driver promise | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Onward travel | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Motor Legal Cover | Optional | Optional | Yes | Optional |
| Protected No Claims Discount | Optional | Optional | Optional | Optional |
| Fair Claim Commitment | No | Yes | Yes | No |
DrivePlus Insurance
Direct Line's DrivePlus Insurance is for drivers below 26 years of age. It offers the same level of cover as a Direct Line Comprehensive Policy with the following additional features:
- Telematics insurance that tracks your driving using your phone
- DrivePlus app
- Discount on the first year as long as you have passed your driving test
- Can potentially get a discount at renewal if telematics shows you are driving safely
Direct Line car insurance extra benefits
You can choose to cater your car insurance policy with additional benefits such as Motor Legal Cover or No Claims Discount protection. All these optional extras come at an additional cost. We list the extra benefits below and how they work.
No Claim Discount Protection
If you have a minimum of 4 years No Claims Discount and have no more than one fault claim in the past 3 years you can choose to protect your No Claim Discount with your Direct Line car insurance policy. This is an optional extra available with all Direct Line policies and means you can make 1 claim in the current period of cover and up to 2 claims in the preceding 3 years of insurance and your No Claims Discount will not be affected. For more information on protecting your No Claims Discount read our article 'What is no-claims discount and is it worth protecting?'
Breakdown Cover
You can add breakdown cover to your car insurance policy with Direct Line. The breakdown cover is in partnership with Green Flag and there are four cover options to choose from, they are 24/7 Roadside Assistance, Home Breakdown, National Recovery and European Breakdown as well as 2 optional add-ons (onward travel and personal cover). More details on the different levels of cover can be found on Direct Line's website. It is worth shopping around, however, to ensure that the price you are quoted by the car insurance for breakdown cover is the best option for you, our article 'What is breakdown cover and how does it work? looks at stand alone breakdown cover, what it includes and how much it costs.
Motor Legal Protection
If you are involved in an accident where you were not to blame, motor legal protection cover will provide up to £100,000 of legal cost to help you to claim. Your claim must have a better than 50% chance of succeeding and not be covered under any other insurance policy. Motor Legal Protection is included with Direct Line's Comprehensive Plus policy. Find out more about how Motor Legal Protection works and if you need it in our article, 'Motor Legal Cover - do you need it?'
Guaranteed Hire Car Plus
With the Essentials policy you will get a courtesy car which will be provided by the garage repairing your car and is subject to availability and if your car is written off, stolen and not recovered you will not benefit from a courtesy car.
A Guaranteed Hire Car is included with Direct Line's Comprehensive policy where you will be provided will be a small hatchback or similar and can
-
- Keep the hire car until your car is fixed with one of Direct Line's approved repairers
- Keep the hire car for 21 consecutive days if you choose to get your car repaired at your preferred garage or if your car is written off or stolen
- Up to £500 of travel costs (max of £50 a day) for 21 days following your claim if you have an accident and are unable to drive due to injury, if there are no hire cars available or your car had been professionally adapted for a disabled driver or passenger and a suitable hire car isn't available
With Guaranteed Car Hire Plus you benefit from the above but you will be provided with a car similar in size to your own. You can add this to your Comprehensive and Essentials policy and it is included with the Comprehensive Plus policy.
What is the Direct Line "Fair Claim Commitment"?
Direct Line offer a "Fair Claim Commitment" which guarantees that your No Claims Discount will not be affected if you need to claim for:
- flood damage
- theft from or of your car
- potholes or poor road maintenance
- if you are hit while parked
- if you are hit by an object or debris (excluding vehicles)
- if you are hit by or hit an animal
This benefit is including with Comprehensive and Comprehensive Plus policies. It is worth noting that you will still be required to pay your excess and your premium could still increase at renewal.
How much does Direct Line car insurance cost?
According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI) the average cost of a car insurance policy in the third quarter of 2025 was £551 which is £13 lower than the previous quarter, but as with all motor insurance policies, the premium paid will depend on a number of factors, such as your age and driving record as well as the make, model and age of the car to be insured.
Our article, 'How much does car insurance cost?' has more information on what affects the cost of car insurance and how much you can expect to pay for car insurance.
Are there any Direct Line car insurance admin fees?
