Comparison sites offer a price, change something, delay a day in taking out the policy & you might find the price has risen.

Similar to my experience buying on-line - holidays, air fares, buying goods on-line pricing is "dynamic".

A son was buying 4 airline tickets last week - first search it was £1457 each to fly to Edinburgh. Next attempt saw a rise. Used another website - BA approx £1250 with the one change - cheaper fights available but 3 or even 4 flights. Last year flew into Manchester and drove North under £800

The website uses cookies and tracking technology. If you go back a second time it assumes you have decided and jacks the price up. Clearing cookies is not enough to fool them. Use a different computer - perhaps one at the library and see if that gets a better price.

So I go on well known comparison site to get quotes for my wife’s car and the cheapest is £160. I then check the information and as she’s now retired, her mileage has reduced and she doesn’t need insurance to get to work and back. I change the inputs to reflect the above, press ‘get quotes’ and the cheapest is now £190! How does that work?!

If you're lucky, the previous quotes might still be valid, i.e. a month or two from when they were made. If that is the case, use them, as having a higher level of coverage (and just not using that higher level, i.e. commuting to work) is legal.

It could be that as well as the quotes just changing on a daily basis rather like the price of flights and holidays do these days (or your area might've changed to being a bit higher risk), a premium goes up in this case because the insurers' 'algorithms' believe that less mileage and retirement = a loss in experience, skill and confidence in driving - and accounting for age-related physical and cognitive deterioration.

Unfortunately that can be true - my mum fell into that category some years ago and gave up driving around her late 70s because her 'natural' cautiousness went to nervousness when driving on dual carriageways / motorways and heightened her indecisiveness.

Ironically you may find that keeping the mileage the same as before might benefit you.