Just had an email from car insurance warning me renewal is on it way.

[PassingStranger]

As above, but also warning me the cost has risen.
They have tried to explain why.
Now have to wait to get it in the post.
They just wanted to prepare me it seems?
How did you deal with the rise, did you phone them and try and get it down?
Do they expect you to ring them?

I don't bother getting a quote for my current house insurer to match, I just tell them I'm not very happy.

Apparently it's because of the increase in electric and hybrid cars. If they are involved in an accident it costs a fortune. Even if you don't have one you could be in an accident with one.
That's what I was told I think on here when I was moaning a few months back about my son's insurance going sky high even though he's never had an accident.

When my renewal came through, it was a lot higher, so I did a comparison. I then did a live chat telling them the prices I had been quoted, whilst speaking an email came through with a reduced renewal price, it said we can see you’ve been on a comparison site and want to match the quotes you received.

Mine went up £42. Fully comprehensive. Wait for your quote then do a price comparison.

There's a no claims bonus though.

Use a price comparison first and then call your insurers to see if they can match the best quote. If they can't you switch.

I've done this every year with Direct line as their post quote is always way too high. This year I ditched them as they didn't want to price match

Similar to OP, I thought if I called my insurer to let them know I found many much cheaper car insurance options as I thought this would make them see sense; at least 10 years ago, dear reader I was wrong. Even the poor chap on the end of the phone could see 'sense', he couldn't alter it, so I took my business elsewhere.

Many years later it's very rare that I stay more than a year with a Car Insurance provider. However, for Buildings and Contents Insurance my current provider has been realistic and kept my business for 3 years.

It's worth noting that I'm 'lower end' on my cover and haven't made a claim since 1997, except for 2 'no-fault' prangs over many years which were settled without affecting my NCD

Breakdown cover - I've stayed with the AA for many years because I do think they provide the most reliable service, not the cheapest, but again I'm not top end and they do let me grind the price down if it's too high. Long time RAC customers might have similar experiences.

Comparison site every time.

I recently changed and the one I was moving from let me try different excesses etc to see if I could get it down but it was still double the one I went with in the end,

I've been driving a long time and I don't have accidents so I have put my excess up a lot.

The no claims bonus is valid for the new insurance company. Its not like.it can only be used with your current insurers

My car insurance hiked up this year, so I checked comparison sites about 4 weeks and 2 weeks, and found a price lower than my original one! I have an old copy of the current insurance on the screen and then compare it to the new offers to check I'm not losing anything or not comparing like with like.

I did the same with home insurance, I even had to cancel it within the two weeks as it had already renewed so I lost £50 but I still saved nearly £300.

I saved nearly £700 doing this this year- although I didn't feel that happy as this was all due to price rises, so my prices are either unchanged or slightly less than last year. Not so much money in my pocket as not losing even more.

I do, but it has never been lower than what I've been able to source elsewhere

Is this your first time renewing? Because this happens every year.

My renewal quote has just come in at over £600 (was £450 last year )
Ive been on 4 different comparison sites and nothing is coming close - mostly around the £1k mark !
shocking increase ! I’ve been driving for over 20yr and no claims have been made for over 10yrs !

Only after I've looked on a comparison site.

Police for a basis for why.

Like "say my quote from you was £xxx but I've got an another quote for £xxx "and they say "ok let's see what I can do. "

And I've had the comparison site have a cheaper quote from the same company before .

I just used 2 comparison sites and got a quote 23(?) days before or whatever money saving expert said
Was expecting it to be bad
£35 cashback from Quidco
Increase of £85 for the year so £50 when I take the cashback out

I find it quicker to use a comparison site - it saves everything so I literally click through and check as I just log in
Think it was 10 mins total to do both comparison sites and take out the new policy

My renewal was up from £600 to about £1000. I went on compare the market and got a better quote. I logged in to cancel my policy and was offered 20% discount to stay but it still didn't beat the other quote so I just cancelled.
No phoning up involved at all.

It's never risen as much as it has lately.

Does anyone else get car insurance on their credit card? I pay £20 a month for a platinum account and car insurance is included.

OP - if it's a steep rise then check your quoted excesses and look at increasing some of them to reduce your payments. Sometimes altering from say £100 excess to £250 for 'theft' (depending onyour postcode) or windshield cover, can make a big difference. And do this on 1-3 comparison websites, noting if your current insurer is included and at what price.

I'd do the price comparison sites first and see what the competitors offer, plus what your current one offers if you were new to them.

Then, if you prefer, go back to the current provider and see if they can match the comparison site offers.

@PassingStranger I get my renewal, do a compare and providing the cheaper one offers equivalent cover and is genuinely cheaper I ask my insurer to match. Unless it is a big difference I may not change - depends on the insurer. Also sometimes ring people like Direct Line as not on comparison sites.

I use Aviva that is not on a comparison site and I found them cheaper and less arduous with the details than other insurance companies for the cars

Slightly off-topic, but I very clearly remember, when I was 17, 18, 20, 25... lamenting how extremely expensive my car insurance was.

Middle-aged people always sympathised with me, but told me I just had to ride it out until I was older, when it would cost next to nothing, like theirs did.

Well, I'm not far off 50 now, and I'm still waiting...

My renewal was less than £5 per month more than I was paying last year. I searched on a couple of comparison sites but whilst I could get the monthly cost down by approx £10 they all wanted a massive 1st month payment so I just let it auto renew. Same thing has happened on our other cars for the past 4 years 🤷🏼‍♀️ it's gone up less than £10pm overall on one of our cars since we've owned it.