Has anything changed in car insurance prices lately? Getting astronomical quotes...

Hi guys,

I used a couple of car insurance comparison sites back in September and I received quotes around £350, finally getting my policy with Elephant.

We were thinking about changing the car and I was going to compare car insurance prices, but before making any change whatsoever I just clicked in both comparison sites, to recalculate my previous quote and this time, for the same car we insured at £350 a few months ago, I'm getting prices between £815-£900?

Even our own company, Elephant, it's quoting us at £850. Any idea how that's even possible?

Do you know if something has changed in the law to make car insurance prices like 3 or 4 times more expensive than last year? I am even putting that we've got more years of experience (almost 20) and 4 years no claim discount but still getting prices around £1000 for a small car 1300cc?!

I don't quite understand what could be going on...
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  • forgotmyname
    forgotmyname Posts: 32,506
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    Change in law? No. Premiums have increased again.
    Censorship Reigns Supreme in Troll City...

  • AndyMc.....
    AndyMc..... Posts: 3,248
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    mickael28 wrote: »
    Hi guys,

    I used a couple of car insurance comparison sites back in September and I received quotes around £350, finally getting my policy with Elephant.

    We were thinking about changing the car and I was going to compare car insurance prices, but before making any change whatsoever I just clicked in both comparison sites, to recalculate my previous quote and this time, for the same car we insured at £350 a few months ago, I'm getting prices between £815-£900?

    Even our own company, Elephant, it's quoting us at £850. Any idea how that's even possible?

    Do you know if something has changed in the law to make car insurance prices like 3 or 4 times more expensive than last year? I am even putting that we've got more years of experience (almost 20) and 4 years no claim discount but still getting prices around £1000 for a small car 1300cc?!

    I don't quite understand what could be going on...


    It can't all be with cars.
  • mickael28
    mickael28 Posts: 111 Forumite
    I first left all details the same, and the price was quite high. So, just in case, I increased 1 year of experience each and still around the same prices...

    Premiums increasing slightly (I don't know, 5-10% might be understandable) but.. they increasing +250%?!? It's strange at best, and a rip-off at worst for what I can see...
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344
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    Such a large increase suggests that there may have been a rise in car crime in your area.
  • frugalmacdugal
    frugalmacdugal Posts: 10,077
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    Hi,

    have a read of this.
  • vikingaero
    vikingaero Posts: 10,920
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    As mentioned where do you live and what is the car you are proposing to buy. Your current Insurer won't give you a good deal on a mid term change because they don't have to! You're a captive to them. Even worse is that you are buying Insurance from The Admiral Group who are the bottom feeders of Insurers.

    Most decent Insurers will play fair and just calculate the premium difference for the new car without scalping you. Admiral Group do it differently.

    There was a larger rise in Insurance Premium Tax in September 2016 from 5% to 9.5% and it is now currently 10%.
    The man without a signature.
  • mickael28
    mickael28 Posts: 111 Forumite
    I still don't understand how this comparison sites work. I got a few quotes yesterday, which came at £903 and similar.

    I retrieved the SAME query today, and the min price was £971, but the 2nd best jumped to £1050 and other more than that. Which I don't get because yesterday night (less than 24h ago) I was quoted around £150-£200 less by a lot of companies...

    I'll try to have a look at different criteria in the next few days. But something doesn't makes sense to me in how things are calculated...
  • bigadaj
    bigadaj Posts: 11,531
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    Continually searching can push premiums up, as can checking close to a renewal date.

    I normally vary my details on the searches, obviously different name but different house number and age etc

    My premium went up about 30% this year with no adverse issues, but premiums do move up and down every year, sounds like something significant has changed in your case either personally or locally, have you changed job, or anything else?
  • mickael28
    mickael28 Posts: 111 Forumite
    No, same house, same drivers, same car (as I was initially just double checking our current quote), same job... The only thing I could think of is that we've living in a block of flats and maybe something happened here that pushed the quotes a lot higher, but I've tried with houses around or nearby and similar prices...

    I'll try to change some variables and see if I notice one that makes a massive difference, I'll let you know if I do... although I doubt it as there are so many things (I changed a few things to see, and prices were kind of similar - diff job title, house number, with or without spouse, year of the car bought, ...)
  • waamo
    waamo Posts: 10,298
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    Why are you using comparison sites if you are changing mid way through a deal? You get the most competetive quotes when your insurance is actually due.

    If you want to change cars see how much your insurer actually charges. I changed my car a couple of weeks ago. My new one is worth double what my old one was. It only cost £45 for 5 months.

    I paid £325 on a £6k car last year. I won't pay much more on a £14k car next year.
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