Motorists in the UK are wasting an estimated £3.6 billion pounds a year through failing to shop around for car cover and so could be more likely to need a car loan.This equates to £120 pounds, per person, per year.

The news follows the release of new figures from online bank Egg that show that one in five motorists simply accept the renewal quote offered to them by their current insurer.”Every year, millions of motorists end up paying over the odds for their car insurance because they do not get around to shopping around for competitive cover,” said Andy Deller, director of banking and insurance at Egg”Some insurers prey upon this apathy by hiking their premiums in the knowledge that many drivers will not bother switching to another provider,” he added.Egg’s figures show that motorists saw their premiums rise by an average of six per cent a year, while 1.28 million motorists saw their premium rise 15 per cent or more. However around 5.95 million motorists - representing 20 per cent of those on the roads - accepted their renewal quote without shopping around, with 3.4 million more (11 per cent) only looking at one other quote.Of those that did not shop around more than one in three (38 per cent) said they did not have the time, did not see the point or found it too confusing looking for new cover.The remaining two thirds of people (62 per cent) said they were not shopping around as they believed their provider gave them a good deal and were loyal to them.

It is time for the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate high car prices, says the Trade and Industry select committee.The committee believes people in the UK are currently still paying too much for cars and as such the OFT should re-open its investigation into prices.

The group expressed concern that generous discounts offered to fleet buyers were not currently being offered to large retailers. It also said, compared with drivers in other European countries, British consumers are paying too much to have their cars serviced or repaired: 50 per cent more than in France and 40 per cent more than German motoristsIn a statement the all-party group announced: “In particular, many of the criteria for independent garages to achieve ‘authorised repairer’ status appear to be barriers to entry rather than driven by a genuine concern for the quality of service offered.”It added: “Neither is the quality of servicing particularly good.

Mechanics routinely miss out basic safety checks, charge for work they have not done and recommend unnecessary repairs.”As for the actual price of cars, the MPs said it saw “no reason” why fleet purchasers should benefit so much from discounts.