Insurance sector ‘has work to do to rebuild customer relationships’ – Fairer Finance

The insurance sector ’has work to do to rebuild customer relationships’ according to the latest Trust in Insurance Index from consumer advocacy organisation Fairer Finance, published today (1 December 2025).

This Autumn version of the index, which surveyed 10,000 customers, showed that trust scores remained some way below the peak recorded in Spring 2023 despite a modest uplift period-on-period. 

Fairer Finance explained that this rise appeared to be “largely driven by falling premiums, rather than improved service, as insurance premiums dropped in 2025 following several years of shap increases that eroded customer goodwill”. 

The organisation added that customer switching behaviour had falled to record lows, with motor insurance switching dropping to just 33% of consumers – down from 50% in 2024. 

Claims satisfaction, while also improving, was still down on the peaks seen in 2018/19. For example, motor insurance satisfaction rose from a low of 54% in Spring 2024 to just 59% in Autumn 2025 – down on the 67% seen in 2018. 

Fairer Finance said that the “collapse in customer switching behaviour may help explain the modest claims improvements, as insurers may have belatedly recognised the need to improve retention through better claims handling, rather than relying on customer inertia alone”.

Price is king

James Daley, managing director at Fairer Finance, said: ”While we’ve seen a slight improvement in consumer trust in the general insurance market, we are still well below the levels we reached two years ago. More worryingly, claims satisfaction levels remain a long way below their pre-pandemic peak.

“As things stand, we are locked in a race to the bottom on quality. Insurance products are continuing to hollow out and the customer expectation gap is widening. The solution to this has to lie in supporting customers to better understand what they’re buying and what they’re not. Comparison sites need to work harder to match customers with policies that meet their needs, and to understand which insurers have a good track record at claims stage.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Fairer Finance study found that price dominates customer decision making, with 29% of surveyed customers choosing their insurance because it was cheapest on a comparison site and another 31% choosing because it was the cheapest product on the market. 

Customers who had made a claim in the last three years, however, had different priorities. Only 22% of this segment prioritsed price alone, with reputation and recommendations becoming stronger drivers of choice after having experienced a claim.