Car Insurance Premiums Just Increased 8% — Why?

This week, ASIC put car insurers “on notice” over premiums that are climbing incredibly fast. In the year to July 2025, car insurance premiums jumped 8% – over double the 3% rise in the broader consumer price index. In other words, your cover is getting more expensive, twice as fast as your groceries, your coffee, and pretty much everything else.

Why This Should Annoy You

ASIC reviewed eight car insurance brands that make up 72% of the market. Not one of them clearly explained how they calculate your premium, or why it changed since last year. Most offered only generic explanations buried in supplementary documents, and some gave no explanation at all.

ASIC commissioner Alan Kirkland didn’t mince words, calling car insurance the most complained-about insurance product in 2024–25, with premiums the number one gripe. As he put it, it’s “a real source of consumer pain” at a time when plenty of households are already juggling cost-of-living pressures.

If your insurer won’t tell you what’s driving your increase, you can’t make an informed call on whether to stay put or shop around. It’s a bit like a mechanic handing you a bill for “car stuff: $1,400” and expecting a cheerful thanks. You deserve to know what you’re paying for.

The Insurance Council of Australia points to extreme weather costs, insurance-linked taxes, and rising repair and parts prices, motor claims costs are up 47% since 2020. There’s even a Victorian car-theft surge adding fuel to the fire, with that state’s 2025 theft bill hitting $243 million, more than every other state combined. The costs are real. The silence around them is the problem.

Why This is Bigger Than Your Car

Here’s the thing we want HPartners clients to take away: your car insurance premiums are the canary in the coal mine, not the whole story.

First, a quick clarification. We’re financial advisers, not car insurance brokers, so if it’s your comprehensive car cover you want to compare, ASIC’s Moneysmart is the independent resource to start with. What we specialise in is your personal insurance, the cover that protects you and your income, not your vehicle.

And that’s why this story matters. If car insurance premiums are quietly creeping up while nobody explains the fine print, the same thing is almost certainly happening to your personal cover, the policies with far higher stakes: life cover, income protection, total and permanent disability, trauma insurance. These are the ones that catch you when something genuinely serious happens, and they’re just as prone to premium creep.

What a Proper Insurance Review Does

A review of your personal insurance and risk protection – your life, income protection, TPD and trauma cover, isn’t about upselling you more. It’s about making sure what you’re already paying for still fits.

At HPartners, that means checking whether:

• You’re paying for cover you don’t need (or missing cover you really do)
• Your premiums are still competitive, rather than quietly ballooning on autopilot
• Your policy structure is tax-smart — for example, holding certain cover inside super to ease the cashflow squeeze
• Your cover actually matches your life today, not the life you had when you first signed up years ago

We’ve seen firsthand how much this matters. One HPartners client came to us after a serious health event, and our team pushed through the claim after their insurer initially pushed back. That’s the difference between a policy that sits in a drawer and one that’s been reviewed, understood, and set up to actually deliver.

And if the rising cost of everything has you wanting to get on top of the bigger picture, our cashflow and budgeting support helps you find breathing room, and our guide on how to track your spending in 5 steps is a solid place to start.

Car Insurance Premiums – The Takeaway

ASIC’s message to insurers boils down to: explain yourselves. Our message to you is simpler: don’t wait for a renewal notice to find out whether your cover still stacks up. A quick review now beats an unpleasant surprise later.

Want to know if your personal insurances are working as hard as you are? Book a chat with the HPartners team for a personal insurance and risk protection review. We’ll help you understand exactly what you’re paying for and whether there’s a smarter way to do it.

Book your personal insurance review →

Want to check the source? Read the original story at The New Daily.