News Published on : 25-Apr-2022 17:29:39

According to the Consumer Intelligence organisation price equilibrium is returning to the car insurance market after new rules that came into force on 1 January 2022 to tackle the practice of price walking pushed premiums up by as much as 5% in the month of the announcement according to the latest analysis from insurance pricing experts at Consumer Intelligence (please see the attached press release). Premiums are now 4.3% higher since the start of 2022 with almost all this rise accounted for in the month of January alone. Average overall premiums have increased 16.4% since October 2013 when Consumer Intelligence first started collecting data. Although premiums today are still more than 10% lower than pre-COVID prices and 16.3% off their pricing peak in September 2017. Average premiums have risen 6.2% for the over-50s in the last three months with motorists aged 25-49 also seeing increases of 4.1%. Only our youngest driver cohort - the under-25s - have recorded price falls in the last three months of 2.3%. The annual cost of car insurance is still an eyewatering £ 1 717 for the under-25s this compares to £ 610 for those aged 25-49 and just £ 370 for the over-50s. The South West (6.6%) and Wales (6.2%) have led the way with the biggest increases to their premiums in the last three months. All other UK regions recorded price increases in the last three months although London saw the smallest uptick of just 0.8%. Yet Londoners (£ 1 216) continue to pay the most for their annual car insurance with the West Midlands (£ 876) following in second. Scotland (£ 416) is now the cheapest UK region to buy car insurance.