Trust in Insurance on the Rise – but Insurers Still Have a Long Way to Go

Consumer trust in insurance providers has improved across most sectors, with car and travel insurance both recording higher scores in the latest Trust in Insurance Index from Fairer Finance.

Falling premiums are likely a key driver of the improving mood. Car insurance prices dropped 9% year-on-year in February 2026 according to the Confused.com Price Index¹, easing the cost pressure that has weighed on consumer confidence since 2022. Pet and home insurance trust scores remained stable, while travel insurance continued to track an upward trajectory, despite having been an outlier for the last few years.

However, trust levels across all sectors remain well below their Spring 2023 peak, and the gap between insurers’ best and worst performers continues to underline how unevenly the recovery is being felt.

Claims satisfaction reaches highest point since 2019

Fairer Finance’s Spring 2026 Index, which surveyed 10,000 customers, also reveals that claims satisfaction has reached its highest level since 2019 – a meaningful milestone after years of decline. Claims satisfaction improved across all four major insurance sectors in the Spring 2026 Index, with the average score across car, home, pet and travel insurance now sitting at 60.03% – the highest since 2019. This follows a near-five-year declining trend that bottomed out in Spring 2024 at 51%.

Travel insurance recorded the biggest improvement, jumping from 53.70% in Autumn 2025 to 59.11%. Pet insurance continues to show the highest claims satisfaction levels of any sector.

James Daley, Managing Director of consumer group Fairer Finance, commented: “This is an encouraging set of results. Trust is moving in the right direction and claims satisfaction has improved across all four major sectors following additional scrutiny from the FCA.

“But insurers should not take this as a sign that the work is done. The fundamental problems that Which? pointed to in its super-complaint last year have not yet been addressed – and a significant minority of consumers continue to get poor outcomes from their insurers. Brokers, insurers and comparison sites still have a lot of work to do to close the customer expectation gap and help customers understand exactly what their policy covers and what it doesn’t.

“The FCA’s continued work in this area is a great opportunity for the industry and consumer groups to work together to fix these problems – so we can build a market where consumers trust and value insurance.”

Trust leaders and biggest movers

Car insurance:

• NFU Mutual leads the sector with a trust score of 78.27%, ahead of second-placed M&S (66.39%). Among major insurers (those with over 1,000 respondents), Saga (61.40%) and AA (61.04%) remain the strongest performers, a position both brands have held consistently since Autumn 2021. AXA was the most improved of the major car insurers, up 2.68 percentage points from Autumn 2025
• Hastings Direct (49.74%) continues to trail the major insurer group

Pet insurance:

• The highest score in the sector goes to the Royal Kennel Club (65.78%). John Lewis saw the biggest improvement among larger pet insurers, rising nearly 7 percentage points to 65.66%
• Pet insurance remains the most trusted general insurance sector overall

Travel insurance:

• British Airways has the highest trust score in travel insurance at 68.6%, over 6 percentage points ahead of second placejet2.com. Insure for Travel saw the largest improvement, jumping over 10 percentage points.

Home insurance:

• Ecclesiastical maintained their top spot with a score of 78.5%, ahead of NFU Mutual in second place and Nationwide in third place. Age UK Trading had the biggest improvement in home insurance, jumping nearly 10 percentage points.
• At the other end of the table, Swiftcover saw the biggest drop, falling 7 percentage points to 41.2%.

Top-performing brands for claims satisfaction:

• LV= leads pet insurance claims satisfaction with a score of 79.30%, having risen from 70.6% – the biggest improvement in the sector
• Saga tops car insurance claims satisfaction at 71.38%, after jumping 7.6 percentage points from Autumn 2025
• RAC recorded the biggest decline in car insurance claims satisfaction, falling 2.6 percentage points to the lowest score (52.77%) among larger providers in that group

Claims experience shapes trust – but not always in the way you’d expect

Customers who have made a claim tend to report higher trust in their insurer – the average gap for the 13 largest pet insurers was 7.7 percentage points (61.6% vs 53.9%). In car insurance the equivalent gap is 5.7 percentage points. However, there are notable exceptions.

In pet insurance, Direct Line has the highest trust score among non-claimants (63.2%), but the lowest among those who have claimed (56.3%) – suggesting that while the brand carries strong inherent goodwill, something in the claims process is undermining it. LV= shows the opposite pattern: its trust score among pet insurance claimants (72.7%) is 20 percentage points higher than among those who haven’t claimed, the largest positive gap of any brand in that group.

In car insurance, Aviva shows the strongest uplift from claiming – its trust score jumps 13.2 percentage points from 53.6% to 66.9%. RAC is the exception in this sector, with trust falling 5.6 percentage points among those who have made a claim.

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