insurance companies

 insurance companies
Top 10 Largest UK Car Insurance Companies 2021

Wondering which car insurance companies dominate the UK market? We have the answers. While over a hundred companies sell car insurance in the UK, the 10 largest auto insurers make up around 85% of the UK car insurance market. If you're considering buying from one of the top ten companies, check out our list to see who made the cut and read what's special about each of them.


Top 10 Biggest Car Insurance Companies UK

Of the top cheap car insurance companies in the UK market, many are household names and have mascots or jingles you'll recognise from their TV ads. However, each company offers customers quite different premiums, features and experiences. Here's what you should know about these companies before you decide which is best for you.


1. Admiral Group

The Admiral Group is the largest auto insurance company in the UK with more than 15% of the car insurance market, underwriting policies through their Admiral, Bell, Diamond, elephant.co.uk and Gladiator brands. Technically speaking, Admiral is the trading name of EUI Limited.

In 2020 Admiral grew their motor business at a decent rate, illustrated by a 9% increase in the number of customers, helping make them the most popular car insurance company in the UK.

One of Admiral's stated corporate goals is to increase customer retention, which is good to know if your policy is up for renewal. Admiral also writes the car insurance for Ford-branded car insurance.

Quick Takeaway: Admiral can be a great auto insurance company for anyone who wants to arrange a car insurance policy quickly online and usually for a good price. Their brands can be found on most price comparison sites, such as our partner QuoteZone and one of their brands may be amongst the cheapest available offers.


2. AXA

AXA is the largest company in the top ten—an international company that wrote over 99.8 billion euros of premiums last year. AXA sells policies under their own brand, and they also underwrite policies for a number of other brands such as mypolicy.co.uk and By Miles (pay-per-mile cover). So if you have bought car insurance from a brand that doesn't underwrite their own policies, you may find that your cover ultimately lies with AXA.

Quick Takeaway: The company offers customers the standard coverage and discounts that you’d expect from a large international insurance company.

3. Direct Line Group

The Direct Line Group sells Direct Line car insurance directly to customers but is also strong in the PCW space, with their Churchill, Darwin and Privilege motor insurance brands. In fact, while 67% of their sales were direct to customers via the Direct Line brand in 2020, 30.2% of premiums were sold via the PCW channel in 2020. The company continues to focus on technology with the roll-out of the new motor insurance platform. And the group has increased its presence on price comparison websites with the launch of the Darwin branch.

While gross written premium dropped by 2.1% in 2020, the number of in-force motor insurance policies rose 0.4% to 4.1 million.

Direct Line is also in partnership with Volkswagen, by providing both annual insurance policies and complimentary '5 day driveaway' cover for customers buying new and used cars from Volkswagen, SEAT, Audi and ŠKODA dealers through UK Insurance Group (which is part of Direct Line Group).

Direct Line offers a few unique propositions such as protecting your no claim discount on no-fault claims. While Direct Line underwrites home insurance as well, car insurance is their main line of business, accounting for 50% of their gross written premiums.

Quick Takeaway: Direct Line has made a name as the insurance company that is not available on comparison sites, but if you're looking to save more money on your premium then their Churchill, Darwin or Privilege brands might offer even lower rates through price comparison websites.


4. Aviva

While Aviva's general car insurance business lacks scale, they are trying to target multi-cover policies and grow through the price comparison website (PCW) market. Depending on where you live, you may see their Quotemehappy.com brand with some of the cheapest rates on offer on PCWs. They also sell through their General Accident brand, making Aviva the fourth largest underwriter in the UK car insurance market. And in 2020 the Aviva brand launched on UK price comparison websites as well.

Aviva was named General Insurer of the Year awards at the 2020 British Insurance Awards. Customer service satisfaction is high, with more than 50% of personal lines direct customers holding more than one general insurance product with Aviva. Aviva has invested heavily in digital and claims management, enabling UK motor customers to start and complete their claims online with no underwriter touch points. Customers seem happy with online claims processing, as 80% now book their car repairs online.

In the UK, Aviva insured 2.5 million motor customers and settled 99.4% of motor insurance claims in 2019. Aviva has one of the highest Trustpilot customer ratings out of the companies in the top ten.

Quick Takeaway: Depending on where you live, Quotemehappy may be one of the cheapest prices you find for cover. However if you’ve had an accident in the past 5 years, you may receive a less favorable price from Aviva than you'd find elsewhere.


5. LV
Liverpool Victoria is another very well-known car insurer, selling as LV=. LV= policies are available directly, through comparison sites or brokers. Recent growth in the LV= brand has been due to high renewal rates by existing customers and new sales following the launch of their multi-car offering, through which 10% of new customers saved 25% (April to June 2019). Customer satisfaction is a corporate priority, which goes to explain their high customer review rating on Trustpilot. LV is behind Volvo, Dacia, Hyundai, Jaguar, Kia, Land Rover, Masda, MG, Mitsubishi, Renault and Suzuki branded car insurance through Clear Car Insurance (LV= Broker), which is underwritten by Highway Insurance Company (part of the Liverpool Victoria group).

