One of the most common and expensive mistakes you can make is to allow your car insurance to automatically renew.
If you do not shop around for a cheap car insurance cover then your current car insurance provider might take advantage of this and hike up your premiums.
We have created a top tips list to help you drive down the costs and get the best car insurance deal:
Driving fewer miles per year means you are a less of a risk for insurance providers so try and limit the miles you drive per year. Please note that when retrieving a quote ALWAYS give an accurate estimated figure of miles driven per year as this can invalidate your insurance policy.
This option saves you the extra money you pay on a monthly interest plan rather than in one go. If you are unable to pay in one go up front then another option can be to pay the annual premium on a 0% credit card. If you do decide to take this option do ensure that you pay off your insurance amount before the 0% interest free period ends.
Improving the security of your vehicle by adding devices such as an alarm, immobiliser and wheel locking nuts can help bring down your insurance premiums.
In the event of an accident, each insurance provider has a compulsory excess you have to pay. This amount can range from an average of £100 – £500. By adding a voluntary excess amount on top of the compulsory excess help bring down the cost of car insurance. Please be aware that in the event of an accident when you make a claim, the excess amount is what you have to pay the insurance providers upfront before any repair or replacing your car is agreed. Please ensure that the amount you choose is affordable in this situation.
You will get a cheaper car insurance policy by building up your no claims bonus discount. This is because insurance providers reward their customers and motorists who have a few years of no claims under their belt.
Always choose an insurance policy that includes everything you need at the best price. Do not fall for a more expensive policy with unnecessary add-ons.
Car insurance extra add-ons can include the following:
There are 3 types of insurance cover:
If you have an older car that isn’t worth that much then it might be a better option to go with the latter two rather than fully comprehensive insurance policy. Please be aware that not all third party insurance providers give the level of cover you want and will not always be cheaper than the comprehensive cover option.
By parking your car off road overnight can lower the chance of your car being stolen or vandalised. If you have a garage or a driveway, do let the insurance providers know when retrieving a car insurance quote as insurance providers will see you as a less of a risk to insure resulting in possibly lowering your insurance premiums.
By adding experienced drivers on your policy can help bring down your insurance premiums but on the hindsight of this, by adding inexperienced drivers can also increase your insurance premiums. One main point to be careful and honest about to insurance providers is who the main driver is as this can invalidate your insurance cover.
Each car is in an insurance banding depending on their engine size and value of the car. This also is the same concept with road tax. The bigger the engine size value of your vehicle, the higher the insurance premiums and road tax.
When you want to modify your car to make it look better by adding body kits or alloy wheels or even for better audio sound or performance modification, the insurance providers see this as a risk as your car becomes a lot more attractive to thieves. Not only this but the modified parts are often more expensive to repair or replace so this could mean a big increase in your car insurance quotes.
By taking an advanced driving course such as pass plus and IAM can cost you in the short term but in the long term some insurance providers do give you a discount. This works out great for inexperienced and young drivers. Please be aware that not all insurance providers give a discount for an advanced driving course so you should shop around to see if this option will benefit you.
There are also a further three types of level of cover here and what you will be using your car for. These are as follows:
If you do not use your car to commute then by choosing the social and domestic option may give you a cheaper insurance quote.
Insurance companies analyse all the data given to determine the potential risk factor when providing an insurance quote and believe it or not, that’s also goes for your job title.
Research has shown that some customers in certain occupations are considered a higher risk than others hence this has become a part when calculating your car insurance quote.
This is Money published a part of a research that lists the occupations or job titles that are most and least likely to affect your insurance premium. These are as follows:
Top 13 job titles that can increase your insurance premium:
Top 10 job titles for cheaper car insurance:
Top 10 jobs with the most at fault claims:
Top 10 least likely to make an at fault claim:
Please be careful that by tweaking your job title can possibly lower your car insurance costs but by nit being honest about your job title can also invalidate your car insurance policy.
You also need to update your insurance provider if you change jobs and have a different job title as this could impact the amount of insurance premium you pay. If you don’t, then this could also invalidate your insurance policy.
It might be worth considering a telematics car insurance as this provides insurance premiums on actual data about your driving. To put this in simple terms a black box is fitted to your vehicle by the insurance provider which records the way you drive. This type of insurance can make your insurance premiums cheaper no matter what your age as long as you are a safe and careful driver.
The black box is also an added bonus when it comes to your car being stolen as acts as a tracker when trying to locate your vehicle.
One of the biggest and main hidden expenses on car insurance policy are administration charges. Some insurance providers do charge you up to £50 if you want to make changes like job title or address on your policy. Sometimes it’s worth paying that extra £10 for a policy that has reasonable or no administration charges and this could save you money in the long term.
Without a doubt our top tip for cheaper car insurance is to shop around.
As mentioned at the start, allowing your insurance provider to automatically renew your insurance policy could mean a higher insurance premium. Even though the option for auto-renew may seem hassle free but if shopping around could save you an average of £240, then it’s worth that extra little hassle.
To take out that extra time to compare car insurance quotes with us can most likely get you a cheaper deal than to shopping around individual insurer websites or phoning around with can be very time consuming.
Research shows that the closer to you get to your renewal date the more you could end up paying for your insurance premiums.
Not everyone is aware that you can actually buy your car insurance up to 29 days before its renewal date and the insurance providers will ‘lock in’ the insurance premium quoted for your particular start date.