Premium tracker · Updated 9 June 2026

Are car insurance premiums going up in 2026?

No — not yet. UK car insurance is down, not up, in 2026: the Confused.com quote index sits at £711, a 9% fall year on year, while the ABI's average price paid is £560 (−£30 YoY). But the gentle slide is slowing, and insurers now forecast a return to roughly +3% rises later in 2026.

See the numbers Full cost index

Direct answer

Up or down — and by how much?

Down. On every published 2026 measure, the typical UK comprehensive premium is lower than it was a year ago. The two headline benchmarks tell the same story through different lenses, and it matters which one a headline quotes:

Confused.com Price Index (quoted prices) — £711 for a new comprehensive policy in Q1 2026, down £66 (−9%) on the year. This is the average of the cheapest quotes shoppers are offered, based on more than 6 million real quotes, so it runs higher and moves faster than what people actually pay.
ABI “price paid” — £560 in Q1 2026, up just £1 on the previous quarter but down £30 year on year. This is what motorists actually transacted at, averaged across new and renewing customers, so it is lower and smoother.

The gap between the two (£711 quote-index vs £560 price-paid) is normal: the index captures fresh shopping prices, while the ABI figure blends in loyal renewers and longer policy terms. Both are below their late-2023 peak — the Confused.com index touched a record £995 at the end of 2023, so the market has fallen sharply since. The headline for 2026 is “still cheaper than a year ago, but the fall is flattening.”

The data

2026 premium movement at a glance

Measure	2026 figure	Year-on-year
Confused.com quote index (new comprehensive)	£711	−9%
ABI average price paid	£560	−£30
2023 peak (for reference)	£995	—
Insurer forecast for later 2026 (EY)	—	+3%

Sources: Confused.com Price Index (powered by WTW) Q1 2026; ABI motor premium tracker Q1 2026; EY UK motor forecast 2026. Refresh: 2026-09-09.

Driver group	Typical 2026 premium	Year-on-year
17-year-old (new driver)	£2,847	−23%
18-year-old	£2,610	−20%
25–34	£800	−8%
35–44	£620	−6%
45–64	£440	−5%
65 and over	£385	−4%

Sources: Confused.com Price Index Q1 2026 (young-driver movement); ABI; NimbleFins 2026 age bands. Young drivers saw the steepest falls — 17-year-olds paid about £517 less than a year earlier. Figures are indicative averages; your quote depends on car, postcode, mileage and history. Refresh: 2026-09-09.

For the full picture by age, region and car, see our UK car insurance cost index. Younger drivers should also read car insurance for 25-year-olds, and anyone whose renewal jumped should check why is my car insurance so expensive?

Behind the numbers

Why premiums are moving in 2026

Prices fell through 2024 and 2025 as insurers worked off the inflation spike of 2022–23. But the same cost pressures that drove the spike have not gone away — they have simply stopped accelerating. That is why the EY ITEM Club forecasts the market slipping back into an underwriting loss, with a net combined ratio near 111% in 2026 (insurers paying out roughly £1.11 for every £1 of premium) and premiums turning up by about 3% later in the year. The main levers:

Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) at 12%. A fixed government tax on every policy. It hasn't risen in 2026, but at 12% it still adds roughly £85 to a £711 premium before any claim cost is counted.
Repair and parts inflation. ABI data shows vehicle-repair claims hitting £1.9bn in Q1 2026, up 3% on the prior quarter. Garage labour rates are forecast up about 4% and parts 8–10% across 2026, with modern ADAS sensors and cameras pushing even a cracked windscreen past £1,000.
Electric vehicles. EVs still cost around 25% more to insure than a petrol equivalent (about £707 vs £558) because of battery and high-voltage repair costs — a growing share of the fleet that nudges the average up.
Theft. Theft payouts hit a record £669m recently, up around 35%, driven by keyless relay attacks on in-demand models.
Uninsured drivers. More than a million UK motorists drive uninsured. The Motor Insurers' Bureau (MIB) levy that covers their crashes is built into every honest policy — roughly £15 per policy.

None of these is spiking right now, which is why 2026 has been calm. The risk is that any one of them — a parts-cost shock from higher oil, or another theft surge — tips the gentle fall into the forecast 3% rise.

Action

What you can do now

With prices near a multi-year low but expected to firm up, 2026 is a good window to lock in savings before the forecast rises arrive:

Shop 20–26 days before renewal. The cheapest quotes cluster about three weeks out; quoting on renewal day or buying late costs more.
Never auto-renew without comparing. The quote index (£711) is the new-customer price — loyal renewers routinely pay more than switchers.
Pay annually if you can. Monthly instalments carry APR of 20–30%; paying upfront avoids it.
Telematics for younger drivers. A black box saves new drivers about £379 a year on average, and roughly 78% of 17–20s pay less with one (Marmalade, Carrot, Admiral LittleBox, Hastings YouDrive).
Tune the policy details. Add a named experienced driver, raise the voluntary excess sensibly, drop unused add-ons, and keep mileage and job title accurate.

See the savings playbook in why is my car insurance so expensive? and check your age band against the over-50s and over-70s averages.