Car Insurance Prices Stabilise but Inflation Emerges For Younger Drivers

Quoted car insurance premiums fell 9.1% in the past 12 months but remained relatively flat at -0.5% in the past three months, according to Consumer Intelligence's latest Car Insurance Price Index. However, October 2025 marked the first month since February 2024 to show inflation in competitive prices above 0.5%, suggesting the market may be responding to realised losses.
The average Rank 1-5 new business quoted premium from price comparison websites (PCWs) was £1,210 in October 2025, down from £1,365 in October 2024.

Younger drivers experienced a 3.6% rise in the past three months despite a 2.9% annual fall, whilst premiums for drivers aged 50 and over fell 2.6% in the latest quarter and 11.9% over the year.

Consumer Intelligence's data shows the biggest development in the market has been the record number of price cut banners appearing on comparison websites, driven by the proliferation of new products entering the market offering tiered propositions at competitive positions.

Drivers in Wales saw the biggest fall in the past year at 16.2%, whilst London and Scotland experienced smaller reductions at 1.7% and 4.0% respectively. In the latest quarter, London and Scotland returned to inflation at 1.9% and 1.7% respectively.

Quoted premiums

Drivers most commonly received a quote between £250 and £499 with 29% of quotes falling in this range and 24% falling between £500 and £749.

In the latest quarter, drivers seeking the cheapest Rank 1-5 quotes saw continued falls for ages 50+ at 2.6%, whilst competitive premiums inflated for the second consecutive quarter for under-25s at 3.6%.

Nearly 42% of under-25s could source a quote for less than £1,000 in October, up from 36% a year ago. By comparison, 80% of over-50s can source a quote for less than £750 in October compared with 72% a year earlier.

Long-term view

Average quoted premiums have risen by 102.5% – more than doubled – since October 2013 when Consumer Intelligence first started collecting data.

The over-50s have seen the largest increase, with premiums rising by 128.5%, whilst the under-25s have experienced a much more modest increase of 39.8%. Drivers aged 25-49 have seen premiums climb 120.8%.

Age differences in the past year

The over-50s benefited the most from price falls with average quoted premiums down 11.9% in the past 12 months, followed by ages 25-49 at 9.1% and under-25s at just 2.9%.

Quoted premiums have risen 3.6% for the under-25s in the past three months but fallen 2.6% for drivers aged 50 and over. Ages 25-49 remained relatively flat at -0.4%.

Telematics

The proportion of Rank 1-5 quotes delivered by telematics providers remained consistent at 16% in October 2025, unchanged since July. A small increase was observed for under-25s, rising 1 percentage point to 38%, whilst ages 25-49 remained at 14% and over-50s stayed at 9%.

The increase in telematics competitiveness for younger drivers has been driven by stronger price hikes from key non-telematics products, such as those from the Hastings group, which has created space in the top 5 rankings for telematics providers.

Zego, a new non-telematics provider, entered the PCW motor market during the last quarter with competitive premiums, regularly registering in the five cheapest quotes. However, as they do not offer quotes for drivers under 25, their impact on non-telematics competition for younger drivers is limited, whilst strengthening competition for other age groups.

Regional differences

All regions saw falls in average quoted premiums over the past year but the decreases ranged from 16.2% in Wales to 1.7% in London and 4.0% in Scotland. Another seven regions saw double digit falls.

In the past three months, most regions continued to show decreases in average premiums. However, London and Scotland returned to inflation at 1.9% and 1.7% respectively.

Drivers in the North-West continue to face the highest average quoted Rank 1-5 premiums at £1,680, ahead of London at £1,439. Motorists in the South-West continue to see the lowest average Rank 1-5 quoted premiums at £839, with three other regions also reporting averages below the £1,000 mark: Wales, East-Midlands and Eastern.

1. For each risk, common to consecutive months, the variation is calculated from the average of the top five cheapest premiums returned on each PCW in the previous month to the average of the top five in the current month regardless of which brands provided these quotes. The exercise is repeated on each PCW for each common risk. The overall market top five monthly variation is calculated by averaging across all these risk level top five variations for common risks run in both months. The monthly figures are concatenated up to produce the trended price index from a starting point of 100% in the base month.