What Buying Car Insurance 25 Days Early Saves Drivers: £334 Off £708, MSE Finds

• Car insurance cost an average £708 a year on renewal day in MoneySavingExpert’s analysis of 100,000s of quotes, against £374 for the same cover bought 25 days earlier, a gap of £334.
• The cheapest window runs from 22 to 26 days before a policy ends, and quotes taken 30 days ahead cost more, as fewer insurers return a price.
• Auto-renewing leaves money on the table, so the move is to diarise the date, compare quotes inside the window and tell the old insurer before the automatic renewal date.

Why the Date You Buy Moves Car Insurance by £334 a Year

Car insurance bought on the day cover ends cost an average £708 a year in MSE’s analysis of 100,000s of quotes from the comparison site MoneySupermarket, taken between February 2026 and April 2026. The same average policy bought 25 days earlier cost £374. The gap is £334 a year: 47 percent off the renewal day price, or about £28 a month.

Chris Collier, Editor of Money Products at MSE, wrote the guide behind the numbers. It opens its case with a line that sounds odd for a priced product: “Strangely, the timing of your quote can impact the overall price you pay, with car insurance costs increasing the closer you get to your renewal date.”

The advice that follows is short, and it covers first-time buyers too. MSE says: “The cheapest time to get quotes is 22 to 26 days ahead of your renewal date – cover becomes more expensive the closer you get. It’s the same if you are buying car insurance for the first time.”

What the Analysis Measured, and What It Left Out

MSE sets out the method and the money in one paragraph: “We analysed 100,000s of quotes (from comparison site MoneySupermarket, February 2026-April 2026) – and found the cheapest time to buy is 22 to 26 days before renewal, with 25 days ahead the overall cheapest time. The average policy costs £708 a year on renewal day, but buy it 25 days earlier and this drops to £374 a year – a massive £334 saving. You might not see savings as large as those, but the principle still stands.”

The figures are averages across every quote in the sample, so no single driver should expect to see exactly £334 off. Individual results move with where the car is parked, the driver’s job, mileage, age, driving history and any modifications to the vehicle.

The guide also words its window two ways. The summary box and the opening paragraph say 21 to 26 days, while the analysis itself says 22 to 26 days, with 25 days ahead the cheapest overall. A driver who wants one date to diarise should pick 25 days before the policy ends; anything from 22 to 26 days sits inside the cheapest band.

A second dataset points the same way. MoneySupermarket’s own October 2026 statistics, which this site covered in a piece on renewing on the day cover ends, gave a median of £713 for renewing on the final day against £382 for renewing 26 days early, a gap of £331. The sample and the measure differ from MSE’s, and the two sets of figures reach the same conclusion: the last day is the dearest.

Why Insurers Price the Calendar, and the Trap of Quoting Too Early

MSE asked insurers why the gap exists and heard one answer in common: “When our best time to buy analysis concluded that insurance prices differed depending on how far in advance you got the policy, what insurers told us was generally the same thing – it’s based around risk. Buying insurance a few weeks before you need it suggests you’re more careful and organised, while leaving it to the last minute means you’re seen as higher risk.”

The guide adds what some insurers told it about claims, and why quoting too early costs money as well: “Some insurers have told us they’ve seen a direct link between drivers who leave sorting their insurance to the last moment and those who make a higher number of claims. As for why the super-prepared are being penalised with higher prices for getting a quote 30 days in advance, it’s basically because there are fewer insurers returning quotes at that stage.”

A driver comparing at 30 days has fewer prices to choose from, and the guide’s data show those prices run higher than the ones on offer at 25 days. MSE puts the renewal notice at around a month before the policy ends, and says quotes taken 30 days ahead cost more. The notice stays useful: it shows the price paid this year and the price for another year with that insurer, the two numbers to beat. Note them, then diarise the quote date.

A Dated Plan for a Policy Ending on 20 December

MSE’s rule for the whole exercise is plain: “Yet you should never just auto-renew, as it’s likely you’ll pay more than you need to.” Take a policy that ends on 20 December. The notice lands around 20 November. The cheapest band opens on 24 November, which is 26 days ahead, and closes on 28 November, 22 days ahead, with 25 November the 25 day point.

