Only one in five car buyers understand the extra cover they get from insurance add-ons, despite the average driver paying for two additional services.

The data comes from a new report from insurance data analytics expert Consumer Intelligence.

Breakdown cover was identified as the least well-understood additional policy with more than two out of five wrongly believing all policies provide cover from the first instalment.

John Blevins, consumer intelligence product manager, said: “Add-ons are clearly very much valued by drivers as they are willing to pay extra on their car insurance for them.

“It is however worrying that so few people fully understand the cover they have and are either not making the full use of it or believe they have more cover than they do.”

Consumer Intelligence’s research shows 22% of motor insurance customers are confident they know the full details of the cover provided by the add-ons on their motor policy. Around a quarter (24%) admit to being in the dark about the extra cover they have bought.

Add-ons include a wide range of additional cover such as Protected No Claims Discounts, Uninsured Driver Cover, Windscreen Cover, Legal Expenses, Courtesy or Hire Car, Breakdown (UK/European), Personal Injury Cover, Personal Belongings Cover, Key Cover and Wrong Fuel Cover.

Consumer Intelligence’s research found 89% of drivers are willing to pay for at least one add-on to their motor insurance with Protected No Claims Discounts seen as the most valuable.

The report on add-ons and market benchmarking is available to download at https://www.consumerintelligence.com/motor-insurance-add-ons-report.