UK van owners face fast rising insurance premiums due to inflation

The average van insurance has increased by almost 14% in the first six months of 2022.

Due to spiralling claim-inflation and a new ruling from the Financial Conduct Authority, the average van insurance premium is set to rise further over the next sixth months according to Consumer Intelligence. With van insurance increasing by 13.6% in the first half of 2022, the average quoted cost is now £1,156 for van insurance for new customers.

The FCA’s new rules are intended to prevent insurers from appealing to new customers with low premiums.

Product Manager at Bristol based Consumer Intelligence, Harriet Devonald spoke about the increases: “Inflation is certainly feeding through to customers’ premiums, the increased cost of parts and labour, as well as supply chain issues.

“Most insurers also increased their new business prices significantly in January as a result of the new rules to ban price-walking, which were brought in by the Financial Conduct Authority.”

As a result of this activity, average premiums in the UK have increased by a concerning 49.8% since 2014 and are now at their highest since Consumer Intelligence first started keeping records of the data.

The increases vary depending on a number of factors. If a van owner uses their vehicle as a car substitute, they will pay a higher premium of £1,175 - a rise of 12.5% in the past month. This is as compared to those who use their vans for work who will pay £1,150 - an increase of 12.1% over the same period.

Age is also a factor affecting the rate of these increases, though all age ranges have seen large increases to motor insurance policies since 2022 began. Those under 25 have seen yearly policies increase on average by 10.6% this year to date. Those aged between 25 and 49 in addition to the over 50s have seen steeper rises, at a rate of 14.0% and 13.9%, respectively.

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