You are all correct about Insurance companies charging a lot more 2nd year. What I do with my car insurance is wait for the renewal, then do a price comparison check on line. When the company I'm with on-line are a lot cheaper, I ring them up to find out why. Then I usually get passed to their loyalty department and hey I stay with them for another year. Bit of a pain but if you're with a decent company they will want your business, and I've saved over �100 on my 2 cars policies last year.