I was renewing with Tower and it’s gone up a lot, even though I haven’t made a claim and nothing has changed. Same old car. I just thought stuff it, and I downgraded to third party only with no theft or fire cover (I have one of the best alarms)
On the phone they explained that part of the reason was that the value of my car had been adjusted (about $1,000 higher) but when they used the calculator to figure out the premium cost for a lower agreed value, it didn’t change to the price I expected.
Prices must have gone up due to inflation or corporate greed.
I’d still trust Tower over AMI. Once I used AMI and my renewal package got lost in the post, and my insurance expired, but they didn’t even text or email me. With Tower it automatically renews. So while AMI might be cheaper, they are really bad with communication, and won’t even spend 2 cents to send an SMS to your phone.
This reminds me, one provider here (Suncorp, I think) used to let you adjust the agreed value with a slider, and gives you instant feedback on how much premium you’ll be paying. That was pretty cool. I just regretted not picking a higher value because the bloody car ended up getting written off 6 months later…
I am American, but you should shop around for other insurers often.
I stuck with one company for 10 years and they increased my 6 month price by $250 from six months prior, despite no claims or tickets in 5 years and a lower appraisal value on the same car. Another company was $390 cheaper for more coverage over a 6 month period.
Insurers distribute the higher costs of cars due to technology and total write-offs on some cars for damage that would not total other cars to everybody. So shop around and don’t fall for the concept of customer loyalty creating customer advantage, they just want more from your loyalty at a lower cost.
Go to a broker - get them to shop around for you. And take a higher excess too; that’s makes a big difference.
But yeah, insurance has gone up dramatically in the last 18 months or so. Our corporate bill (building, 4x vehicles and 10mil public liability) went from 9K to 15k at last renewal.
Try get a quote from AA too. Although I’ve had similar issues with renewals being lost in the post with them previously too: I think it’s probably less of an issue with all insurers now that they email everything though.
I think all insurers prices have gone up though, mostly due to floods I think?