Households face the prospect of two rises in car insurance costs over the next six months as more drivers return to the roads.
“I see premiums rising over the next few months as we go out of this period of lockdown. There is the potential that consumers are going to increase their mileage because of that, and that is a very big risk factor,” said Ryan Fulthorpe of price comparison site GoCompare.
“Obviously, the longer that you spend in the car the more likely that you are to get in an accident. And if you are not in the car, you are not going to cause a crash.”
Car insurance prices fell by an average of £74 this year compared with last year owing to a drop in car insurance claims, according to comparison site Comparethemarket.com. “As more cars return to the road, the cost of insurance could start to increase,” said Dan Hutson of Comparethemarket.
New rules for the insured in the new year are likely to be responsible for the second price increase.
The Financial Conduct Authority will ban, from January, the practice of charging existing customers a higher premium when renewing their insurance than they would charge someone taking out a new policy – known as the “loyalty penalty”.
The end of this practice is likely to push up policy prices across the board, according to industry commentators, as insurers will not be able to charge as much when householders renew their policies.
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