🛡️ Car Insurance Renewal Check
Is my car insurance renewal fair?
The two things worth examining on a car insurance renewal are almost never examined: what it did compared with last year, and what paying it monthly is costing you. Both are on the notice, both are exact, and both are routinely worth more than the difference between one insurer and the next.
Figures reviewed September 2026. Free, no signup, nothing stored on our servers.
What this means
Insurers must show last year’s premium beside this year’s on a renewal notice, which makes the year-on-year change the one figure you can check without doing anything. A rise with no claim, no points and no change of car is a pricing decision, not a fact about you, and it is negotiable.
Paying monthly is borrowing. The insurer advances the premium and charges for it, which is why twelve instalments come to more than the single payment. It is a credit agreement with a disclosed APR, and on a typical policy the cost of it is a meaningful share of the premium.
What cannot be calculated is the premium itself. It depends on rating factors no calculator has access to, which is why this page gives you the checks and the arithmetic rather than a number that would be invented.
What affects the result
- Your claims history and no-claims bonus years, which are the largest single factors and are frequently carried forward wrongly after a switch.
- The car: engine size, value, age and how expensive it is to repair.
- Annual mileage, which is often a stale figure copied forward year after year.
- Named drivers, including ones who no longer drive the car.
- The excess, and whether the voluntary portion is set at a level you could actually pay.
- Add-ons — breakdown, windscreen, legal expenses — which are sometimes already covered elsewhere.
- Whether you pay annually or monthly, which is a credit decision rather than an insurance one.
Is my car insurance renewal fair?
The call that works
Run a new-customer quote on your own insurer’s website, with identical details, before you ring them. Where it comes out below your renewal, you have a specific, verifiable number to put to them rather than an assertion that it feels dear. That conversation resolves in minutes.
Then quote elsewhere anyway
Three quotes including at least one broker, on identical details, is the minimum. Brokers place business with underwriters that do not sell direct, and the spread across the market on the same risk is consistently wide.
The rest of what the car costs
Insurance is one line. The true cost calculator puts it beside depreciation, fuel, servicing and tax, where it usually turns out to be a smaller share than it feels. The annual State charge is on the motor tax calculator, and the bill checker covers every other recurring cost that drifts upward unattended.
Important assumptions
Every figure on this page rests on these. Where one does not match your situation, the answer moves — sometimes a great deal.
- Nothing here estimates a premium. The figures are arithmetic on the numbers from your own renewal notice.
- The cost of paying monthly is the difference between the instalment total and the single-payment price, as those two figures appear on your documents.
- The year-on-year comparison only appears where you enter last year’s premium.
- Where no single-payment price is entered, no cost of credit is calculated — the instalment total on its own says nothing about interest.
- Mid-term adjustment fees, cancellation fees and the cost of add-ons are not separated out.
Official sources
Where this tool applies a published rule, this is where the rule comes from. Check the source before acting on anything that matters.
- Central Bank — National Claims Information Database, private motor
The official Irish data on motor insurance premiums, claims and settlement costs, published annually.
- CCPC — car insurance
Independent guidance from the statutory consumer body on cover types, excesses, no-claims bonuses and shopping around.
- Insurance Ireland — Declined Cases Agreement
The route for somebody refused motor cover by three insurers, which obliges an insurer to quote.
- Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman
The free, independent route for a complaint against an insurer that the insurer has not resolved.
Common questions
Why did my car insurance go up when I did not claim?
Premiums are re-rated every year on the insurer’s own view of cost, claims experience across its book, and your changing profile — a year older, a year more on the car. None of that is personal to you and none of it is fixed. Insurers must show last year’s premium on the renewal notice precisely so the change is visible, and it is negotiable.
Is it cheaper to pay car insurance annually?
Yes, where you can. Paying monthly is a credit agreement: the insurer advances the premium and charges interest, disclosed as an APR on the paperwork. This tool shows the exact cost from your own two figures.
Does switching insurer lose my no-claims bonus?
No. Your no-claims years belong to you and transfer — your previous insurer issues a certificate confirming them. Check that the years recognised by the new insurer match the certificate, because understating them is a common and expensive error.
What if no insurer will quote me?
Where three insurers have refused cover, the Declined Cases Agreement applies: you can apply to Insurance Ireland, and the insurer that quoted most recently is obliged to provide cover, subject to the conditions of the agreement.
Should I raise my excess to lower the premium?
Only to a figure you could pay the morning after a crash without borrowing. The saving is real but it is a transfer of risk to you, and an excess you cannot meet turns a covered claim into an uncovered one.
What to check next
What is my car actually costing me?
Depreciation, fuel, insurance, tax, servicing and tyres as one annual figure and a cost per kilometre.
Car True Cost CalculatorNewWhat is motor tax on this car?
The annual rate by CO2 band or engine size, and what paying it quarterly costs you over a year.
Motor Tax CalculatorNewWhich of my bills am I overpaying on?
Every recurring bill in one place, with the annual figure and where to start.
Bill CheckerPopularIs this car worth the money?
An estimated Irish market value from make, model, year and mileage.
Car ValuationNext steps across CheckIreland
Picked for what you just worked out — not a list of everything we make.
CheckIreland is independent and is not affiliated with the Irish Government or any public body. This tool is general information built on published rules and typical costs — it is not financial, tax or legal advice, and it does not account for your individual circumstances. Confirm anything that matters with the relevant body or a qualified adviser before acting on it.