Is car insurance failing the value for money test?

Car insurance premiums are at record highs, yet many customers say they're not getting much for their money.

In our latest survey of car insurance policyholders, 19 out of 27 insurers were given two out of five stars when it came to value for money.

Last November, we quizzed 2,793 customers who'd claimed within the last two years on their overall levels of satisfaction with their insurer and various aspects of their experience.

NFU Mutual - with the highest Customer Score of 81% (reflecting its customers' overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend it) - was awarded four stars when it came to customers' views on its value for money.

Seven other providers - Aviva, AXA, Bank of Scotland, LV, Nationwide Building Society, Saga and Tesco Bank - each achieved three out of five stars. But the other 19 brands with a star rating each managed just two stars. 

Here, we expose the missing areas of cover that can make even a cheap policy terrible value for money.

• Find out more: Best car insurance companies in the UK 2024 

Record high premiums

Figures released by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) show that, on average, car insurance was 25% more expensive in 2023 than in 2022. 

According to the trade body, the average premium paid between October and December 2023 was £627. However, other indices give higher estimates. For example, Confused.com places the average premium at £995.

Last week, the ABI announced a 10-step 'roadmap' to combating the rising costs of cover. 

These include providing information to help consumers make more informed decisions about which vehicles are more costly to insure, combating vehicle theft, and campaigning to reduce Insurance Premium Tax - which currently adds £67 to the average insurance policy.

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Five policy potholes to watch out for

If you have to claim on your car insurance, the policy's value for money (or lack thereof) will soon reveal itself.

A policy that misses a crucial part of cover could cost you many times what the policy costs.

Nor can you assume that a pricier policy will necessarily include all the cover you'll need - or that a cheaper policy will lack it.

In November 2023, we also reviewed the cover in 61 policies from 28 insurers, examining 78 different elements of cover in each. Here are five areas of ostensibly standard features that can vary subtly - but importantly - between policies.

1. Total loss courtesy car

A comprehensive car insurance policy should pay out towards the cost of your car if it's stolen or written off (a 'total loss'). 

However, if you don't have access to another vehicle, you could be stuck without your own transport while replacing the car.

Our research found that while almost all policies offer a courtesy car while yours is undergoing repairs, just 20% provide one as standard if your car is a total loss. With most policies, this needs to be added as an optional extra.

• Find out more: Car insurance add-ons

2. Legal cover

Legal expenses insurance helps fund legal fees if you need to pursue costs from another driver that aren't covered by your car insurance itself - such as suing for compensation after an accident or excesses you've had to pay. 

All 61 policies we reviewed either had motor legal protection as standard or as an optional extra.

However, there are distinctions in cover between policies when it comes to the specific kind of claim you want to make. For example, only 38% of policies cover you if you're a victim of 'vehicle cloning' (someone has copied your licence plates) and are facing fines for actions perpetrated by the fraudster.

Similarly, only 16% of the policies will support you if your car has been illegally clamped or towed.

3. No-claims discount

If someone vandalises your car, is it your fault? While the obvious answer would seem to be no, getting your insurer involved is likely to result in a 'fault' claim. 

This doesn't mean the insurer thinks you were responsible - it simply reflects that it had to pay out and wasn't able to recoup its losses. 

Consequently, in 61% of policies rated, making a claim for vandalism means you'll lose some of your no-claims discount (NCD).

In the remaining 39% we checked, your NCD would remain unaffected, which could be useful for drivers with many years' worth of NCD.

• Find out more: No-claims discounts explained

4. Personal belongings

Almost all policies have some measure of personal belongings cover for items stolen from or damaged in your car, with cover limits ranging from £100 to as much as £1,500 per claim.

However, we found it frequently came with gaps. In the policies we examined, none cover cash - and only 7% cover credit cards. Barely half (51%) will pay out for mobile phones. 

Slightly higher proportions - 69% - cover laptops, with the same percentage covering tablets.

5. Misfuelling cover

If you have the somewhat clumsy misfortune of pouring petrol into your diesel car or vice versa, about half of policies rated (52%) come with or offer misfuelling cover as standard or as an optional extra.

But we found that only 10% of policies cover both the costs of draining your fuel tank and engine damage resulting from the wrong fuel. Most policies cover one or the other.  

What you lose with ‘essentials’ policies

As insurance prices have soared, insurers have begun releasing stripped down versions of their policies, aimed at customers who just want the basics for an affordable price.

We rated seven of these policies from Admiral, Churchill, Direct Line, Hastings Direct, Quote Me Happy, Sainsbury's Bank and Tesco Bank.

All landed in the bottom half of our car insurance tables with Hastings Direct's 'Essentials' sitting in last place with a policy score of 44%. Sainsbury's 'Essentials' fared substantially better with 60% - but this was still below the market average of 64%.

Some features usually included as standard but absent from budget policies include cover to get you to your destination or pay for overnight accommodation if an accident strands you while travelling. 

Four also did away with 'new car replacement' - which is a pledge to replace a new car (aged between one and two years) with a like-for-like replacement if it's stolen or written off. Four also dispensed with misfuelling cover, and five trimmed away cover for audio and satnav equipment that isn't built into the car.

Many drivers might consider these losses reasonable if they help bring down the price of car insurance. For example, if you don't drive a new car, you wouldn't benefit from 'new car replacement' anyway.

However, one omission that raised our eyebrows was cover for windscreens and windows, which is absent from the budget policies from Hastings, Quote Me Happy, Sainsbury's Bank and Tesco. Windscreen damage is the second most common reason customers claim - behind 18% of claims reported in our survey - after accidental damage (40%).

• Find out more: Making a car insurance claim

Picking the best policies

With prices high, finding the right level of cover for you is more important than ever.

Our experts have rated 61 car insurance policies, surveyed thousands of customers and we've written in-depth reviews of 17 car insurers.

These reviews are unique, because we only survey customers who've claimed and are best placed to rate their insurers on customer service, value for money and more.

• Find our more: Best car insurance companies in the UK 2024 

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