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15 Feb 2024

Sainsbury's Bank car insurance review

Read Which?'s expert review of Sainsbury's Bank's car insurance. Find out how we rate its car insurance policies against 27 other providers

Dean SobersSenior researcher & writer

In this article

What does Sainsbury's Bank offer?
Does Sainsbury's Bank offer the best car insurance?
How good are Sainsbury's Bank car insurance policies?
How did customers rate Sainsbury's Bank car insurance?
How can you save money on Sainsbury's Bank car insurance?
Sainsbury's Bank: how can I claim?
Find out how Sainsbruy's rates for other products

What does Sainsbury's Bank offer?

Sainsbury's Bank offers travel, home, car, life and pet insurance alongside banking products such as credit cards, savings and loans.

It has three car insurance policies: Essentials, Standard and Plus.

Sainsbury's Bank began in 1997 as a joint venture with Bank of Scotland, but is now fully owned by Sainsbury's. Its policies are underwritten by ABC, Ageas, Axa, Covea, ERS, LV, Sabre and Somerset Bridge.

Find out more: how to find cheap car insurance

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Does Sainsbury's Bank offer the best car insurance?

Here's how Sainsbury's Bank scored in our latest survey:

60% customer score, putting it joint 22nd out of 27 insurers rated
67% policy score on its standard policy – joint 10th out of 28 providers we reviewed
58% claims score – 24th out of 25 providers we had claims scores for

See how this compares with the best car insurance.

We review a lot of policies - and our 'Best Buy' badge recognises the individual products that stood out as being the most comprehensive in our analysis. It doesn't reflect customer service. However, we won't give a provider a Best Buy badge where there's evidence - either from our surveys or from Financial Conduct Authority data - of poor service or a poorer-than-average record of paying claims.

Policies named as Best Buys must have a minimum policy score of 65%

Additionally, we look at how consistently good the cover is in policies. To make the cut, a policy needs to have scored at least three out of five points in two thirds of the areas we've rated.

Find out more: how we rate policies.

Lastly, all Best Buy policies must provide - either as standard or as an option - the following levels of cover as a minimum:

'Comprehensive' cover (meaning it covers third party claims, fire, theft and accidental damage to your car), a temporary courtesy car if yours is under repair or if it has been stolen or written off, a repairs guarantee period of at least 3 years, cover for damage to your windows or windscreen, legal expenses cover, liability cover of £20m or more and personal accident cover.

We analyse and rate 78 key elements of car insurance policies to come up with the overall policy score.

Initially, we score all of the product elements out of five, reflecting how competitive each provider is in this area compared with other insurers. We assess how important different policy elements are to drivers when choosing and using a car insurance, and weight different areas of cover accordingly to enhance/reduce their impact in the overall product score.

How good are Sainsbury's Bank car insurance policies?

Sainsbury's standard car insurance policy received a decent 67% score in our analysis – in the top 40% of the 61 policies we rated.

It offers high levels of cover for damage to your windscreen, windows and sunroof – unlimited if Sainsbury's chooses the repairer; up to £250 if you do. And unlike many policies, named drivers can earn their own NCD (no claims discount) on your policy.

On the downside, it has relatively low levels of cover for personal belongings (£200), and it doesn't guarantee the availability of a courtesy car while yours is being repaired.

Child car seat

If a child car seat is damaged in your vehicle, Sainsbury's policy will pay for the full cost of replacement. About half of the policies we looked at have a cash limit – as low as £100 in some cases.

Essentials and Plus

Sainsbury's pricier Plus policy scored 71% in our analysis. The pared-back Essential policy – dispensing with features such as cover for your windscreen – earned a mediocre 60%. This compares to an average of 64% across all the policies we compared.

Sainsbury's Bank: key cover areas rated

Select a table:

Standard


Fire excess	£150
Theft excess	£150
Accidental damage excess	£150
Windscreen replacement excess	£75
Is the policy holder's NCD affected if car is hit while parked	Yes - but can be reinstated
Windscreen damage - limit per claim	Unlimited / £250
Window damage - limit per claim	Unlimited / £250

How did customers rate Sainsbury's Bank car insurance?

We asked Sainsbury's Bank customers who've recently made a claim how they felt about their car insurance.

The insurer earned 60% (below average) when customers rated their overall experience.

Customers were also asked how their most recent claim was handled. Its 58% claims score is poor, placing it second from last in our claims table.

Here's how customers rated Sainsbury's Bank in various areas of service:

Select a table:

Customer satisfaction


Application process	-
Clarity of policy
Dealing with queries
Ease of managing your policy online
Fair treatment of longstanding customers	-
Dealing with complaints	-
Value for money

Table last updated in February 2024. Next update in January 2025. A dash '-' means we had an insufficient sample size (fewer than 30 responses) to generate a star rating.