Car insurance premiums begin to drop despite yearly surge

Insurers have been told that “the worst could be over” when it comes to car insurance premiums following a drop in prices over the last three months.

Consumer Intelligence’s Car Insurance Price Index showed that while the average price rose 34% in the year to May, quoted premiums fell 1.3% between April and June compared to the previous quarter.

This is the first quarterly drop since the last three months of 2021, the data showed.

It also revealed that drivers most commonly received a quote between £500 and £749, with 21% of quotes falling in this price range.

Around 58% of quotes were below £1,000, with around one in five under-25s receiving quotes for less than £1,000, compared with 84% of over-50s and 58% of those aged between 25 and 49.

Max Thompson, insurance insight manager at Consumer Intelligence, said: “The escalation of car insurance premiums may finally be at an end, with insurers now reducing premiums and jostling to get to the top of screen on the price comparison website results pages.”

Regions

Meanwhile, almost all regions saw falls in quoted premiums, with the biggest in Wales at 3.9%.

This was followed by London and Yorkshire and The Humber with 2.1% decreases.

The south west, however, saw price increases of 0.8%.

“Insurers are making their pricing efforts more visible to consumers,” Thompson added.

”There are now more price cut offers visible on quotes than messages relating to cover benefits, which is the first time this has been the case since July 2022.”