How we score car insurance

Our team of researchers give each comprehensive policy an overall rating out of five stars (rounding each one up or down to the nearest half star).

Quick stats

• Car insurance policies we analyse: 33
• Features analysed for each one: 29

What factors do we take into account?

We base our ratings on three main factors:

1. Range of features included. Is a courtesy car covered as standard? Is your no-claims discount protected in the unfortunate event of a claim? Are you able to pay monthly, and does it cost extra to do that? We look at all this, and more.
2. Level of cover. With any car insurance policy, it’s important to understand the level of cover you’re entitled to in the unfortunate event of a claim. We look at these cover limits in detail across a wide range of specific criteria.
3. Customer satisfaction and service. How likely are customers to recommend the provider to a friend? How easy is it to manage your policy online? Are claims lines open 24/7? These are the types of questions we’ve looked into in great detail.

Shouldn’t the cost of car insurance be a factor?

There’s no getting around the fact that cost can play a big role in choosing your car insurance. However, there’s also a number of other factors that come into play when deciding which provider is the “best”.

With our policy ratings, we’ve removed cost from the equation and taken a more holistic approach to car insurance and focused more on the quality of service, the level of cover and specific policy inclusions and exclusions.

How do we decide which features are more important?

Each factor in our scoring methodology is weighted.

Our experts base this on user and market research to ensure it reflects what’s important to you.

For instance, whether the car insurance provider has windscreen cover included as standard is less important than whether or not it’s extremely difficult to make a claim in your time of need.

How do we choose our “best” car insurance providers?

Finder top picks highlight providers that our analysis shows are the best fit for specific categories and are displayed across our car insurance content. Be sure to consider your own personal objectives, needs and circumstances before making a decision using our top picks.

We chose these from the providers on our site, using the methodology below:

What are we looking for in our “best for” categories?

• Best overall

  To find the best car insurance overall, we take into account 20 features of a comprehensive car insurance policy. These include policy specific inclusions and exclusions, levels of cover and customer satisfaction.

• Best for customer service

  To find the best car insurance for customer service, we prioritise our scores for how likely a customer is to recommend their provider to a friend and how easy it is to manage your policy online.

  We also take into account how easy and accessible it is to make a claim and our very own customer satisfaction score – based on a survey of hundreds of customers – is also part of the weighting.

• Best for young drivers

  For younger drivers, we’ve prioritised factors such as the minimum age and how comprehensive the level of cover is.

  Our ratings also include whether there is any discount applied for adding a black box and if there are any other relevant benefits for younger drivers.

• Best for temporary insurance

  Some car insurance customers only need temporary insurance, ranging from a few hours to a few days. Using our scoring system, we look at the minimum and maximum time limit on the policy, whether or not the no-claims discount is affected in the event of a claim and whether the driver can drive abroad.

  We also take into account any special features that each temporary insurance policy has that sets it apart from competitors’ policies.

• Best for over 50s

  For the over 50s category, we take into account the age range each policy covers and whether or not a medical exam is part of the application process.

  We also take a close look at other features such as the overall policy score, multi-car discounts, our customer satisfaction score and other provider-specific benefits.

• Best pay-as-you-go provider

  For the pay-as-you-go car insurance category, we take into account the age range each policy covers and whether or not their is a mileage cap.

  We also take a close look at other features such as the overall policy score, the type of tech required and if there are any other provider-specific benefits.

• Best multi-car

  For this category, we take into account the level of discount applied, how many cars you can insure under one policy and the ease with which you can manage all of your policies.

  We also take into account policy benefits such as no claims bonuses, driving abroad in the EU and how easy it is to make a claim.

Our customer satisfaction survey

In December 2019, Finder conducted an independent customer satisfaction survey about insurance providers. We asked 750 customers about whether they were happy with their current insurer, then turned their answers into a rating of between one and five stars.

Customer satisfaction ratings methodology

We asked participants how satisfied they were with their insurance company on a scale of one to five, and whether they would recommend their insurer to a friend.

To turn the answers into the scores you see on the page, we used the following method:

• How many people would recommend the company versus how many people wouldn’t. If you would go as far as recommending a company to a friend, it must mean you think it’s really good. That’s why this counts as 50% of our customer satisfaction star rating.
• The proportion of people who rated an insurer five out of five. Five out of five is a real vote of confidence! This counts for 25% of our customer satisfaction star rating.
• The average score each insurance company got. This told us whether the insurer’s service levels match its ratings, or if it’s actually not that great. This score forms the last 25% of our customer satisfaction star rating.

All of those things combined made the final customer satisfaction score, which was then rounded up to the nearest half point to give the following ratings:

★★★★★ – Excellent

★★★★★ – Good

★★★★★ – Average

★★★★★ – Subpar

★★★★★ – Poor

Does Finder compare all car insurance providers in the market?

We already list most of the UK’s popular and well-regarded car insurance providers and we’re adding more all the time.

We’d love to hear from you if there’s a provider you’d like to see us review and score.

Cheapest car insurance

To help you find the cheapest car insurance provider, our team have analysed a number of provider policy quotes across a range of different categories. We use this analysis to formulate our table data that you may see across the website.

Cheapest provider overall

To find the cheapest overall, we ran the same driver and vehicle profile over 3 different locations a number of times through provider quote engines and took a final average. With our driver and vehicle profile, we’ve tried to be representative of an individual in the UK with moderate driving experience, and moderate mileage and an average socioeconomic background.

• Driver/vehicle profile

  To generate these quotes we used the following information:

  • Vauxhall Corsa Energy A/C VVT 90 (2018 Model)
  • Manual transmission
  • Petrol
  • Factory fitted alarm system
  • The car is not modified
  • Used for social, domestic and commuting purposes
  • 10,000 mileage per year
  • The car is parked in a work car park during the day
  • Drivers license held for 10 years
  • The car is parked on a driveway at night
  • Owner is a 30-year-old primary school teacher
  • Five years no claims discount
  • No driving or other convictions in the last 5 years

In terms of locations, we’ve taken into account three different post codes with varying average costs across the UK. Our research suggests SE1 is one of the most expensive locations, NE1 represents an average cost location and TD1 represents one of the cheapest locations. Updated: Oct 2019 (source: Quotezone)