Fewer people are automatically renewing their household insurance policies and an increasing number are approaching other companies and considering switching compared to two years ago, Roy Morgan data shows.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says in the year to June, more than 8.2 million household policies were at risk of being switched to another provider, which compares to 7.2 million two years ago and just under 3.7 million in the pre-pandemic year to March 2020.

Of the 8.2 million “at risk” policies, the vast majority, at around 6.4 million, were eventually renewed with the same company, still leaving more than 1.8 million household policies that were eventually switched.

“As these figures show the number of policies at risk of being switched jumped significantly during the pandemic and has continued to rise since as Australians grapple with a rising cost of living caused by high inflation and increasing interest rates,” Ms Levine said.

In the year to June, 66.1% of policies were renewed without approaching another company, down from 66.5% in the previous year and compared to 67.2% in the year to June 2021.

The four brands that have the highest proportion of automatic renewals for household policies are RAC, RACV, CGU and APIA, with automatic renewal rates of more than 70% of their policyholders.

Brands with automatic renewal rates under 60% include Woolworths, Budget Direct, Youi and AAMI.

Over a fifth of household insurance policies, 23.2%, were renewed after the customer approached other companies.

The data shows that 4.3% of household insurance policies were taken out for the first time, up 0.4 percentage points from two years ago.

The percentage details exclude “can’t say action” which applies to 1.3 million policies out of the total of 28.8 million policies in the 12-month period.

“The financial stresses facing millions of Australians present an opportunity for nimble and innovative insurance companies to tailor their product offerings to those looking for a better deal and potentially sign up a customer who is looking to adjust their insurance policies to better suit their changing financial circumstances,” Ms Levine said.

Roy Morgan information is derived from in-depth personal interviews conducted with more than 60,000 Australians a year.