MANY MOTORISTS ARE still seeing their premiums increase at the time of renewal according to a survey undertaken by AA Ireland.
The survey of over 4,000 motorists this month shows that over 56% of those polled said they had seen a significant increase in their car insurance at the time of their last renewal.
Recent research from the Central Statistics Office indicated that the cost of motor insurance has dropped by 12.8% in the past 12 months.
The AA also warned that there appears to have been a decline in the number of people shopping around to try to save on their car insurance costs.
Pricing around
When asked if they had shopped around less this year than in previous years when it came to motor insurance, just under 1 in 10 of the motorists surveyed (9.67%) ‘strongly agreed’ that this had been the case.
A further 17% were somewhat in agreement with the claim that they had made less of an effort to compare premiums at the time of their last renewal.
“While we have seen a few headlines recently indicating that insurance costs are dropping, it’s important to bear in mind that this is based on an aggregate of all available data and, as a result, there are many motorists out there that have yet to see their premiums start to dip,” said Conor Faughnan, AA Director of Consumer Affairs.
He said the issue of rising premiums first presented itself in 2015 and a number of bodies, including AA Ireland, have been campaigning for government action to resolve the crisis since then.
“Unfortunately, all we’ve seen from Leinster House is the publishing of a strong set of recommendations but no follow through on actually enacting any changes,” said Faughnan.
He pointed out that even when the drop in costs the CSO is reporting is accounted for, the average motorist is still paying 20-25% more for insurance than they would have in 2015.
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