Posted 26 June 2023

Big car insurance increases this year

Recently we had a car insurance renewal from Direct Line, however this year they had added 50% to the price. Given that we've not made a claim it seemed really out of order. Then I saw this over the weekend;

theguardian.com/mon…-70

Has anyone else noticed ridiculous renewal prices lately? As ever we ignored the renewal price and just went somewhere else. But it was the size of the increase that was particularly unusual, it wasn't just an extra fiver or so.

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26th Jun
I just cant find any standard car insurance at a good price. £1200.
Over 50, 11 years protected no claims and one at fault claim.
Its a 1.6 Bluehdi auto 5008. A real race car
Im with Bymiles and use a black box / Tracker.
I only do 3000 miles a year at most.
Last year fully comp, Protected bonus,legal cover and hire car £234 Plus 5.4p a mile charge.
This year £104 & 9.3p a mile.
Mileage is charged at the end of the month like a phone contract.
26th Jun
Try increasing the number miles. I know it sounds counterintuitive but sometimes they increase price as think you're out of practice as only doing a few miles so higher risk.
26th Jun
My renewal was about 30% increase and I couldn't find it cheaper anywhere else so had to cough up ☹️
26th Jun
Its called Greedflation, everyone jumping on the inflation as a catchall excuse bandwagon.
26th Jun
And to think you're only talking about the workers! Don't get me started on the companies and businesses!
26th Jun
Ive had that in previous years too, massive hikes for no reason. Usually that’s my cue to shop around and can generally find something akin to what I would normally pay.

I believe that a lot of the time they are just relying on people auto renewing etc as if you phone them up to query they can often knock them back down again (although I rarely do this as I think they should be offering me their best deal in the first instance)
26th Jun
I administer 8 vehicle insurance policies for our family. (because I'm the only one who'll do the legwork to get the best price.) All the renewals were up 25-100%. All (bar one which had a negative address change) were renewed at roughly the same price as last year. It took a lot of haggling. Best haggle was with FordInsure(Admiral) which reduced renewal by 25% and that bettered any competitor. The change in the rules where insurers are no longer allowed to heavily discount new business policies is a major driver of the price rises, along with repair bill inflation.
26th Jun
The likes of Admiral/Elephant have also changed how they "risk" a policy. Lady on phone was telling me.

ie, insured in garage has always been substantially more expensive than on drive or road. This year, it was substantially cheaper to have it insured in garage.
26th Jun
I have/had two cars insured with direct line, on renewal this year one policy had gone up about £35 and the other had risen £180 (more than 50%) I got quotes with Hastings direct for just about the same cost as last year so went with them.
26th Jun
My renewal was actually £30 cheaper than last year, I was with GoSkippy but swapped over to Hastings Direct so I can drive another car (3rd party obviously).
Paying £360 fully comp on an Astra 2.0 CDTi SRi.
Spoke to loads of people lately who've said there's shot up for no reason!
26th Jun
My renewal around 3 weeks ago from Aviva went up 10% (£250 to £275) so i shopped around,

I couldn't actually get it cheaper but by swapping companies via TCB to Dial Direct for the same £275 i 'should' get £45 cashback making it £230,
and the new package i got has a few extra things covered that my last policy didn't have (edited)
27th Jun
My insurance went up 40% with Hastings. So changed to AA who were 25% more expensive than last year.

£350 a year for a Kuga.
26th Jun
Renewals have all ways had a big jump,
I have never stayed with same company after 1 year as my renewals all been silly prices
26th Jun
My renewal with Vitality car insurance more than doubled last month. I rang them and they said they couldn't do any better and that they always offer the best price straight away.

Needless to say, I shopped around and got a price similar to what I was paying last year, how Vitality can justify more than doubling the price I've no idea but you would have to be a fool to stay with a quote like that
26th Jun
We get a good discount and coverage with Direct Line and they do cross-product discount.

Even with a renewal letter from Direct Line, I always complete a new quote online from their site (and comparison sites) and though they don't price match, they will often get very close to what others have quoted.
26th Jun
We've been with Admiral for years and always had the best price,this year the renewal jumped massively and when I looked around LV was about half the price and cheapest price we've paid in years.

