Last week I had a nasty shock. When I opened up an email from NRMA Insurance, the quote for my new car insurance premium had a 3 in front of it. In fact, the cost of insuring my 2019 Kia Picanto, which is worth about as much as a Taylor Swift ticket, had gone up 17 per cent to $3440. How did that happen?

I know car insurance is expensive, especially when the policy covers a 21-year-old male driver. The tiny Kia was purchased in the mistaken belief that my son would not be seen dead in it. But if the cost of having a car keeps going up, I’d have to seriously consider getting rid of it and buying an e-bike. We live in the inner city, and after you add on petrol, tolls, servicing and parking, riding a bike and catching Ubers and taxis would be much cheaper.

The author’s Pia Picanto, for which NRMA Insurance’s proposed premium soared by 17 per cent to $3440.

The price rise hurt because I’d been a “loyal” NRMA customer for 22 years. Actually, I’d just been lazy. Unwilling to spend hours on the phone shopping around, I’d taken the easy way and just pressed “renew” each year. But now, enraged, I tapped my details into a few comparison websites to shop around.

This was the first hurdle. Unlike the sites for comparing energy, banking or........

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