Car insurance costs can double at certain times of day
The cost of car insurance can vary by as much as 123% depending on the time of day you buy it, according to
Which?.
And it's bad news for nighttime shoppers, because the worst time to purchase was 3am-4am, followed by midnight-1am, their research found.
The consumer champion ran eight sets of quotes for a London-based driver over 24 hours on a leading comparison website, which returned quotes as varied as £441 and £519 for the same product.
Premium policies changed by even greater amounts than the cheapest deals.
The price of the AA's Silver policy more than doubled from £515 (9am-midnight) to £1,078 after 3am-6am.
Comparison site Confused.com told Which? that prices could increase by as much as 123% between midnight and 2am, while Quotezone said they increased by 22% on average between midnight and 6am.
AA said the dramatic variation in cost was a result of underwriters offering higher prices during hours when fraud was more common.
Meanwhile, Admiral said its claims data showed people who looked for quotes during unsociable hours made more claims, leading to higher rates.