Car insurance: the best time to renew your policy

The best time to renew your car insurance is eight days or more before your policy ends.

Data from price comparison site MoneySuperMarket shows a quarter of drivers who lock in their quoted price at this time see savings of about £132 – or 28% – compared with if they take the price quoted on the day their new policy starts.

There is no extra benefit to renewing your car insurance more than eight days before your policy ends, the data shows.

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Drivers that leave buying their insurance to the last-minute face the highest prices, with premiums rising steeply three days out from a policy’s expiry, and the most expensive policies being those bought on their current policy’s end date.

Meanwhile, car insurance auto-renewal costs Brits about £565m every year, as insurers “sneakily” increase premiums by about £40 per year.

MoneySuperMarket advised motorists to “shop around” for car insurance every year, instead of letting policies roll over, to avoid paying more than necessary.

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Rachel Wait at MoneySuperMarket said: “If there’s one thing to remember when it comes to saving money on your car insurance, it’s making sure you shop around before your policy automatically renews – you could save hundreds of pounds.

“What our data shows is that the time you run your quotation can also have an important bearing on the level of savings you can make. Insurers know that many of us leave buying insurance to the last minute, which is why we see prices increasing closer to the date a policy is due to expire.

“To avoid higher costs, you should shop around for your new policy at least a week before the old one runs out and lock in the price you are offered at that point – those that do can make substantial savings.”