Motor premiums drop at record pace amid market competition

Motor premiums dropped at record pace in the past three months, according to the latest Consumer Intelligence Car Insurance Price Index.

Published today (18 February 2025), the index showed that quoted prices fell by an average of 6% between November 2024 and January 2025 and 8.8% in the past year.

While average quoted premiums have risen by 103.9% since October 2013, the fall in quoted premiums in the past three months is the biggest since then.

Drivers in Wales saw the biggest fall in the past year at 18.5% and the steepest decrease in the past three months at 8.4%. Yorkshire and The Humber, West Midlands and the eastern region also experienced double digit falls in the past year.

Consumer Intelligence felt that market dynamics and increased competition were among key factors behind these reductions.

“The number of brands advertising price cut offers on price comparison websites has hit a new high,” Max Thompson, insurance insight manager at Consumer Intelligence, said.

“In part, it is due to the number of tiered products, but it still shows the level of price competition.”

Telematics

Under-25s saw the biggest drop in quoted premiums over the past three months at 8.1%, compared with 5.7% for those aged 25 to 49 and 5.5% for the over-50s.

This comes following a rise in telematics-based insurance policies, with telematics providers accounting for 17% of the top five quoted premiums on price comparison websites in January, up from 13% in October.

Over the past year, however, falls in quoted premiums for the under-25s were a marginal 0.1% and way behind the 8% drop for those aged 25 to 49 and 14.3% for the over-50s.