Car insurance gone up?

[CrystalQueen87]

I've just gone to do a quote for my car insurance renewal and the price has gone up from last year?! I've had no claims and I can't understand why it's gone up.
Last year I paid £192 this year the cheapest it's quoting me on the comparison websites is £265.
Has anyone else noticed an increase and know why? Thanks.

I've heard several similar stories. Insurers say that general costs and poor availability of parts are driving up repair costs.

Don't forget that some big players like (IIRC) Direct Line don't use comparison sites so may be worth casting your net wider.

Also consider brokers such as A Plan or Swintons.

Mines exactly the same £218 last year £303 this year. I have shopped around and done comparison websites but all much of a muchness.
Last years actually had gone fractionally ( about £25) and I think it was to do with insurers from Jan 2022 no longer being allowed to offer cheaper premiums to new customers. I’m guessing it’s all levelled up this year.

Have you considered adding a named driver? For some reason quotes often go down when another driver added.

Mine went up from 550 to 730. No claims. No changes to policy.

Mine went up over £100, so shopped around and got it cheaper. But wow you guys your premiums are LOW! I pay just under £500. Maybe it's because I live in London and park on the street? I'm over 60 have ten years no claims and a bog standard car and do not use it for work.

Car insurance actually runs on a loss making basis for an insurer- it is very normal for them to be paying more out on claims/ overheads than they are taking in premiums. The only way they are making money is a lag between when the premium is taken and anything that requires a claim occurs that allows for investment income to be made.

There are many factors that cause premiums to be put up without a claims history. Right now it will be increased overheads for themselves, increased costs of repair and also high inflation (again makes sense if you think about the delay before your claim may come in, your annual premium will pay for less than it would have at the time you took out the policy).

Low investment returns also played a part in recent year increases, but these are getting better now so will offset the above a little.

OMG same! I thought it was a glitch in their system, mine's gone up from £750 with 2 years NCD to £1100+ with 3 years NCD and nothing else has changed in our lives to account for it increasing by about 60%!

Nah the cost of car repairs hasn't gone up to 150% of what it was last year. I don't disagree that things have gone up but not by that much. It's another example of big companies capitalising on the CoL crisis to make the CoL crisis worse.
Also if they're making money on their investments then they're not making a loss.

It’s also linked to the legislation that came in stopping insurance companies offering cheap deals to ‘new’ customers. You used to be able to shop around for a cheaper deal and switch companies if it was cheaper elsewhere, now you can’t do that, effectively making the market less competitive.

But doesn't this happen every year?
I switched every year since having my own insurance. If I stay with the same is always 150-200 more.
This year was going from 200 to almost 400. I looked for others and yes it is up but by £20.

Mine went up about £200, I spoke to them and got it down slightly, same with my DDad and DFil they had prices go up about £400 each.

I dont expect you to believe me because everyone loves to hate car insurance and big companies right - but they pay out more than they take in as a business model. It’s that insanely a competitive market that they run on over 100% ratios.

It’s not only car repairs at all its everything from wage increases to rent increases to increased bills they will have on their own premises to increased car purchase costs. And inflation because they will have to price your policy for what they expect a claim might cost up to a year from now - don’t forget your policy is an obligation to pay in the future and inflation is very high so your money will be worth less when they need to pay- this hasn’t been so much of a problem before.

Also, don’t assume your increase in premiums from one insurer is representative of all (not everyone/ everywhere is up 150%). Your car premium is a carefully tinkered statistic based on the claims history for that insurer for people in your different risk group. So eg other 40 year olds, other people living in your area, other people with your type of car. If your area has had a spate of car thefts for your type of car recently you don’t know about your insurer will increase your price accordingly as your risk has gone up even if you don’t realise it. That’s why shopping around is so effective- other insurers may have had better claims experience with someone with your characteristics so statistically you are calculating as a lower premium needed.

Mine went up a lot too, as it does most years. Most years I shop around and get a better deal elsewhere, but this year, there were no better deals to be found and it turns out my renewal price was as good as I could get.

Two things have happened - they're no longer allowed to offer different prices to entice new customers in, that they don't also offer to existing customers.

• Inflation. They've had to pay repair and replacement costs that are muvh higher than when they set last year's premiums and they're factoring in continued high inflation for the coming year.

I think it's possibly another example of when legislation supposed to help consumers has the opposite effect.

If they're not allowed to offer cheap deals to entice new customers, they don't need to keep any pricing low, people won't be switching for better deals.

I did manage to save DS £170 (on an enormous premium because he's young) by changing his occupation.

He was down as "catering employee" which he is, but he's also an assistant manager, which was one of the options. By choosing that the price went down by £170!

Same here. Mine went up from £400 to almost £600. I have shopped around and best I could find was £580. Full NCD and no claims.

i work in insurance - insurers used to lose money on the first year of a new customer policy because they were offering these new deals, on the basis they could try and keep the customer for renewal when they’d maybe make a bit of money on it. they can’t afford to keep policies artificially low for everyone so now people are being charged a more realistic price

I have a very low mileage - less than 1000 miles per year and was with a pay per mile type insurer. Last year I paid £165 upfront then no more than a few pounds per month (occasionally nothing if I'd done very little or no driving that month). I have years of no claims but as my policy was about to end they told me they couldn't insure me anymore! I'd have been OK with the premium going up but I wasn't given that option. They totally screwed me by refusing to insure me.
It took me about a day on comparison sites and ringing around and in the end I had to say I hadn't been refused as otherwise no one would insure me! I'm now paying around £100 more.

Renewed ours recently. It had gone up a third. DH phoned and pointed out we'd be customers for years, no claims and got a reduction.

Car insurance has gone up in general by around 20% this year.

"During first quarter of 2023 (January - March), drivers paid 20% (£107) more than a year ago." - Confused.com

I just got myself a bit grumpy thinking about how car insurance just seems to go up and up and up. So I looked for the evidence and was arther surprised to find the averages now are about the same a they were 4+ years ago. Though higher than they were 2 years ago.

I found it interesting, so thought I'd share.

Ours had gone up 40%, phoned them and haggled, got the increase down to 20%. No other company could match that for the cover we have.

Mine has almost doubled! From £347 to over £600. No claims! Looked on comparison sites and not much difference. Need to check direct line.