Fairer Finance Takes a Deep Dive into Consumer Trust

Consumer trust in insurance providers has improved for the third wave in a row, but the recovery is much stronger amongst higher income groups, according to the latest Trust in Insurance Index from consumer group Fairer Finance. Here are the details FYI;

The Autumn 2026 Index, which surveyed 10,000 consumers, shows the gap in trust between the highest-income households (£70,000+) and the lowest-income households (up to £20,000) widened across car, home, pet and travel insurance.

In car insurance, trust among the highest earners rose by more than 2 percentage points to 59.55%. Among the lowest earners it rose by just 0.6 points to 52.35%, leaving a gap of 7.2 percentage points, up from 5.7 six months ago. In pet insurance, trust among the lowest-income households fell by around a percentage point, even as it improved across the sector as a whole.

All four sectors recorded improved trust scores

At a headline level, all four sectors recorded higher trust scores. Car insurance saw the biggest improvement, rising 1.14 percentage points to 55.53%, while home (54.23%), pet (56.74%) and travel (54.42%) each rose by between 0.7 and 0.8 points. Pet insurance remains the most trusted of the four.

Falling premiums have been a key driver of the recovery, but that support now looks to be fading. Car insurance prices rose in the three months to May 2026, the first increase after nine consecutive quarters of falls, according to the Confused.com Price Index¹. Home insurance premiums have also started to rise again.

Claims experience

Customers who have made an insurance claim generally trust their insurer more than those who haven’t. In car insurance, claimants’ trust score of 63.24% is almost 9 percentage points higher than non-claimants’ (54.39%). The claimant gap was wider in our Autumn 2026 ratings than the Spring 2026 results in car, home and travel.

Pet insurance is the exception. It is the only sector where trust among claimants fell, down from 61.42% to 60.89%, while trust among those who haven’t claimed rose. The trust gap between claimants and non-claimants has narrowed from 8.1 to 6.0 percentage points.

Notable differences at brand level (brands with at least 100 claimants):

•        RAC has turned around its claims-stage trust. In Spring, RAC was the only large car insurer where claimants trusted it less than non-claimants – by 5.6 percentage points. This quarter, trust among RAC claimants has jumped almost 10 points to 62.92%, and claimants now trust it more than those who haven’t claimed.

•        Aviva shows the strongest uplift from claiming across car, home and travel. In car insurance, its claimants’ trust score (68.62%) is 14 percentage points higher than its non-claimants’.

•        In home insurance, several bank-branded insurers lose trust at claims stage. Claimants’ trust Halifax 7.6 percentage points less than non-claimants, with gaps of 3.7 points for Nationwide and 2.5 points for Lloyds Bank. Nationwide remains one of the most trusted home insurers overall, but trust among its claimants has fallen 7.5 points since Spring. Hastings Direct has the largest negative trust gap of the larger home insurers (−9.8 points).

•        In pet insurance, Animal Friends, one of the largest providers in the market, is the only larger brand whose claimants trust it less than non-claimants. LV= continues to show the strongest positive effect of claiming of any brand in our data. Its claimants’ trust score of 70.53% is 19 points above its non-claimants’.

Overall claims satisfaction scores increased across car, home and travel insurance for the 5^th quarter in a row. Pet insurance broke this trend with the Autumn 2026 claims satisfaction score a fraction below the Spring 2026 value at 63.81%. Pet still has higher claim satisfaction than other sectors, but this could change in the next couple of waves if trends continue.

James Daley, Managing Director of independent consumer group Fairer Finance, commented: “It’s encouraging to see that trust in insurance is rising – but it’s worth remembering that the majority of customers have not tested their insurer with a claim. The greatest drivers of overall trust are a lack of price shocks and a smooth application journey.

“When we drill down into our claims satisfaction data, it’s clear that all sectors have made improvements over the last few years – but pet insurance is showing the first signs of a reversal. It’s the only sector where customers who have claimed are less happy than those who haven’t. And we expect that situation to deteriorate further over the next few years as pandemic pet owners start to see their animals age – and feel the pain of rising premiums and co-payment claims for the first time.

“There’s still lots of work to do across all lines of general insurance to improve experiences at claims stage. Around a third of insurance complaints that make it to the Ombudsman are overturned in favour of the customer – cases that have often caused enormous stress on the individuals involved. With insurance prices predicted to rise again over the next few years, insurers will have to work twice as hard to continue improving perceptions of the industry.” 

Confidence with money is the biggest dividing line

Income is not the only fault line. Customers who say they are not confident managing their money trust their insurer between 8.5 and 10.4 percentage points less than those who are confident. That makes financial confidence the largest single trust gap in Fairer Finance’s data, bigger than differences by age, gender, region or vulnerability.

In home insurance, trust among customers who aren’t confident with money stands at just 44.73%, compared with 55.08% for confident customers.

There are some signs of progress for vulnerable customers in car insurance. Every larger car insurer still shows lower trust among customers with characteristics of vulnerability, but 10 of the 15 have narrowed the difference this wave and the sector-wide gap has fallen from 4.0 to 3.7 percentage points. AXA still has the largest gap, at more than 9 points, while AA continues to have the highest trust score among vulnerable customers.

Pet insurance: most trusted sector, but stretched owners are losing faith

Pet insurance remains the most trusted sector overall, but it is also where the customers under the most financial pressure are falling furthest behind.

Trust among pet insurance customers who describe their bills as a heavy burden fell this wave to 50.41%. That leaves them more than 12 percentage points behind customers for whom bills are not a burden (62.76%), the widest gap of its kind in any sector. The gap between customers with and without characteristics of vulnerability also widened, from 5.4 to 6.3 percentage points.

Trust also declines as pets get older, falling from 62% among owners of pets aged one to four to 50.92% among owners of pets over 10. Many policies introduce percentage co-payments once a pet reaches somewhere between five and eight, and inner limits on specific conditions can leave owners paying more than they expected.

The same pattern is showing up in claims satisfaction. Since Autumn 2025, satisfaction among owners of pets under five has held steady at around 70%, while among owners of pets aged five and over it has dropped 4.66 percentage points to 62.57%.

Trust leaders and biggest movers

Car insurance:

•       NFU Mutual leads the sector with a trust score of 80.07%, ahead of Marks & Spencer (72.54%), which was one of the biggest improvers among larger brands, up more than 6 percentage points

•       Among the major insurers (those with over 1,000 respondents), AA has pulled clear as the most trusted at 63.43%, followed by RAC (60.04%) and Saga (59.85%)

•       Hastings Direct (51.47%) continues to trail the major insurer group

Home insurance:

•       NFU Mutual has the highest trust score among larger home insurers at 69.38%, ahead of John Lewis (66.44%)

•       Nationwide (66.39%) remains the most trusted of the major home insurers

•       Royal Bank of Scotland saw one of the biggest improvements, rising 4.5 percentage points to 65.40%

Pet insurance:

•       Churchill has the highest trust score among larger pet insurers (65.86%), followed by PDSA (63.78%)

•       The Insurance Emporium saw the biggest improvement, up 8.5 percentage points, but remains bottom of the table at 42.83%

Travel insurance:

•       British Airways retains the highest trust score at 68.20%, ahead of Santander (62.38%)

•       TUI was the most improved brand, up 6 percentage points to 59.98%

•       esure has the lowest score in the sector at 38.79%

For more information about Fairer Finance and to read more about its Customer Experience and Product Ratings, visit https://www.fairerfinance.com/.