Why Does My Insurance Premium Change?

INSHUR uses real-time data and looks at a number of factors to determine the best possible price for your policy. This means your price may go up or down when you renew.

There are many factors that can contribute to the final price customers are charged for their insurance. Insurers base your insurance premiums on a variety of factors, some of which you can control and others that are affected by the world around you. Prices can go up and down depending on the market conditions at the time you look to buy or renew your policy.

There are a lot of personal factors that affect your price and some outside factors, so let’s break some of them down:

You and your driving habits

Statistically, younger drivers are more of a risk than older drivers. Also, it is important to consider your driving experience. This can be how long you have held your licence, how long you have driven private hire/black car for, or how many years you have driven in total. However, if you spend a long time on the road, driving more miles could increase the potential risk of accidents.

Your car will impact the price of your insurance premium. In most cases, your car will be placed in an insurance group. That is determined by the type of car, cost of repairs, performance, safety, and security. We also consider the age, model, and price of your car to determine what the cost could be, of replacing or repairing your car.

The reason why your address is important is to calculate the risk presented in your area. This could include factors such as:

— Reported accidents in your area

— Volume of traffic

— Reported theft and damages

— Number of overall claims in your area

For example, if you move house from an area with no traffic and no claims to an area where peak time traffic is very high and there are a large number of reported thefts or accidents, your premium could increase. This is due to the increased risk of all of the factors in the new area.

Who is driving your car

In some cases, there could be multiple drivers on an insurance policy (not applicable to some policies). This would also affect the price of your premium significantly due to the factors above also being applicable to the additional driver(s).

 

Your accident and driving history

Although your own claims affect your price, so does everyone else’s claims. Claims made across the country or state are also considered. Each year, insurance companies have to predict what the total cost of all claims will be in a given time period.

Your insurance premium and all others go into one pot. That pot then has to pay for all of the claims made in that year. So, if the total number of accidents goes up and the cost of those claims also increases – the pot also needs to grow to be big enough to cover everyone’s claims. That change is then reflected in the premium on your next renewal or quote.

Sometimes, the cost of claims over a certain period falls, which would mean the pot would not need to be as large. In that case, premiums could fall.

Fraud

Fraud is another big issue that insurers face when putting a price on insurance policies. The total cost of fraudulent claims also affects the price paid by customers. This could be in the form of ‘crash for cash’ whiplash claims and any other forms of insurance fraud.

Tax

Government taxes also affect insurance prices. If the government was to increase or decrease the amount of tax applicable to insurance that would be reflected in the price that customers pay for insurance. Unfortunately, this is out of the control of the customer or the insurance company. Usually, you can find out how much tax is paid in your insurance breakdown or by asking an advisor.