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Original poster

Car insurance- how is this increase possible?!

119 replies

forjustnow · 12/02/2024 11:36

Context-
40 year old female
Held a clean license for 21 years
NEVER claimed on car insurance (have the maximum NCB)
Car valued at £7k
Parked in drive during the day.
No other named drivers.
Fully comp.

With the AA last year my premium was £297, paid annually.
My auto renew option came today- no changes other than me/the car being a year older and another year of NCB.....
Quoted premium this year....£502.

What on earth is driving (excuse the pun!) this horrendous price hike?

Obviously I've just had a quick look elsewhere and can get id down to £400 ish but, still. Bloody hell!

OP posts:
chocolatesaltyballs22 · 12/02/2024 12:47

AsTheyPulledYouOutOfTheOxygenTent · 12/02/2024 11:52

It's really not. MoreThan aren't pulling out of the market because it's a licence to print money, a look at the reports of all the major companies makes it obvious that margins are slim to none. Car insurance is ruthlessly competitive, and because of the aggregator websites, if all the big companies were operating an overpriced cartel then it would be trivially easy for someone to step in, undercut them by twenty percent and make an absolute killing.

There are real problems with aspects of the UK motor insurance market, but it's not as simple as "they're choosing to over charge you"

Show quote history

100%. Also, insurance is highly regulated and there are controls in place to ensure that customers are getting good value.

Onceuponaheartache · 12/02/2024 12:49

Be grateful.

16 years no claims and mine has gone from £460 to £800 in the space of a year. Smae car as last years policy. Nothing changed etc.

All they could tell me was the price of paint has gone up.

Original poster
forjustnow · 12/02/2024 12:50

TheIceQween · 12/02/2024 12:17

Martin Lewis gave some great advice which I’m acting in before my renewal. The closer you wait to your renewal to get quotes, the higher in price they will be. 23/24 days before your car insurance renewal is due… get quotes. You’re classed as lower risk because you’re more proactive in getting the prices. If you leave it till the day or night before it’s due, prices rocket. Let me know! Good luck

My renewal isn't due until the end of March so I'm being proactive. Glad I didn;t wait until the last minute.....

OP posts:
eilaka · 12/02/2024 12:52

Similar situation for me.

And my dh.

And my mum. She called them about it and got £30 off, which I suppose is better than nothing.

and my ds's is now up at 2000 thanks to someone on their phone pulling out of a side road into the side of him. On dashcam. 100% their fault - decided by insurerers. Yet his premium has skyrocketed.

Disgraceful

Original poster
forjustnow · 12/02/2024 12:52

SgtJuneAckland · 12/02/2024 12:23

Mine was £346 last year renewal quote this year £597 almost double. They couldn't answer why. When I called them they issued me a 'special one year only discount' which brought it down to £427 which was cheaper than I could find in confused etc. Call them and challenge it

Can I ask who you were with? I will give them a call.

OP posts:
BungleandGeorge · 12/02/2024 12:53

Mine had almost doubled. Presumably some of the issue is that they can no longer charge women lower premiums despite them being lower risk. They can still discriminate based on marital status, location, job etc though!
if the problem is EV vehicles what premiums are owners paying for those?

eilaka · 12/02/2024 12:55

NoCloudsAllowed · 12/02/2024 12:06

It's actually insane. And kind of a ticking timebomb as presumably way more people are going with the cheaper companies that are massively shit. So if you need to make a claim, chances are it will be delayed/refused/some other nonsense that can cause a lot of financial hardship.

this is true - the accident my ds had (100% fault with other person, on dashcam) involved the other party having one of those insurers who are cheap and dodgy. It took 6 months and the threat of court to make them pay out on something that was on video and 100% their client's fault - anyone could have viewed the video and in less than a minute, it would have been crystal clear that the dodgy insurer needed to pay out.

DataBatman · 12/02/2024 12:57

My renewal quote was 1550, up from 475 the year before.

No points, held licence for 26 years, 13 years no claims.

I managed to get it 'down' to 700

In my case it seemed related to the type of car (hybrid SUV), the quote for a hybrid estate of the same sort of value was much cheaper.

Willyoujustbequiet · 12/02/2024 13:02

Mine has gone down. Haven't switched either.

Clean licence and max no claims. Hastings.

Hereyoume · 12/02/2024 13:03

Governments keep mandating new "safety" features and emission laws. These are extremly expensive to engineer: consequently, the repair costs are higher. Couple this with a limited parts supply, massively increased energy costs, and you can see where the increases come in.

A replacment battery for an EV is anywhere from 20k to 60k, and if there any cosmetic damage to the case during an accident, a new battery is put in because nobody will vouch for the integrity of the old one. 15 years ago you could drive over a kerb, scrape your exhaust and carry on. Do that in an EV and you're looking at a 30k insurance claim.

You used to be able to replace a headlight for £100, now an LED one is £1600.

You used to be able to get a new windscreen for £50: now because of lane assist cameras and heads up displays, it costs £1000.

You used to be able to buy a whole new exhaust for £150, now, because of emission regs its 3k

I went over a pot hole while changing stations on my infotainment system, my fingernail went through the screen and damaged it, that was 2.5k, and I had no choice because the heater was controlled using then stupid thing.

