Car insurance renewal sweet spot 20-27 days ahead..

Curly_one_2

Hi.

Martin Lewis says for the best prices to come back for car insurance renewal, to purchase 20-27 days ahead before current expiry.

I can start searching and getting quotes in on day 20, but when's it really best to bite the bullet and purchase in that 7 day window?

Or does anywhere within that week make any / no difference?

What's your experience please?

Thanks

Woodstok2000

My own experience is that it makes very little difference. My last 3 years renewals I've had a maximum of £2-3 variance over the 30 days.

Ayr_Rage

My renewal date was 8th March.

I checked many sites from -30 to -7 days and my experience was the same as @Woodstok2000, variance was only a couple of quid on a premium of £228 so purchased at -7 days.

Topcashbackcompare were consistently the cheapest, therefore I'll be getting £45 cashback as well.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661823/car-insurance-renewal-sweet-spot-20-27-days-ahead

Each insurer has its own pricing structure and so whilst on average you are probably better buying further out for some people they may get better prices buying closer to the renewal date.

The "advice" also is assuming all else is equal, the reality is that insurers regularly review their pricing and you can experience a big swing in either direction because a provider suddenly decides they've not been correctly pricing for someone like you. For example, lets say our sweet spot was at -21 days then in principle that would have been your cheapest quote however if on -24 days we decide to load prices for people living in your area as we've a sustained spike of claims by 25% then almost certainly your quote at -21 would be more than the quote you would have gotten on -25 days despite it being the sweet spot.

Personally I would also ask when the MSE advice was last revisited, certainly previously they hadn't updated it since the new pricing rules and it would be highly surprising if the rules you can't quote renewing customers more than you would a new customer wouldnt have had some impact.

Given MSE is owned by MoneySupermarket, equally wouldnt be surprised if they arent basing it on basic analysis from MS data which would mean it's skewed to their experience and the brands selling on their platform. Each of the aggregators produce "market data" and there is often notable differences in average premiums etc which would suggest that no aggregator is representative of the full universe of UK insurers.

Peter999_2

Martin "Captain Obvious" Lewis told the world about this on his TV shows etc. Obviously, the insurance companies knew they had been rumbled so stopped it from happening.

Captain Obvious still says it is the case when it hasn't been for a few years now - as people have already said there is a couple of pounds difference now - nothing like what it was.

Thanks mate, you've ended up costing us savvy people more money.

chrisw

I found the best approach is to take the quote which seems most reasonable from a company you feel comfortable with and then stop looking.

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6661823/car-insurance-renewal-sweet-spot-20-27-days-ahead

I'm of a cynical nature. Given the MSE advice is out there. Does anyone really think that the ins co's are not aware of it & take advantage of it?

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81943006#Comment_81943006

In principle they are the ones that created it… namely that those that are buying on the day dont have the luxury of time to shop around loads so will accept a higher price.

Someone may have since which looked at claims data and seen if there is any correlation with how far in advance the policy was bought. Maybe those that do leave everything to the last minute are doing that with everything so are a little more careless compared to the person that does everything weeks in advance too (never seen the analysis one way or the other)

Curly_one_2

Interesting stuff, and thanks for the replies.

I'll still purchase early to get it done and out the way. I absolutely hate the process 😁

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81943173#Comment_81943173

Despite working in insurance for 20 years I hate it too, particularly Home insurance. This year I won't have a choice as my preferred affinity brand has pulled out the market so have no option to blindly renew.

dunstonh

Given the posts we have seen where people have found the premium went down as they got closer and moaned about MSE telling them to buy it earlier, I suspect this is not much of a thing nowadays.