Car insurance renewal - using the 'right' variables

BigTezza

My car insurance expires at the end of March and I've just entered the 'within 30 days of expiry' period. Like most people, I am shocked and angered by the hike in prices this year. I paid £195 last year and a preliminary look at the comparison sites suggests I'm looking at £350+ this time.

I know that timing is an issue so I'll search again in a week or two but I'm wondering if the other variables I've been advised to use in the past are now having a negative effect and if anyone has experienced the same.

I turned 60 last August, so that might be an issue. I work in IT for a small software company as a sort of IT Jack-of-all-trades and there are umpteen job titles listed that cross over into areas of work I do. I never know the 'cheapest' one to pick. I don't commute anymore and only cover 1000-1500 miles pa.  I've always added my older brother - by 4 years - as an additional driver. He's a Payroll Manager for Local Government. We both have clean licences with no claims since we started driving in 1976/1981. All pretty safe - or so I would imagine!

I ran through a quote on one site with just me on it and again with my brother added and the price came back slightly cheaper for the former....confused! Could that be to do with him hitting 65 this year maybe or is some strange insurance black art coming into play? 

I'm confused as to what variables to use now in order to keep the price down.

Any suggestions?

DullGreyGuy

1,500 miles is likely to result in a higher premium than if it were a bit higher.

Older age does tend to have a negative impact but normally more from like 70 than 60.

Adding a second driver thats more or less identical to you is unlikely to make much difference unless it's your spouse. Adding a lower risk second driver normally is beneficial but you have no obvious high risk attributes. 

Look at your optional extras, do you need all of those?

Last time I did hands on pricing for Motor was about a decade ago, the minimum premium we would quote back then was £250. £195 includes £21 in IPT and c£100 of acquisition costs so about £74 for the actual risk that you do £5m of property damage and unlimited liability for injury. 

[Deleted User]

You probably screwed it up by doing a comparison so early. The optimum time is 23 days from renewal. Any earlier and they will make you pay more. Probably think you are the type who just wants it done.

tacpot12

You need to be careful about leaving it too long to take out insurace. I found when using comparison sites that the prices went up if you wanted the insurance to start in less than 7 days time. They were significantly lower if the insurance was to start in 2 to 3 weeks. 

Bigphil1474

OP, I paid £385 for my new policy for this year (last week), after paying £245 last year. Spent a good couple of days searching for a better deal but went with the renewal with existing insurer as it was the cheapest bar some outliers. I'm early 50's, 21 years no claims (technically), and no other changes I'm aware of. It's just the market this year. 

As above, I probably would ditch your brother. I used to drive about 12k miles a year before covid, but do far less now. I have reduced my miles on insurance to 5k, and probably don't do that many most of the time. Not sure it made a huge difference. Make sure you are just buying SD&P, and maybe go with the most boring sounding job title that's a close match?