Last year, the average annual price rise for new comprehensive car insurance policies was 4%, which is well above the rate of inflation
Bingle, CBA, BOQ, Aldi, AHM, Suncorp and RAA all increased their prices by over 10% on average
Where you live, your age, the age of your vehicle, and its fuel type, all affect the rate at which your premiums rise
If you hold a car insurance policy, you’re probably already aware that an annual increase in car insurance premiums has pretty much become standard practice. When you’re opening your renewal notice, you’re likely just hoping the price rise is manageable.
The idea of your premium holding steady, let alone decreasing, may be too wild to even consider. This is because insurers are big believers in the loyalty tax – especially car insurers.
In the last financial year, car insurance prices rose an average of 8% overall, whereas our analysis of prices offered to new customers showed they only rose by 4.4%, on average, between January 2025 and January 2026.
The idea of your premium holding steady, let alone decreasing, may be too wild to even consider
This is because insurers generally offer lower prices to customers shopping for a new policy in order to win more business. Meanwhile, prices for the majority – the loyal customers who simply accept the renewal offer they’ve been sent – skyrocket.
To dig deeper into factors influencing the car insurance prices offered to new customers, we looked at hundreds of thousands of quotes collected in January 2025, and compared them with quotes for the same scenarios collected in January 2026.
We then broke them down by car brand, the age of the vehicle, driver age and gender, and fuel type to see which factors are affecting your premium, and to find out which insurers are passing on the biggest price increases.
Each insurer has a range of levers they can pull to manage risk and improve their profitability
– CHOICE insurance expert Daniel Graham
“Each insurer has a range of levers they can pull to manage risk and improve their profitability, whether that’s changing the price for all automatic SUVs in suburban Perth, or upping the premiums of 23-year-old renters in regional NSW,” explains CHOICE insurance expert Daniel Graham.
“Fine-tuning prices this way disproportionately affects certain customer groups.”
CHOICE tip: With a huge variety of policies out there that can vary in price by thousands of dollars, ensure you’re getting the best deal possible on the coverage that suits you best using our expert review to compare car policies.
Based on our analysis, we found that a number of car insurers increased their prices by more than 10% on average. Given that the inflation rate of insurance and financial products across the same period was 2.5%, we’d consider these average rises to be unnecessarily high.
The insurers with the largest average price increases between January 2025 and January 2026 were:
Bingle: 25%
CBA: 19%
BOQ: 17%
Aldi: 16%
AHM: 13%
Suncorp:12%
RAA: 10%
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The car insurers with the biggest annual price hikes
Bingle — 25%
CBA — 19%
BOQ — 17%
Aldi — 16%
AHM — 13%
Suncorp — 12%
RAA — 10%
Based on a comparison of market-representative comprehensive insurance quotes collected in January 2025 and January 2026. For each product, quotes were compared across up to 10,010 scenarios.
Why is Bingle’s rise so high?
Bingle’s prices showed the largest price increase by quite a margin. The average prices in each state showed an increase, though not uniformly.
Tasmania, ACT, Northern Territory and South Australia were hit hardest – Tasmanian premiums increased by a whopping 65% on average, but prices in Queensland only increased by 7% on average.
Bigger price hikes were also seen in Bingle’s premiums for electric vehicles, which were up 46%; newer vehicles (made later than 2020), up 40%; and cars worth over $30,000, up 37%.
“Bingle has pulled all the same pricing levers as the rest of the industry: they’ve just yanked them harder than everyone else,” says Daniel.
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How much have Bingle’s car insurance prices hiked across Australia?
Western Australia — 39%
Northern Territory — 52%
Queensland — 7%
South Australia — 37%
New South Wales — 17%
Victoria — 55%
Australian Capital Territory — 13%
Tasmania — 65%
Based on a comparison of 9083 market-representative comprehensive insurance quotes collected in January 2025 and January 2026.
Bingle appealing to young drivers
The only area we found Bingle’s prices to reduce (ever-so-slightly) was for young drivers – their premiums went down by 1%.
“Judging from their marketing, young drivers are Bingle’s target demographic, so they want to hike prices overall but stay competitive with that age group. It’s a delicate balancing act,” says Daniel.
“Only time will tell whether hiking prices by at least a quarter for any new customers over 30 will pay dividends for the budget brand.”
Quotes for drivers aged 12–24 years only went up a (relatively) modest 12%, with increases of between 22% and 33% for other age groups.
With the rate of inflation for insurance and financial products across 2025 being 2.5%, this is the level of increase we’d expect from car insurers who are looking to cover a rise in their own costs.
Therefore, the insurers with reasonable average price increases between January 2025 and January 2026 are:
With prices for almost everything seeming to spiral upward at the moment, it’s nice to see that some insurers actually reduced their premiums.
The insurers with an average price decrease between January 2025 and January 2026 are:
AAMI: 5%
TIO: 6%
Apia: 6%
QBE: 8%
RAC: 12%
Kogan: 31%
Why are Kogan’s prices decreasing by so much?
