The quote from Privilege (aren't they basically the same as Direct Line, or have I got confused?!) for my 8-year old Toyota Auris was a 110% increase this year. A short time spent with the helpful meerkats allowed me to bring the increase down to 'only' 25% through AA insurance. It seems that insurers are all trying it on this year while trying to pretend that it's carefully worked out by the actuaries, which -- sadly -- does not surprise me.

Previous years I've had good results phoning Direct Line and asking (very politely) if they could do any better a price. I'm very sceptical about how well that will work this year, though. Once I've got a few quotes, I will phone them to see what they can do.

Not sure about the Direct line essentials cover, as that doesn't cover "driving other cars". Don't use this often, but I've always had this cover.

Thank you everyone for your comments.

Will update this thread once I've shopped around.

Update

Went to the MoneySupermarket comparision site via the Money Saving Expert site. Apparently you get the best prices between 3 and 4 weeks before the renewal date (I didn’t know this). Today is 24 days before the renewal date.

Got various quotes (for the same cover level. Courtesy car, Legal expenses, Protected NCD, Business use). Cheapest was £363 from Halifax (but they weren’t getting good reviews). RIAS and AGEAS were both quoting £407 with only £100 excess, I was very tempted (wasn’t sure what they were like to deal with though).

Got an online quote direct from LV=. This came back at £433 with a £400 excess.

Phoned Direct Line (my existing provider) to see what they could do. They dropped their price from £700 to £575.

I ended up renewing with LV=. Felt I had only heard good things about their service and was happy to go with them.

Strange thing I found, with the comparison site, was that I was getting cheaper quotes when adding business cover! Also, with the comparison site, I was getting cheaper quotes when having no voluntary excess!

So that’s it done for another year.