LaDoIceVita · 12/02/2024 13:03

BungleandGeorge · 12/02/2024 12:53

Mine had almost doubled. Presumably some of the issue is that they can no longer charge women lower premiums despite them being lower risk. They can still discriminate based on marital status, location, job etc though!
if the problem is EV vehicles what premiums are owners paying for those?

£327 on my EV (renewed yesterday). Seems strange if EV's are causing the huge increases Hmm DH renewed his BMW last month (not EV) and we only had a 20% increase each.

Caspianberg · 12/02/2024 13:06

I think uk has historically just been really really cheap for things like insurance for years, and now catching up with Mainland Europe. Our house insurance is also €€.

FYI Where we live we had a 11 year old corsa in 2017, it still cost us €1700 a year to insure 3rd party only. We had for 5 years and it stayed around the Same each year ( so still cost a lot as 16 year old banger). We now have a new Electric and our insurance is cheaper annually, you don’t pay the co2 tax part on electric car.

DoloresOnTheDottedLine · 12/02/2024 13:07

I’m really similar to you in terms of demographic/profile and just had my renewal notice - it’s more than doubled with 1st Central from around £300 to over £600. Breathtaking and I will definitely be shopping around - must be able to do better than that!!

janicegarvey · 12/02/2024 13:11

If people believe that it isn't pure greedy profiteering then they want their heads tested 😂
I do beauty and I had a client this morning a lady in her 60s who was telling me about hers. never had an accident been driving for 30+ years and has a little vw polo. they've put hers up from £500 to £1500 . She's a pensioner it's disgusting

They do it cos they can . Pure and simple. If we want to drive we have to be insured

The result is more people will choose to drive illegally which will cause all sorts of problems . I already know someone who does it (I don't condone this of course)

GoodbyeTV · 12/02/2024 13:13

Was in a rear shunt accident last year 0-5mph, accidents happen, everyone fessed up.
Took six months and the insurance company solicitor to get sorted. I gave back the hirer car, four months before I had to and refused multiple chances to claim for whiplash.
My £7000 car was written off because the bumper tore.
The whole thing was crazy and unnecessarily expensive. The headline company was RAC but it was all handled by their third party agents.
So many people making money out of this.

crackofdoom · 12/02/2024 13:13

Mine went up from £300 to £500 this year, so I searched around following all of Money Saving Expert's advice (tweaking job title, getting a quote 19-26 days in advance etc), and managed to find a policy for £320.

aquarimum · 12/02/2024 13:16

Renewed in December, paid about £10 less per year, that was with Aviva. Was expecting to pay quite a bit more!

Ifulikepinacoladas · 12/02/2024 13:18

Just renewed mine today. I put the voluntary excess amount up and it brought the quotes down quite a lot.
Still paying more than last year but not as much as my current insurer wanted

NotFastButFurious · 12/02/2024 13:19

Similar here, mine went up by nearly 50% last year and just had a renewal quote from my current provider and it's up by nearly 50% again (£269 to £384). I did a quote with Direct Line who usually come in at the lower end of quotes and they were over £500!!

OneMoreTime23 · 12/02/2024 13:23

Can be more expensive if it’s parked in a driveway now. Because the thieves know which house the keys are in where they don’t know if it is on the street.

DRS1970 · 12/02/2024 13:26

I have had a similar experience with home insurance as you have had with car insurance OP. Renewal came through from LV and it was 43% more expensive than the previous year. I telephoned to confirm it wasn't a mistake, only to be told it was correct and due to the recent storms. I was then told the only way I could get the renewal price cheaper was to reduce my cover, and a slight dig that I wouldn't find it cheaper anywhere else. So I hung up, went online, and within 15 minutes had found a policy with better cover, and for about £3 less than last year's premium with LV. Why do these companies treat existing customers like cash cows. Surely it is far cheaper to retain an existing customer, than it is to entice a new one.

user1497207191 · 12/02/2024 13:28

Costs of accidents have shot up, recovery costs a lot more, bodyshop time is more expensive, parts are more expensive, and add to all that, the labour shortage and delays in parts supply chain means repairs take longer and that means them having to finance a courtesy car for longer.

When our car damaged and off the road because of an idiot neighbour crashing into it when parked, it was two months before we got it back. That was two months of the insurance company having to finance a courtesy/hire car. The bodyshop guy said the parts needed had doubled in price within a year as they were in such short supply and besides that, he couldn't get any staff as literally no one applied when he advertised!!

GymBergerac · 12/02/2024 13:32

Increases across the board I believe, but very much so for the AA. I've been with them for five years, very happily with little increase, but I've just had my renewal and it's gone up from £150 to £260. I'll be phoning them to see if they can reduce it enough to convince me to stay, but I've got two other offers of new quotes at £150 so I suspect they'll be losing a loyal customer. So frustrating 😤

Jovacknockowitch · 12/02/2024 13:34

easy to blame “greedy” companies but actually a lot of insurance companies are in a bad way right now - not raking it in

Awww the poor lambs, perhaps they'd like a nice cup of tea.

Stevesellsshells · 12/02/2024 13:35

Mine was roughly the same price this year. All other quotes were higher so renewed.

House insurance went up by about £100 though.