Kogan’s prices for car insurance dropped by a massive 31% on average. Curiously, over the same period, Kogan had the biggest price hikes in home insurance in 2025 (and 2024). When we broke Kogan’s price change down by groups, there weren’t any groups that were singled out – average price cuts were made across the board.
Kogan did change underwriters in 2025, which means the quotes collected in January 2026 are for a different product with different product features to those collected in 2025. However, when our experts assessed the cover provided by the new policy, they assigned a cover score very similar to that of the old policy, indicating that the overall level of cover remains largely unchanged.
“After changing their underwriter in 2025, Kogan appears to be attempting a price reset,” says Daniel.
“Hopefully the same price cuts are being extended to renewing customers, who now have to experience the frustration of having the policy they signed up for switched out for a totally different one.”
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How did car insurer’s prices change over a year?
Price increases
Bingle — 25%
CBA — 19%
BOQ — 17%
Aldi — 16%
AHM — 13%
Suncorp — 12%
RAA — 10%
Stella — 9%
RACQ — 8%
Bupa — 6%
Huddle — 6%
GIO — 5%
National average — 4%
NAB — 3%
Allianz — 2%
Hume Bank — 2%
Great Southern Bank — 2%
Bank of Melbourne — 2%
BankSA — 2%
Real Insurance — 2%
St.George — 2%
Westpac — 2%
RACT — 2%
Everyday Insurance — 1%
National Seniors — 0%
Price decreases
AAMI — –5%
TIO — –6%
Apia — –6%
QBE — –8%
RAC — –12%
Kogan — –31%
Based on a comparison of market-representative comprehensive car insurance quotes. For each product, like-for-like quotes for new business were compared across up to 10,010 scenarios. Quotes were collected in January 2025 and January 2026, and figures represent each insurer’s average price change across all cover levels.
How your car affects your premium increase
According to our analysis, premium increases were affected by the age of the vehicle being insured, and by its fuel type.
Vehicles that are not new (but not too old) had gentler premium increases than newer vehicles, with the cost of insuring vehicles released in 2000–2014 increasing by just 2–4% on average, while premiums for 2025 models grew by a substantial 11%.
Vehicles that are not new (but not too old) had gentler premium increases than newer vehicles
Fuel type also played a role in premium change. Premiums for hybrids had a 10% increase and electric vehicles had a 9% increase, showing marked growth compared to petrol cars (5% increase) and diesel cars (2% increase).
Even among newer vehicles (2020–2025), premiums for EVs and hybrids rose more than for petrol and diesel cars, so the higher rate for EVs isn’t due to the cars simply being newer.
Daniel points out that “EVs are not the novelty they were 10 years ago, but insurers still seem to be figuring out how to price these complex machines”.
“EVs are just starting to appear at the affordable end of the market; it would be a shame if an insurance price bubble discouraged uptake,” he adds.
How your age and gender affect your premium increase
Over the year of our analysis, quotes for policies where the main driver was female increased by 4% on average, while quotes for male main drivers increased by 5%. These changes slightly increase the overall gender gap in insurance prices, with quotes for women tending to be lower than those for men.
Drivers under 21 experienced an average increase of less than 1%, likely reflecting that this group already carries the highest average premiums
Insurers are also adjusting premiums differently across age groups. Quotes for the 70+ age group saw the largest increase at 7% on average, with progressively smaller increases for younger drivers.
Drivers under 21 experienced an average increase of less than 1%, likely reflecting that this group already carries the highest average premiums.
“The market for young drivers is very competitive, since under 25s already pay some of the highest premiums in the country,” says Daniel.
“Possibly insurers have decided they can’t squeeze any more blood from that stone, and have increased premiums on age cohorts that had lower prices to begin with.”
If you’re a savvy consumer and shop around before renewing your car insurance, you can often limit the effect of broad insurer price rises on your premium.
If you’re concerned about how much your current policy is increasing, start with checking our car insurance comparison to find other policies that suit your circumstances and then gather quotes from their websites.
You could prioritise companies with more reasonable rates of average increases, or overall decreases but remember, these are just averages. There are many factors that also influence the quote you get as a potential new customer, such as where you live, how much you drive, and the excess you choose – just to name a few.
Prices vary a lot from insurer to insurer, so when your renewal notice lands in your inbox, the important thing is not to renew on autopilot, but to make sure you shop around.
Jane Bardell is a Content producer in the Insurance and utilities team. She writes about home, car, pet and health insurance. Previously at CHOICE, she checked facts, figures and statistics as a Verifier with the Editorial and investigations team.
Jane has a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales.
Find Jane on LinkedIn.
Jane Bardell is a Content producer in the Insurance and utilities team. She writes about home, car, pet and health insurance. Previously at CHOICE, she checked facts, figures and statistics as a Verifier with the Editorial and investigations team.
Jane has a Bachelor of Science from the University of New South Wales.
Find Jane on LinkedIn.
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