Car insurance costs on the rise

Car insurance costs are rising, causing motorists to alter their driving habits in order to keep hold of their vehicle.

This is according to recent research from Sainsbury’s, which revealed that 76 per cent of motorists have changed their driving habits over the past 12 months in order to save money as a result of rising car insurance expenses. Furthermore, around 1.3 million motorists have had to give up driving during this period due to the prohibitively high costs.

In order to save money, 26 per cent of people have stopped filling up their tanks completely and instead have budgeted for a £20 or £50 visit to the garage regardless of how much fuel this buys them. A further 45 per cent of drivers are now driving less while seven per cent have started car sharing to lower their costs.

Ben Tyte, head of motor insurance at Sainsbury’s Finance, commented. “We estimate the average motorist has an annual fuel bill of over £1,700, a 22.9 per cent year-on-year increase, which underlines just how hard the rising cost of motoring is affecting people. The average annual cost of running a car is now just over £3,000 a year, 21 per cent higher than a year ago.”