On the chosen day, run the same details through a price comparison site, which returns quotes from several insurers at once, and set the best result against the renewal notice. Insurers have been raising prices again: Defaqto’s index showed quoted premiums up 2.7 percent in the year to September, the first annual rise in three years. MSE says that if every insurer quotes a similar price, the renewal figure is probably the new going rate, but a driver who assumes it without checking can miss a saving worth hundreds of pounds. Enter the car, the address and any claims exactly as they stand, as a new car, a house move, an accident or a change to the voluntary excess alters the price.

Leaving is simple. The driver tells the current insurer before the automatic renewal date, usually by phone or online chat. The insurer often asks about the new policy and the price found, and will usually see whether it can match it or come close. The guide says cancellation usually carries no fee in the first 14 days, known as a cooling-off period, and the insurer then confirms that cover stops at 11.59pm the day before the renewal date.

What Else Moves the Price, and What the Calendar Cannot Fix

The RAC explains that a postcode can raise a premium for a driver with no claims or accidents. On built-up areas it says: “Living in a built-up area will increase your chance of accidents through sheer probability, as there will be more vehicles on the road.” On crime, weather and flooding it adds: “If you live in an area with a high crime rate, you could see the added risk to your car reflected in your premium costs since vandalism and theft may be more common. In classic UK fashion, the weather might also throw a spanner in the works… If you live on the coast or near a river prone to flooding, your insurance payments will consider the cost of potential water damage.”

No buying date closes that gap. Quotezone’s third quarter index put the average quote at £772 for London and £471 for the South West, a difference of £301 spelled out in the report on London quotes averaging £772. When a renewal quote jumps with nothing changed on the driver’s side, MSE points to the insurer: repair costs for vehicles, including staff and parts, can have risen, or the insurer has shifted its approach and is less keen on drivers with that profile.

What the FCA Pricing Rules Say About Your Renewal Notice

The Financial Conduct Authority’s home and motor pricing rules, set out in ICOBS 6B, came into effect on 1 January 2022. They require an insurer to quote a renewing customer no more than it would quote a new customer through the same sales channel, and the comparison counts any cash or cash-equivalent incentive the insurer gives new customers that the renewing customer would qualify for. A customer who bought online is held to the new business price online. The rules were written to end price walking, the habit of raising a loyal customer’s price year after year.

The case for them came in September 2020, when the FCA counted 6 million policyholders who paid margins it rated high or very high in 2018, and put the saving at £1.2 billion had they paid what the average driver of their risk paid. Christopher Woolard, then Interim Chief Executive of the FCA, said: “We are consulting on a radical package that would ensure firms cannot charge renewing customers more than new customers in future, and put an end to the very high prices paid by some long-standing customers. The package would also ensure that firms focus on providing fair value to all their customers. We welcome feedback on the proposals.” The regulator estimated the savings to consumers at £4.2 billion over 10 years, revised up from £3.7 billion.

Its multi-firm review, published in December 2022 and updated in December 2025, found that most firms had taken appropriate action to comply. It also found that the information from more than a third of firms did not adequately show how they were complying with the pricing rules, which include the ban on discriminating against longer-tenure customers, and that several firms had notified the FCA of breaches where a renewing customer paid more than the equivalent new customer.

For a driver holding a renewal notice, the rule sets a ceiling on what that one insurer can charge against its own new business price. It places no limit on what other insurers quote, which is why the comparison inside the 22 to 26 day window still pays. The FCA review does not address timing at all, so the 25 day finding stands on MSE’s data alone.

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Sources

• MoneySavingExpert: When is the best time to renew car insurance?
• FCA: General insurance pricing attestation multi-firm review
• FCA: FCA sets out proposals to tackle concerns about general insurance pricing
• Mirror: Martin Lewis’ MSE 25-day car insurance rule that could save drivers £334

Reviewed by Preetam Gadekar