£2 Billion Wasted by Drivers

Between the 8^th February to 11th February 2013 Opinium Research undertook a survey on the Internet of 2,003 adults aged 18 and over in the United Kingdom. The results were weighted to nationally representative criteria.

Car accident in the snow

The results make interesting reading with some of the key points to follow below: –

Car insurance policyholders in the United Kingdom are wasting in excess of £2 billion per annum purely by maintaining their car insurance with their existing car insurer. Moneysupermarket.com claim that motorists who do not bother to shop around for car insurance when their policies are due for renewal may be wasting, on average, as much as £300 each by not transferring their car insurance to a cheaper insurer.

Six per cent of drivers (two million) cannot be bothered to try to get a lower premium at renewal by shopping around, eleven per cent are of the view that they will not be able to obtain a lower premium than the one quoted in their renewal notice and nineteen per cent (seven million) just renew their car insurance automatically with their existing car insurance company.

Drivers stay with their existing insurer for an average of 2.7 years with those motorists over the age of 55 proving to be the loyalist customer as they remain with the same insurer for an average of 3.5 years. Those drivers living in London are the most loyal staying with the same insurance company for an average of 3.6 years. Drivers that live in the Yorkshire and Humber area are most likely to switch insurers only staying for an average of 1.8 years.

These figures really show the apathy of many motorists on our UK roads. With the availability of the Internet it only takes a few minutes to go onto a price comparison website, key in the requested information once and be presented with numerous car insurance quotes from several different insurers. Surely, the possibility of being able to save up to £300 per annum should make this time well spent. After all how many hours would most people have to work to earn £300 net?