Car insurance risen 25%!?

cgray25

Got my renewal letter in for the car insurance (25th) - I'd read about premiums on the rise but the figures banded around have been 12-15% at most. My renewal has just risen nearly 25% despite no change in circumstances!

I've been with Diamond for about 3 years now, I stayed with them as their renewals have been (surprisingly) cheaper than I can source elsewhere with the comparison engines. I thought with this price hike maybe I'd outstayed my welcome but trotting back to the search engines I found this renewal was still the best I could find (in fact, I found one deal for the same price with Kwik-fit but the excess was double).

So, what's this all about? Just turned 30 and thought the premiums might come down a little

TSx

cgray25 wrote: »

Got my renewal letter in for the car insurance (25th) - I'd read about premiums on the rise but the figures banded around have been 12-15% at most. My renewal has just risen nearly 25% despite no change in circumstances!

I've been with Diamond for about 3 years now, I stayed with them as their renewals have been (surprisingly) cheaper than I can source elsewhere with the comparison engines. I thought with this price hike maybe I'd outstayed my welcome but trotting back to the search engines I found this renewal was still the best I could find (in fact, I found one deal for the same price with Kwik-fit but the excess was double).

So, what's this all about? Just turned 30 and thought the premiums might come down a little

Insurance premiums inflated massively last year - see articles like this - the good news is that from all the signs I've seen, the rate of increase is slowing (although it's still increasing in double digits!)

redped

Don't forget about Quidco or topcashback - I got £40 cashback last year on my car insurance. If you do move to a different insurer, contact your existing one and tell them - it'll save any hassles later on if they auto-renew and charge your credit card.

cgray25

Well, haven't found any better deals so doesn't look like it'll be possible to change - just wondering if anyone had questioned their insurers? Suppose you'd only get the same BS response.

Smacks of 'cartel' to me - year on year premiums have fallen (and dodgy claimants are nothing new)..yet the whole industry decide in a single year that premiums can shoot up 20-50!

mancitychick

Mines gone up by 100 quid, haven't shopped round yet so hopefully get it down at least abit.

dunstonh

just wondering if anyone had questioned their insurers? Suppose you'd only get the same BS response.

Car insurance has been losing money. £123 for every £100 of premium. It hasnt been a big profit maker even during better times but now it relies on cross subsidy and investment returns. Investment returns vanished between 2007-2009. Underwriters dont want to take as much risk and fraud and theft always increases in a recession.

The reasons are not BS.

Smacks of 'cartel' to me - year on year premiums have fallen (and dodgy claimants are nothing new)..yet the whole industry decide in a single year that premiums can shoot up 20-50!

Only high risk areas and high risk individuals are seeing increases of that much. Low risk are seeing little or no increases. The facts are out there if you want to know them.

kingstreet

[smuggitmodeon]Here in rural Staffordshire, I managed to get my renewal for the same price but reduced my excess in the process[smuggitmodeoff]

Seriously, there are times when insurers loss-lead to get business, inevitably causing rates to "normalise" later and as dunston says, motor business has been losing money for years. Coming on the top of massive fuel prices and other rising costs though, it's particularly tough at the moment.

F_T_Buyer

Also cars have been rebanded due to their risk. Check your car stats on parkers.co.uk and you can see the new and old insurance category. It changed from a 1 to 20 banding, to 1 to 50.

lisyloo

On average I think they went up 30%.

yet the whole industry decide in a single year that premiums can shoot up 20-50!

There are a number of factors including high claim rate during snow.
What do you expect the industry to do if costs rise?
I sympathise as we are all facing increases in a lot of goods, but there has never been any god given right to flat or decreasing premiums.
If food prices go up then the whole industry puts prices up, same for petrol, there's nothing different about insurance.
The scale of it is high this year and there are a number of reasons for that.

Be grateful you aren't 19.

ebayqueen40

My other half has used Saga insurance for the last 2 years and they have always given the cheapest quote. Although our quote - received this morning - is still the lowest I can find, it has shot up 38%! In the post today we also had a quote from the AA (they have our details from an online quote last year) and that was for £102 MORE than the Saga quote.

dunstonh

My wife's insurance with LV went up by just £23 and that included the provision of protected no claims this year which was not included last year. Quote sites offered lower premiums than last years quote. Although not by enough to make it worth changing.