Note: at the end of 2019 Allianz completed their acquisition of LV General Insurance Group (LV GIG). LV= motor insurance policies are still underwritten by Liverpool Victoria Insurance Company Ltd, but ultimately this is now owned by Allianz.

Quick Takeaway: LV= is middle of the road when it comes to price, but we consider LV to be one of the best car insurance companies due to great customer reviews and features. If you're after the lowest premium then LV= may not be for you; however for those looking for broader coverage LV= offers some extras with their comprehensive cover such as personal injury, uninsured driver promise (you won't pay an excess or lose your NCD) and misfuelling cover.


6. Hastings
Hastings is certainly another well-known brand, especially for those who use price comparison websites (PCWs). In fact, in 2018 73% of Hastings premiums written to new car insurance customers were sold through the PCW market. Brands include Hastings Direct, Hastings Premier, Hastings Essential, Hastings Direct Smart Miles (a black box plan), insurePink and People's Choice.

Quick Takeaway: Hastings is targeted at those buying through a comparison site. Depending on where you live, you're likely to find their "Hastings Essential" plan is the cheapest of their offerings (and it's only available through PCWs) but there may be cheaper options available from other insurers in the top 10—if finding the lowest premium is your priority.

7. Ageas

Ageas is another well-known car insurer that you'll also see on comparison sites. They're focused on AI integration into the claims process and report that motor policy approval requests have dropped to 2-3 minutes from 2-3 hours and are available 24/7, resulting in a positive impact on on customer satisfaction levels. Perhaps as a result, Ageas has one of the higher Trustpilot ratings in the group and now insures 3.9 million personal motor customers in the UK.

Like Aviva, Ageas paid out on over 99% of claims last year. Policies can be purchased via brokers, affinity partners and direct distribution including PCWs. While Ageas used to be in partnership with Tesco to underwrite their Motor Legal Protection cover, they handed over the business to Tesco in May 2021. Ageas also administers policies for Age Co (formerly Age UK).

Quick Takeaway: Ageas is one of the top UK auto insurance providers and has relatively happy customers, but in our experience their rates are not as competitive making it less affordable for those looking for a cheap premium.

8. esure Group

The esure Group is a leading personal motor and home insurance company, selling through its brands Sheilas' Wheels and esure. To handle claims, esure employs over 700 specialists at its UK-based claims centres; they also manage a network of motor repairers that handles over 90% of accidental damage claims.

Quick Takeaway: While esure is less competitive on price than some of the true budget options in the top 10 list, all of their policies are rated Defaqto 5 stars for including features such as a courtesy car, windscreen cover and personal injury on their comprehensive policies. And their Trustpilot score has risen noticeably in the past year from 3.7 to 4.2 stars.

9. RSA

Royal & Sun Alliance sells car insurance through their More Th>n brand. In 2020 they sold close to £500 million in car policies, ranking them 9th in the list of largest car insurance companies—although they write even more in terms of home insurance policies. RSA is another company that underwrites policies for a significant number of other brands as well as their own. For example, RSA underwrites policies for Clydesdale Bank, ingenie and others.

Quick Takeaway: As the second largest general insurance company in the UK, RSA could be a decent choice for your insurance needs—however they were recently named as one of the worst for claims handling by Which?


10. NFU Mutual

Catering to drivers in rural parts of the country, NFU Mutual is quite a different offering than the other entries in the list of largest UK car insurance companies—they are owned by policyholders not shareholders and they don't offer online quotes but instead have over 300 offices nationwide, a network of over 650 agents and a UK-based call centre to handle quotes, questions and claims.

NFU Mutual is known for great customer service as indicated by the low complaints rates with the Financial Ombudsman Service. We notice that NFU Mutual has a poor rating on Trustpilot, but have doubts about the reliability of this stat due to the relatively low number of reviewers. Returning customers can get a discount that is funded from NFU Mutual's profits; members currently receive a discount of 11.5% to 16.5%, according to how long they've been a member.

Quick Takeaway: If you would rather not buy your policy online but would rather discuss your policy with someone before buying then NFU Mutual can be a great option for car insurance.


Small vs. Big Insurance Companies

There are pros and cons of choosing either a small or large insurance company. For example, a smaller company might offer more personalised customer service (e.g., you might speak with the same agent each time you call). While dealing with a big insurance company like most of those in this top 10 list may feel impersonal, larger auto insurance companies generally have good financial stability.

Not only do the top insurance companies in the UK underwrite and pay claims worth billions of pounds every year, but they're often able to offer lower premiums by leveraging their resources. A small insurance company may be more likely to become insolvent, potentially leaving you without cover when you need it. While we can get an idea of a large insurance company's financial strength from S&P, Moody's and Fitch, these ratings agencies typically don't analyse smaller companies.

As a result it can be harder to understand the financial strength of a small company. That said, those who prioritise having a personal customer experience may still prefer a small company, which may be fine so long as you are comfortable with its financial situation. In the table below, we ranked the ten largest UK car insurance companies according to their financial strength ratings, reflecting available data from Moody's, S&P and Fitch.