Motorists across Manchester are paying £1,089 on average for car insurance according to analysis out this morning by the Online insurers Confused.com.
Car insurance prices are expected to hit the highest levels on record across the UK by 2018, although it seems drivers have had a brief respite from rising motoring costs as premiums steady over the past quarter.
Premiums in Manchester have decreased by 1% (-£12) in three months, as insurers recover from the Ogden rate cut earlier this year1.
Despite this brief period of stability, the average cost of car insurance in the UK is still £100 more expensive than a year ago, after accelerating by 14% over the past 12 months to £838.
This is a whopping 65% increase in pricing over the past decade, equivalent to a monetary rise of £329. And taking into account the comparatively cheap £737 drivers were paying for car insurance a year ago , it’s more important than ever for motorists to make a note of last year’s premium before they renew.
Now insurers are also anticipating a change to the way the Ogden rate is calculated following a recent government announcement where the rate could go back up to 1%.
This is seemingly reflected in the fact that the average premium in the UK has in fact taken a -1% (-£9) dip in prices. While this is the first time car insurance has shown a quarterly decrease in over three years (Q2 2014), the slowdown has been short lived.
Drivers who are fed up of soaring motoring costs will likely groan when they hear car insurance prices have already started to shift up a gear in September by 1%.
But some drivers have been hit in the pocket more than others. While female drivers have seen their car insurance bump up by £91 (13%) to £774 since last year, men have borne the brunt of the price hike, following a £109 (14%) increase to £890 for their average premium.
And even though the rules prohibit insurers from assessing a driver’s risk based on their gender, there is still a disparity between what men and women pay for their car insurance.
Men are now paying £116 more for their car insurance than women, just £5 short of the pre-EU gender directive gap.
While insurers are unable to assess a driver based on their sex, there are other risk factors at play which men tend to fall foul, and this is reflected in the price of their premiums. For example, men tend to drive more expensive cars with larger engines, on average, so they make higher-value claims. They also have significantly more motoring convictions than women.
There’s a marked difference between different age groups too, with some drivers being stung more than others. Many older motorists in the UK – specifically those aged between 57 and 61 years old and between 66 and 69 years old – are paying more for car insurance than they have ever paid. And 61 year olds saw the biggest annual and quarterly increase of any age bracket, ramping up by a whopping 23% (£100) year-on-year and 6% (£33) over the last three months.
Monetarily, 21 year olds have seen the biggest price difference over the last 12 months, and are now paying £279 (19%) more than they were a year ago. Whereas 17 year olds have swapped places with 18 year olds, and are now paying the most for car insurance of any other age, with their average premiums coming to a pricey £2,272 and £2,266 respectively.
But it’s not only rising car insurance prices motorists in the UK are having to contend with. Coupled with other price hikes such as the new rules around vehicle tax for new cars drivers are also paying significantly more for fuel than they were a year ago.
According to Confused.com’s fuel price index, which collates prices from 83% of the UK’s fuel stations5, drivers are now 119.1p for petrol and 120.5p for diesel, on average.
This means that the average driver of a medium-sized car is now paying £67.89 for a full tank of petrol and £68.69 to fill up with diesel. And with recent reports suggesting that the government should raise fuel duty to increase public spending, fuel prices could be guzzling even more pounds from the pockets of drivers in the coming months
Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, says: “With car insurance costs in Manchester and Merseyside rising by 13% over the last year it’s no wonder drivers are dreading their next renewal date.
“The dramatic Ogden rate cut from 2.5% to -0.75% in February 2017 sparked a surge of car insurance price hikes across the UK, in an already inflating market, as insurers braced themselves to pay out more for personal injury claims1. A recent government announcement to change the way rates are set could partly reverse the cut by to up to 1%, meaning insurers have seemingly been able to calm their pricing slightly this quarter. Even so, we expect this will be short lived given that prices have already started to rise again in September.”