There are no administration charges if you want to make a change to your Direct Line car insurance policy. You can make changes to your policy via the online portal, over the virtual chat or by telephoning Direct Line. The cost of your insurance premium however may change and therefore you will have to may any increase to your premium.
If you wish to cancel your policy after your 14-day cooling-off period you will need to to pay an administration fee, the exact details of how much can be found in your policy documents.
What is the excess on a Direct Line car insurance policy?
The excess is the amount you need to pay when making a claim on your car insurance policy. There are two types of excess; compulsory excess and voluntary excess. The compulsory excess is the amount set by the insurer and the voluntary excess is the amount chosen by you when getting a quote. Usually, increasing the voluntary excess can reduce the cost of your insurance premium, however it does increase the amount payable when claiming. More information can be found in our article 'Car insurance excess explained'.
When completing a quote on the Direct Line website the voluntary excess amounts ranged from £0 - £500 in £25 increments and a compulsory excess example was £300. This, of course, could vary for individual policyholders and is dependent on what you are claiming for.
If you need to make a claim for windscreen repair or damage the excess payable is £25 for repairs and £115 for replacement.
How to make a claim with Direct Line
If you need to make a claim on your Direct Line car insurance policy you can do so online or by calling 0345 246 8811. You will need to have your policy number, car registration and details of your claim to hand to help the claim process as efficiently as possible.
If you are making a claim for damage to your windscreen you can do so directly with Autoglass and they will process the claim on your behalf.
Direct Line car insurance customer reviews
Direct Line is rated as 'Great' on independent customer review site Trustpilot, with a score of 4.2 out of 5 stars across over 28,500 reviews. 62% rated Direct Line as 5 stars citing good customer service and a simple claims process. 18% rated it as only 1 star, citing high renewal prices and problems with some claims. It is worth noting, however, that not all reviews are based on Direct Line car insurance policies but Direct Line insurance as a whole. As with all insurance policies, it is important to do your research before purchasing a policy.
Pros and cons of Direct Line car insurance
Pros
- Multi-car insurance discount
- Specialist telematics insurance for drivers aged 26 and under
- Guaranteed hire car when your car is being fixed (Comprehensive and Comprehensive Plus policies only)
Cons
- Low personal injury cover with no option to increase the level of cover
- Relatively low Trustpilot score compared to competitors
Alternatives to Direct Line car insurance
One of the quickest and easiest ways to compare car insurance is via a comparison site. Comparison sites like Confused.com* allow you to compare multiple policies at once to find the best deal. Do consider, however, that not all comparison sites are whole of market so you may miss out on some of the best deals.
In the below comparison table, we compare Direct Line to two other car insurance providers; Aviva and Churchill (who are also part of the Direct Line Group and underwritten by U K Insurance).
| Direct Line | Churchill | Aviva | |
| Underwriters | U K Insurance | U K Insurance | Aviva Insurance Limited |
| Policy types |
|
|
|
| Uninsured driver protection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-car insurance discount | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Temporary car insurance policy | No but you can temporarily add a car or driver to an existing policy | No but you can temporarily add a car or driver to an existing policy | Yes |
| Optional breakdown cover | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Defaqto rating for most comprehensive cover | 5 stars | 5 stars | 5 stars |
| Extras | Misfuelling cover | Vandalism promise (you won't lose your No Claim Discount if your car is vandalised & you provide a crime reference number) | Repairs are guaranteed by Aviva even if you change insurers (terms apply) |
Summary
Direct Line is one of the biggest car insurers in the UK and offers a good range of policies with additional optional extras. It's policies include replacement cover for child seat and there is no administration fees for mid-policy changes. The Comprehensive and Comprehensive Plus insurance offer new car replacement subject to certain terms and the Direct Line "Fair Claim Commitment". However it is worth bearing in mind that Direct Line only offers £5,000 personal cover and there is no option to increase this.
Direct Line caters for younger drivers with its DrivePlus 'telematics' insurance policy, as well as offering a multi-car discount for households with more than one car. Direct Line now appears on comparison sites but does not offer the policies mentioned in this article on these sites, notably with the comparison site policies you are charged an administration fee for mid-term policy changes and are required to manage everything except making a claim via the Direct Line app.
As with all car insurance policies, it is best to shop around to find the best provider at the best price and we compare some of the best providers in our article, 'Best car insurance in the UK'.
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