Couple’s outrage as car insurance hiked 90%: ‘Trying to mug me when I wasn’t looking’

When Steve Blears acquired his automobile insurance coverage renewal letter final month and seen his premium was going to nearly double, he felt as if Direct Line was “attempting to mug me once I wasn’t wanting”.

The annual premium on his Ford Focus property was set to rise from £550 to £1,046, a blistering 90 per cent improve.

The letter adopted one other one again in March, for his spouse Penny Haslam’s Skoda Very good property. Direct Line was going to hike that premium by 38 per cent, from £655 to £906.

The couple from Lymm, Cheshire, have been loyal prospects of Direct Line for a decade, with 9 years of no-claims bonus. Mr Blears, 53, was so offended he despatched the insurer a “sweary tweet, earlier than deleting it!” and left “a stinking evaluate on Trustpilot”.

Automobile insurance coverage is now the third-biggest invoice for households, behind council tax and vitality, in line with the comparability website Confused.com. Unique information from the analyst Shopper Intelligence reveals that common premiums rocketed by 48 per cent within the 12 months to June 2023.

Mr Blears, who runs a coaching and training enterprise known as Bit Well-known with Ms Haslam, a former BBC presenter, stated he thinks insurers are “utilizing excessive inflation as an excuse to fleece prospects”.

Ms Haslam, 51, added: “We haven’t raised our costs for shoppers this yr; what makes insurance coverage firms suppose they’ll hike theirs?”

Mr Blears doesn’t usually store round and examine quotes to get a greater deal, as he says it’s too time-consuming and he thought Direct Line would worth the couple’s loyalty. Nevertheless, confronted with the excessive renewal quotes, Mr Blears used MoneySuperMarket to see if he may swap to a less expensive insurer.

He has now moved to RAC for a worth of £535, and transferred Ms Haslam’s coverage to Aviva, for £536. They’ve saved £881 by ditching Direct Line and transferring elsewhere.

David Trenner, from Liverpool, was additionally shocked to open a renewal letter from his automobile insurer and uncover an enormous improve within the quote. Esure stated it was placing up the value for his Renault Clio from £283 a yr to £547 – a 93 per cent hike.

Mr Trenner, 67, stated: “I used to be fairly shocked. I anticipated a small improve due to inflation, however not 93 per cent.

“There doesn’t appear to be any level in a protected no-claims bonus in the event that they try this. I had a declare about 15 years in the past however I don’t bear in mind the premium going up a lot then.”

One other buyer fuming about the price of his automobile insurance coverage is Leigh Daniels, a barrister’s clerk from Moulton in Cheshire.

The renewal for his Cupra Formentor arrived final week from LV, revealing a nasty shock. The premium is about to soar by 73 per cent later this month, from £302 to £522. “I used to be so shocked and upset, the very first thing I did was name LV and cancel my renewal,” he stated.

Mr Daniels, 47, then spent a couple of hours on comparability websites however was shocked to seek out that not one of the quotes had been cheaper – in reality, they had been all no less than £100 costlier.

“I then needed to go crawling again to LV, however I did handle to get a mighty £26.09 off the renewal quote,” he stated.

Mr Daniels nonetheless faces paying nearly £200 extra for his motor insurance coverage in comparison with final yr. He stated the large improve together with “the huge rise within the worth of grocery purchasing and utility payments goes to place an infinite pressure on our household’s funds and we’re working out of how to subsidise these unacceptable will increase”.

Some motorists are fortunate to see smaller worth rises – beneath the 48 per cent common improve – however these larger insurance coverage prices are nonetheless a blow throughout a time of rising costs, from meals purchasing and holidays to mortgages and rents.

The premium on Katy Walton’s Mini Cooper Countryman not too long ago rose by 23 per cent, from £392 to £482. “I used to be dissatisfied to see a rise of practically £100 regardless of having been a loyal buyer with LV for years, and I’ve accrued eight years’ no claims. I believed year-on-year you bought rewarded with a discount for good driving!” she stated.

The 42-year-old from Wiltshire is juggling elevating two units of twins together with her work as a contract PR director and establishing a aspect hustle providing vitality therapeutic. She says she doesn’t have time to search for a less expensive quote.

Billy Simons, 20, from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, was additionally irritated by a giant bounce in the price of his automobile insurance coverage. He drives a 2012 Vauxhall Corsa, and as a newly handed driver, his first premium with Hastings Direct was £760 final yr. This yr’s renewal worth is £1,014 – a 33 per cent rise.

LV stated it’s sorry prospects aren’t pleased with their renewals. “Costs are going up in every single place in the intervening time and, sadly, insurance coverage is not any totally different. We’re doing all the pieces we are able to to handle these tendencies and preserve prices as little as we presumably can.”

Direct Line stated: “We at all times encourage our prospects to buy round for a variety of quotes earlier than renewing their insurance coverage, to make sure they get the appropriate cowl to satisfy their wants if the worst had been to occur and so they needed to declare.”