How do we work out the cost of your car insurance?
We weigh up many factors to work out the price of your insurance. Some of these factors are specific to you, but others are to do with the world around you and what's happening in the insurance market.
Everyone who buys insurance pays into a central pot. If you make a car claim, we pay it out of the pot. If the numbers and the costs of claims go up, the pot needs to get bigger too, which means the price of car insurance can also rise.
But whatever happens, we constantly review the way we calculate the cost of Aviva Signature car insurance to make sure we offer you the most accurate price.
On this page, we explain some of the factors which can affect your price.
Your car insurance renewal
Before your current policy comes to an end, we’ll send you a renewal invitation. Footnote [1] It will show two prices – last year’s price and a price for continuing cover for another year, assuming you're not making any changes to the policy.
If you’re already a customer with us, your price to renew your cover will be the same as or lower than the equivalent price for a new customer.
If the specific cover you have with us is no longer available to new customers, we'll compare your renewal price with the price we'd offer a new customer for the policy that most closely matches yours.
How events affect your car insurance price
More expensive repair costs
The cost of claims has had a significant and sustained impact on motor premiums.
Changing claims market
We work hard to predict how much we’re likely to pay in future claims, and factor this into customers’ prices. Third-party claims also have an effect.
Longer time to repair vehicles
Longer repair times (due to difficulty in sourcing parts and availability of courtesy cars) and difficulty in sourcing parts and labour.
Severe weather
We know that wetter conditions contribute to a higher number of claims.
How you affect your car insurance price
We use many factors to figure out how much you should pay for your policy, and some are more directly related to you than others. They also help us understand whether you're likely to make a claim and how much it'll cost. When you first take out insurance these factors shape the price you pay, but tend to have less impact on renewal costs. These are the top considerations:
Where you live
Your insurance rates may go up if your area has more accidents and claims.
Your age
Because there are a number of risks associated with ageing, we keep a close eye on claims statistics and apply age-related risk factors to your quote as well.
Your mileage
How far you drive can affect your price, too. There isn't a simple formula here, but combined with other factors, it can help us build an over picture of your risk.
The vehicle you drive
If you own an expensive car, it may cost more to repair, and it may be more likely to be stolen as well. The age of your car is also significant.
Who drives your car
You're not the only one who influences your insurance premium – any drivers you include on your policy can also affect it. For example, adding a teenage driver to your policy could mean your rates are much higher than if you just insure yourself.
Your driving history
It's more likely that customers with recent driving convictions and claims, especially in the last four years, will be involved in an accident or make a claim. Prices will reflect this.
How to manage your policy online
MyAviva is a secure online portal, where you’ll find all the details and documents for your Aviva Signature car insurance policy, so you’ll always know where everything is. It’s also where you’ll make changes to your personal information or your policy. You can do this at any time through your laptop, tablet or mobile.
What can you do in MyAviva
Save money with Aviva Signature Multi Car Insurance
For our joint protection, telephone calls may be recorded and/or monitored.
Calls to 0800 numbers from UK landlines and mobiles are free.
Frequently asked questions
Why isn't last year's price what I paid? Show more Show less
It’s almost certainly because you made a change to your policy during the last 12 months which affected the price of your cover.
Your renewal invite will show how much your current cover would have cost over the whole of the last year if that change had been in place from day one. This gives a better like-for-like comparison between last year’s premium and your new premium.
I haven't made any changes, why has my renewal premium changed? Show more Show less
Prices don’t always change because of something you’ve done. For example, the total cost of all claims made during the last year, more expensive repair costs or severe weather could have made your price go up. There are also external factors that might mean your insurance costs more or less, including changes to regulations and inflation.
Insurance regulation changes released in January 2022 mean we've had to change the way we previously calculated our prices. These changes don’t necessarily mean your renewal price will be lower than last year’s price, as other factors could also impact your price, such as those mentioned on this page.
Does this price include my no claim discount? Show more Show less
Your price includes any no claim discount you are entitled to.
Once you have three years’ no claim discount, you have the option to protect your no claim discount and reduce the possible impact of a future claim on your next renewal price, and there would be an additional cost for this.
Why have I found a better price from you on a price comparison website? Show more Show less
It’s likely that what you’ve seen is not an identical policy. The insurance product we offer directly is different to the product we offer through price comparison websites.
Whichever product you have, we’ll make sure it’s priced in line with the latest regulations.
Why does it cost more to pay monthly for insurance? Show more Show less
We offer our customers the ability to pay for their insurance either annually or monthly.
If you choose to pay monthly, for most of our insurance products, it will be more expensive than paying annually. This is because, essentially, you are taking out a 12-month loan with us. With most loans/credit arrangements an interest rate is applied to the amount borrowed, which will increase the total amount you pay.
We will run a full credit check when we offer you an initial quote. If you go on to take out an insurance policy with us, we will re-run this check for every renewal offered. The interest amount you pay will be variable and may change each year you continue to insure with us and will be calculated based on our view of the risk of lending to you under your credit agreement.