Drivers wising up to renewals

The FCA’s intervention on car insurance renewal letters may be starting to make a difference, with more drivers reporting that they have seen the prescribed wordings and shopped around or switched provider as a result.

That’s according to new research from GoCompare. It carries out twice yearly research into people’s renewal habits.

It reported an eight per cent jump in the proportion of drivers reporting that they recall seeing last year’s premium on their renewal letter, while an additional nine per cent said their exiting premium was ‘shown clearly’ on their renewal letter. Also, three per cent more drivers said that they recalled seeing wording encouraging them to check that their cover levels were still appropriate, and an extra five per cent of drivers remembered seeing a wording encouraging them to shop around for a better deal.

GoCompare also reported a slight drop in the number of drivers automatically renewing their cover with the same provider from 17% in February 2017 to 16% in August 2018, with an accompanying rise in the rates of shopping around and switching – 32% of drivers now say they switched provider at their last renewal, compared to 30% before the FCA’s guidelines in February 2017.

However, despite these encouraging signs, 16% of drivers are still allowing their insurer to automatically roll them over for another year without first checking if they could get a better deal, and this is costing them a whopping £1.4bn a

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