What has happened to cheap car insurance?

ray_mopac

Every year the car insurance renewal arrives and is massively more expensive that last year.
Every year I hit the comparison sites and find a similar deal to last year.
A different insurer every year!
But this year, there are no cheap deals! All the comparison sites are coming up with prices 100% more than I paid last year.
Other family members are seeing exactly the same thing.
Someone hinted that it was some European edict that states introductory deals are no-longer allowed. The same price must be offered to new customers as existing customers.
Is this true?
What is the MSE plan to get back to cheap insurance?

DullGreyGuy

Nope, wasn't a EU edict but a British one that came into effect last year but only for personal lines Motor and Home... obviously last year people were still finding their feet and trying to second guess what the competition were going to do. 

More broadly Motor insurers have been hammered over the last couple of years with significant underwriting losses hence big increases were predicted for 2023 and more for 2024.

MSE's plans revolve around increasing their revenue by advertising cheap services and people thinking they are some form of consumer champion... they certainly don't step in to help when people find the cheap junk they've bought is useless when it comes to actually using it. At best they quietly stop advertising it but pick up the sister/white label brand instead. 

daveyjp

Covid
Increase costs per claim
Inflation
Cover losses
Plan for anticipated increase in claims.  I dread to think how many vehicles have been written off in the last three months due to flooding. It must run into thousands.  Insurance actuaries will be forecasting this to continue over the years.

ChooseLife

Yes, I feel your pain!  It bugs me that car insurance rises every year.  I was with ESURE for the past 2 years and they increased by over £200!  So went on comparison sites and managed to get a deal at about £50 more than last year (saga) as that was the cheapest deal.  But it came with more extras included in price so was actully better value. I do think the price for female drivers has increased this year.  I never show any loyalty to an insurer amd will always look to see if I can get it cheaper. 

DullGreyGuy

ChooseLife said:

Yes, I feel your pain!  It bugs me that car insurance rises every year.  I was with ESURE for the past 2 years and they increased by over £200!  So went on comparison sites and managed to get a deal at about £50 more than last year (saga) as that was the cheapest deal.  But it came with more extras included in price so was actully better value. I do think the price for female drivers has increased this year.  I never show any loyalty to an insurer amd will always look to see if I can get it cheaper. 

Gender cannot be used for pricing consumer insurance since 2012 

If you look back a couple of years insurance then was notably cheaper than the preceding decades when adjusted for inflation... the last couple of years have been fairly unprecedented and hence the large underwriting losses and resultant premium increases. 

I know personally my car insurance was getting cheaper each year (until I got rid of my car after moving to central London)

joesoap1264

ray_mopac said:

Every year the car insurance renewal arrives and is massively more expensive that last year.
Every year I hit the comparison sites and find a similar deal to last year.
A different insurer every year!
But this year, there are no cheap deals! All the comparison sites are coming up with prices 100% more than I paid last year.
Other family members are seeing exactly the same thing.
Someone hinted that it was some European edict that states introductory deals are no-longer allowed. The same price must be offered to new customers as existing customers.
Is this true?
What is the MSE plan to get back to cheap insurance?

I was told a while back car insurance has gone up with a bang!
I have been getting quotes off every comparison site for weeks, and nothing under £460,,double last year's premium.
My renewal from co op came yesterday, cheaper then last year.
£249 
Gobsmacked !
Snatched his hand off in case he made a mistake.
Probably get hit when house insurance renews in march😱😱

chrisw

joesoap1264 said:

ray_mopac said:

Every year the car insurance renewal arrives and is massively more expensive that last year.
Every year I hit the comparison sites and find a similar deal to last year.
A different insurer every year!
But this year, there are no cheap deals! All the comparison sites are coming up with prices 100% more than I paid last year.
Other family members are seeing exactly the same thing.
Someone hinted that it was some European edict that states introductory deals are no-longer allowed. The same price must be offered to new customers as existing customers.
Is this true?
What is the MSE plan to get back to cheap insurance?

I was told a while back car insurance has gone up with a bang!
I have been getting quotes off every comparison site for weeks, and nothing under £460,,double last year's premium.
My renewal from co op came yesterday, cheaper then last year.
£249 
Gobsmacked !
Snatched his hand off in case he made a mistake.
Probably get hit when house insurance renews in march😱😱

Yep, same here. Last year £349, comparison site £479, renewal finally came through at £311. The mysterious world of insurance premiums.

joesoap1264

chrisw said:

joesoap1264 said:

ray_mopac said:

Every year the car insurance renewal arrives and is massively more expensive that last year.
Every year I hit the comparison sites and find a similar deal to last year.
A different insurer every year!
But this year, there are no cheap deals! All the comparison sites are coming up with prices 100% more than I paid last year.
Other family members are seeing exactly the same thing.
Someone hinted that it was some European edict that states introductory deals are no-longer allowed. The same price must be offered to new customers as existing customers.
Is this true?
What is the MSE plan to get back to cheap insurance?

I was told a while back car insurance has gone up with a bang!
I have been getting quotes off every comparison site for weeks, and nothing under £460,,double last year's premium.
My renewal from co op came yesterday, cheaper then last year.
£249 
Gobsmacked !
Snatched his hand off in case he made a mistake.
Probably get hit when house insurance renews in march😱😱

Yep, same here. Last year £349, comparison site £479, renewal finally came through at £311. The mysterious world of insurance premiums.

This is only the second time in donkeys years I have renewed with same compay, premiums were always cheaper if you switched !
What,s happened to the comparison sites ?
Something gone amiss !
Is it since law changed offering new customers discounts, and sod loyalty ?

DullGreyGuy

joesoap1264 said:

What,s happened to the comparison sites ?
Something gone amiss !
Is it since law changed offering new customers discounts, and sod loyalty ?

Nothing, they do what they always have, present your data to each of the insurers/brokers on their panel and then show you the quotes they received back. 

It has always been up to the insurer if they want to created an ultra budget version of their product they can sell a bit cheaper to put on the aggregators and then keep the higher quality product for those getting direct quotes etc. 

Your last question seems an inverted way to describe the law change... it outlawed new customer discounts and penalties for loyalty. We are now 12 months on from the law change (for Home and Motor) and so insurers have developed their position now they've seen what competitors have done and the terrible underwriting results the two classes of insurance have had.

dunstonh

Every year the car insurance renewal arrives and is massively more expensive that last year.
Every year I hit the comparison sites and find a similar deal to last year.
A different insurer every year!

My experience is different to yours.  Although this year will be more expensive due to the various known issues.

Is it since law changed offering new customers discounts, and sod loyalty ?

Impact of Covid still being felt (supply lines/shortage of parts) resulting in cars that would normally be repaired being written off.
Shortage of hire/courtesy cars as they are being held onto longer because of the shortage of parts.
Inflation (running higher than the general inflation rate)
increase in claims for a range of reasons.
Thefts are massively up across most brands.  LR/RR gets a lot of coverage but the Ford Fiesta is the most stolen car and ford focus the third most stolen.  Other cheaper brands have thefts up over 100%.  So, even non-prestige brands are suffering.   

TSx

I've now been with the same (home) insurer for 4 years now - saw premiums rise one of those four but the rest saw a reduction. There is now a significant gap between the renewal price and the new customer price (from the same insurer), in my favour.

I'm presuming the legislation doesn't stop loyalty discounts and I imagine that my home insurer see me with 4 years of no claims being a better risk to take on than an unknown new customer who they'll have to pay acquisition costs for...