Majority Of Motorists Still Seeing Insurance Costs Rise – AA Ireland

Despite recent research from the CSO indicating that the cost of motor insurance has dropped by 12.8% in the past 12 months, 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 Irish motorists, carried out by AA Car Insurance, found that over half of respondents (54.06%) ‘strongly agreed’ that they had seen a significant increase in their insurance costs at the time of their last renewal. Meanwhile, a further 23.35% of those surveyed were somewhat in agreement with the claim that they had seen their insurance costs continue to rise year on year.

“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 off an aggregate of all available data and, as a result, there are many motorists out there that have set to see their premiums start to dip. Even worse, our research indicates that the poor response to this crisis from government has resulted in the majority of motorists still seeing the cost of their cover increase or, at best, stay at a level much higher than they would have paid in previous years,” Conor Faughnan, AA Director of Consumer Affairs stated. “The issue of rising premiums first presented itself in 2015 and a number of bodies, AA Ireland included, 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.”

The AA also warned, however, that there appears to have been a decline in the number of people shopping around to try to save on their car insurance costs – an issue it describes as a sign of the fact that Irish motorists have been forced to become accustomed to higher premiums.

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. Meanwhile, a further 17.08% 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.

“Many people are still seeing increases in their insurance prices, but the percentage increase for most is going to be significantly less than they saw in 2015 or 2016. As a result of this people may fall into the trap of thinking they’re getting a good deal and fail to compare providers which could leave them paying significantly more than they need to for cover,” Faughnan added. “Even if you are one of the fortunate people who has seen their premiums drop compared to last year, it can still be worth putting some time into shopping around as, 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.”

Fig.1: In relation to the last time you renewed your car insurance, please state to what extent you agree with each of the following statements.

Based on an AA Car Insurance survey of 4,396 motorists undertaken in February 2018.