Rang admiral up,they couldn't even come close tlso changed over to LV.
26th Jun
I’ve found that if your renewal makes a big jump then in essence they’ve decided for whatever reason that they don’t want your business. I was with Saga for something like 3-4 years and then came the big increase, called up and the CS person was also confused but said there was nothing they could do. So had to jump to another company.
Author
26th Jun
That was our thought at first. I had a similar one many years ago, it was a new (to me) car and while I had transferred my insurance to another provider in-year, when it came to the first full year policy they basically priced me out. It was blatantly obvious, I think it was close to just adding a zero on the previous years price.

It is just strange that this time round it's Direct Line and Saga being specifically called out.
26th Jun
I have a friend who called me last week. Her insurance had doubled. I looked online, did the usual tweaks such as named drivers etc and they were all more than her renewal. She has gone from £650 to £1200.

Mine shot up in March with Elephant multicar but managed to spend some time on the phone with them and get it down more reasonable.
26th Jun
My auto renewal was less weirdly. I usually phone each year to haggle too.
26th Jun
My renewal with Aviva in March this year was actually cheaper than the previous year. I think in 27 years of motoring this is the first time it's ever happened.
26th Jun
My renewal was up £50 on the previous year . Cancelled the Auto Renewal and they requoted £40 less. Did a comparison now paying £20 less than last year with a few goodies thrown in for a new policy (Breakdown and legal cover) . Did through Go.compare so got excess cover too.
26th Jun
Renewal was around 85% increase.
It didnt manage whom i tried, i couldnt get anywhere near previous year prices. Ended up at 40% increase from previous years prices. (edited)
26th Jun
Don't think I have had a renewal go lower than the prior year. Loyalty gets you nowhere sadly.

Car Insurance is such a scam in this country!
Author
26th Jun
Yes it's usually at least a bit more expensive each year, but it was the scale of change this time. So much higher than normal.
26th Jun
We've been with Admiral for the last 4 years and every year they've slightly lowered my premium bearing in mind I always have to ring up to say I'm cancelling. Paid £289 for fully comp and Home and contents insurance. My son had his first years insurance with Hastings direct that was just over £1,100! It's crazy how they justify it. Just hoping it goes down for him as he's not exactly the argumentative type if I think he should ring up and try to get it cheaper or maybe I'll just pretend to be him on the phone! (edited)
26th Jun
Was told parts gone expensive or i could be living in an area where crime has gone up.....just said i be moving...didnt bother retaining me...so i moved and saved £56.....
Went on confused and got free car wash for 12 months with cheaper insurance...no more dirty car.
confused.com/rew…rds
Author
26th Jun
Yes I did see a mention that things like chip shortages etc are putting prices up... although when was the last time a car needed a new ECU when it had been in an accident?!

Body panels and bags of filler should be the primary cost of an insurance claim!
26th Jun
The term "Customer Loyalty" should be banished from every literature available, in every sphere of life.
26th Jun
I had about a 20% increase, but a quick call and a bluff that I had seen it somewhere else cheaper ended up 10% cheaper than last year. £253 from £277.
26th Jun
25% increase for renewal and the best i can find on comparisons is also 25%. Very frustrating as i moved from 3>4 years no claims and was hoping for a reduction!!!
27th Jun
Did you contact them? They'd probably have given you a price similar or better than your new insurer. I'm use to them banging £100 on and then having to call them and then not even having to negotiate. Straight to around the same price or less than I was paying before
28th Jun
Car insurance was £3.50 less this year than last. Buildings and contents renewal has just arrived with an increase of £1.20 on last year. Both with LV= Insurance.

I found Aviva to offer a great price for car insurance for the first year, but constantly price walking it up in subsequent years. I stopped using them after taking Aviva Plus, being forced to pay monthly rather than annually, then being told I couldn't cancel the auto renew as it was a "continuous payment authority". There was nothing to make that clear, as I'm anal about reading T&Cs and didn't just miss it. Told them to remove my credit card details so they couldn't take payment after 12 months. I will never get a quote for them again due to their underhand tactics.
54 s ago
Wondering if the people getting huge increases are all women??
Insurance for my husband £220 - same insurance, same car, same everything except job and he's 6 months older £300 more for me!!