Cut the costs of motor insurance premiums
Motor insurance premiums have gone up 70% in the last eight years. Here is your guide to saving money on your car insurance whether you have a no claims bonus or not.
Use a specialist motor broker
Car insurance brokers typically have access to many unique motor insurance schemes from all the top insurers from Norwich Union to Churchill, from Cornhill to HSBC, from AXA to Legal & General. Just accepting your renewal premium from the direct writers such as Direct Line, Esure, Tesco Insurance or Virgin Insurance could cost you several hundred pounds.
The 70% increase since 1996 can partly be explained by motor insurance claims soaring by 22% from £6.8 billion in 1999 to £8.3 billion in 2002 according to the Association of British insurers.
Nevertheless, insurance premium increases have slowed to 3% in 2004. A contributing factor has been the reduction in theft claims which have halved since 1995 as car security has improved. New cars have also reduced in price by 11%. Even accidents have fallen from 231,000 in 1995 to 222,000 in 2002.
Internet based car insurance
Despite all these factors the biggest reason for cheaper car insurance is the growth in internet based insurers such as girl motor, 4 young drivers, www.esure.com and www.elephant.co.uk. These insurance companies can offer lower prices because they have cheaper costs than traditional insurance companies. There are also new companies around such as www.confused.com which offer to search the whole market which saves the customer time
Direct Line to cheaper motor insurance
In order to get cheaper insurance, you need to know who to ask, often there are too many options and some of the contributory factors are beyond your control such as having a high risk job such as in entertainment or as a mini-cab driver. Other factors such as having an imported car can push up your insurance. This is why you need to use an independent broker with a telephone support line to guide your through the minefields.
AA research into car insurance
Recent research by www.theaa.com has suggested than you can save around 30% by shopping around. There are many specialist brokers for clients aged under 30 who may not have had motor insurance in their own name and therefore do not have any no claims bonus; others have had driving convictions which make motor insurance more expensive. Using specialist can often save you money. Specialists in the female market include: girl motor and www.diamondinsurance.com. Specialist for younger drivers include 4 young drivers and www.admiral.com
Increasing your voluntary excess
is a good way to reduce your car insurance. When making a claim you normally have a compulsory excess; by adding a voluntary excess, you are reducing the car insurance premium. This is great if you are a careful driver although it means that if you are unlucky and have a claim then you are in for a more expensive claim.
Legal protection & other extras
Many insurers charge extra for items such as motor legal protection, guaranteed hire car. Whilst you will probably appreciate these benefits when making a claim, stripping them out will certainly reduce the cost of your motor insurance premium.
Car security to lower your motor insurance
Most cars manufactured after 1997 are fitted with alarms and immobilisers as standard. If your car is older than this you may want to consider having security fitted. They must however be approved by Thatcham to benefit from motor insurance discounts. Go to a leading installer such as laserline or toad to ensure peace of mind. These security measures could reduce your motor insurance premium by 10 - 20% depending on insurers. Parking your car on the drive or in your garage will further reduce your car insurance.
Avoid motor convictions and get cheaper car insurance
According to www.confused.com one motoring conviction will add 20% to your motor premium, two speeding convictions can add 30% whilst 3 motoring convictions will add up to 80% to your can insurance. There are companies such as insureyourmotor.com who specialise in insuring UK drivers with convictions. They can insure drivers with more serious convictions such as drink driving, driving with undue care and attention as well as driving with no insurance.
Some younger drivers struggle to get any road cover if they get points on their licence. A 25 year old in Reading could pay £592 for comprehensive car insurance with no points but £995 with one speeding convictions
Fewer motor claims, cheaper insurance
The more accidents you have the more it will cost. Even protecting your no claims bonus will not necessarily stop your car insurance premiums from rising in the future. As an example www.directline.com would increase the premium for a 37 year old Londoner driving a BMW 530 by £60 for one claim, by £238.35 for two claims and if you also had a speeding conviction on top the premium would increase by £341.25
Reduce your motor premium by adding your spouse
Many insurers prefer homeowners with children to single men who have traditionally had poor claims experience. This method of reducing your motor insurance premium would also apply to common law spouses. Young drivers occasionally get a benefit by adding their parents to their policy. It goes without saying that adding young drivers to a parents policy will increase car insurance premiums substantially.
Young drivers mean higher car insurance premiums
For any parent one of the best ways of keeping motor insurance premiums down is to keep their kids off the policy. Whilst there are specialist motor insurance brokers who can get you the best premiums on the market such as 4 young drivers and www.elephant.com it is still going to be an expensive business getting cheap car insurance with a young driver on the policy.
A way of keeping the insurance reasonable with a young driver is to get them on the pass plus test. This is a government backed scheme www.2pass.co.uk and insurance brokers typically offer discounts of 20% - 40% for having this certificate.
Even though motor insurance for young drivers is going to be expensive, the benefit of young drivers building up a no claims bonus will prove beneficial in the long term.
Females get cheaper insurance as a rule.
Reduce your cover from comprehensive to Third party fire & theft
For cars more than 7 years old, it is worth reducing the amount of cover from comprehensive to third party fire and theft. To illustrate this www.confused.com found out that a 26 year old living in Cardiff and driving a 1999 Vauxhall Astra 1.6LS would pay £461.41 fully comprehensive or £322.85 TPFT
Keep your mileage down for cheaper motor insurance
Reducing your mileage will reduce your premium since the less you drive the less likely you are to have an accident. It is important that you do not underestimate the mileage if you agree with your insurance company the annual mileage. This could invalidate insurance cover.
Take an advanced driver from Institute of advanced motorists.
Some insurers offer discounts for taking an advanced driver course run by the Institute of Advanced motorists (020 8996 9600) or the Royal Society for the prevention of accidents (0121 248 2000)
