Recently had the insurance renewal price email & its gone up £332.

I wont be renewing with them as I've found suitable cover elsewhere a lot cheaper.

I’m wondering if all insurers are guilty of offering a lower “come on in” price for the first year then levelling it up twelve months later.. This is sharp practice based on a pathetic assumption that customers will automatically renew . In the meantime sensible people should just move insurers every year to get the cheapest and best price.

That first explanation has been valid for deacades - when I bought my first car (96N Micra 1L) in 1998, Nissan had a 'deal' with RAC Insurance so that for those over 21 would pay only £350pa for fully comp insurance with a PCNB.

Next year it went up to £440. The following year £550, the year after that £640. The next nearest quotes back then were coming in at around the £750 - £1k mark. They knew I (I was very naive back then) was a captive of them until I was nearer 25 - 30.

Many insureres still do 'sweet' introductory offers. I remember in th Construction Industry where similar practices took place, e.g. the 'controls equipment' manufacturers almost gave away their kit at cost price, but charged a fortune for replacement parts (most only had a 1 year warranty) and software upgrades.

Similarly, we all know about similar practices from the computer printer manufacturers with their hardware, short-fill OEM ink and extortionate replacement ink prices, and now some actually auto-installing sioftware 'patches' that restrict non-OEM replacement ink cartridges from working.

Hiking prices seems to be the norm..

Insurance might seem to be something unaffected by global raw-material cost rises, but I guess the cost of repairing and reimbursing loss must inflate like everything else. So why is anyone surprised ?

Seems like LV= are good for the older driver. My (now 80yo) dad left his old staff / retiree policy at Axa for them a few years ago when his prices started rising quite a bit in percentage terms, though from a very low base.

My QuoteMeHappy price has stayed relatively stable (down a bit on year 2 and up a bit [about £10 if I recall] this year), roughly at the £190pa mark.

I'm not really complaining, given that I was paying around £400 (with esure) when I bought my Mazda3 back in 2006 when I was in my early-mid 30 and mostly paying in the £300 range for a good amount of time until I change to QMH a little over 2 years ago.