Six million people may be paying £1.2 billion too much for their insurance premiums
The FCA has today published the final report of its market study into the pricing of home and motor insurance. The FCA is concerned these markets are not working well for consumers and is setting out proposed remedies to address this.
The FCA is proposing that when a customer renews their home or motor insurance policy, they pay no more than they would if they were new to their provider through the same sales channel. For example, if the customer bought the policy online, they would be charged the same price as a new customer buying online.
Firms would be free to set new business prices, but they would be prevented from gradually increasing the renewal price to consumers over time (known as ‘price walking’) other than in line with changes in customers’ risk. For existing consumers, their renewal price would be no higher than the equivalent new business price.
Firms use complex and opaque pricing practices that allow them to raise prices for consumers that renew with them year on year.
While some people shop around for a deal, many others are losing out for being loyal. Firms target price increases on consumers who are less likely to switch and use practices that make it harder for people to leave.
At the same time, firms do not always offer regular switchers their lowest prices. The FCA identified 6 million policyholders were paying high or very high margins in 2018. If they paid the average for their risk, they would have saved £1.2 billion. Some of this is due to harmful pricing practices, which the FCA’s proposals aim to tackle.
Christopher Woolard, Interim Chief Executive of the FCA, commented:
‘We are consulting on a radical package that would ensure firms cannot charge renewing customers more than new customers in future, and put an end to the very high prices paid by some long-standing customers. The package would also ensure that firms focus on providing fair value to all their customers. We welcome feedback on the proposals.’
