Car insurance costs set to skyrocket to ‘most expensive ever’ price on record
CAR insurance costs are close to an all-time high, with the average price of a comprehensive policy skyrocketing in June.
At the end of last month the average comprehensive car insurance policy cost £847.
According to research by Willis Towers Watson and Confused.com, this is an increase of 19 per cent over the past year.
Car insurance policy costs have only been higher on record once in 2011 with the average reaching £858 at the time.
It has now been revealed in the research that premiums costs have risen in 10 of the past 12 months.
Over the past four month period the average costs have soared by £100.
Although younger drivers have the highest premiums, they experienced the lowest rise over the period while older drivers faced the highest cost increase.
Experts are also now predicting that average prices could reach an eye-watering £1,000 by as earlier as next year.
How to reduce the cost of your car insurance
Male drivers pay on average £120 more a year than women and motorists in the East of England, South of England and West of England are among those who pay the most.
Several factors have contributed to the higher insurance costs over the past year including amendments to the Ogden Rate, personal injury payouts and bogus whiplash claims among others.
Insurance premium tax has also more than doubled over the last two years from six per cent to 12.5 per cent.
Amanda Stretton, motoring editor at Confused.com, said to The Sun: “We cannot say that we’re shocked by these figures, as following the Ogden Rate cut and hike in IPT, we knew drivers would be taking a hit.
“Worryingly, there is every possibility that car insurance prices will be the most expensive on record by the end of the year.”
Earlier this year it was revealed that drivers are needlessly wasting money on their insurance premiums including auto renewing their policy, paying in instalments and fronting, among others.