Why your insurance rises every year and how to stop it
Your car is a year older and your home unchanged, yet you pay more. That is not a coincidence — it is how auto-renewal works.
The new-customer price does not stay with you
Insurers compete hard for new customers and apply acquisition discounts in the first year. That discount does not renew: from year two the premium drifts back towards the standard rate, and then keeps rising with the sector's technical inflation.
That is why the same customer, with the same risk, can face two very different prices depending on whether they arrive as new or have renewed for five years without asking.
Real costs are rising too
Not all of it is commercial. Repairing a modern car has become much more expensive: bumper sensors, LED headlights and specialist workshops. In home insurance, rebuild costs and labour rise with inflation, and many policies automatically index the sum insured each year.
What you can do in 20 minutes
You do not need to change company to pay less, but you do need alternatives on the table.
- Get quotes from two or three companies a month before renewal.
- Call your current insurer with those prices: retention teams often match or beat them.
- Review cover you no longer use and adjust deductible and contents sum insured.
- Check whether bundling policies with one company earns a discount.
What is at stake
In our reference comparisons, the average gap between blind renewal and comparing before signing is around €200–€300 a year on car cover and €100–€150 on home cover. Same cover, just a different price.