UK Car Insurance Reduction Tips
Tips To Reduce Your Car Insurance
There are many elements that influence your car insurance premium. The most important elements however, are the type of vehicle you intend to drive, your age and your driving experience. But other aspects also affect the cost. Here we discus several of these key variables that are within your control.
What type your vehicle is. The higher your car's performance and the more expensive it is, the higher your premiums will be. If you are looking to buy a new vehicle make sure you consider fully the cost of insurance – you maybe able to buy the car but can you run it?
How much excess you are willing to pay. If you agree to pay a larger excess on any claim you will reduce your car insurance premiums. This is because by paying a larger excess you are reducing the insurance company's financial risk and they can then give you lower premiums in return.
How many miles you do. You can also control your insurance
premiums by restricting your annual mileage to an agree level. However, be
aware that after exceeding that restricted annual mileage you become uninsured!
Where you park your car. Where you park your vehicle overnight is very important to the insurers. It's a matter of security. If it is kept in a locked garage, you should be offered a lower premium than if you left it unattended in the street.
What security you have fitted. Extra security devises that prevent or hinder theft such as immobilisers and alarms should also reduce your premium. There is also a system called “Tracker” which traces the location of your car through satellite signals. This system can reduce your premium by as much as 15% but it is expensive to install.
Your No Claims Discount. Don't claim for small bumps. Remember that you will have to pay the excess no matter what and sometimes the money you save by referring the repairs to your insurer will be more than outweighed by the loss of your no claims discount in the following years. After a set number of claim free years, usually 4 or 5, you will be offered the option to protect your no claims bonus through a small increase in your premium. This means that if you do have one bump in a year, your no claims discount will not be reduced. In our experience this is well worth paying for.
Advanced driving test. By passing an advanced driving course
you will become a better driver and may be able to claim a discount on your
premium. Contact The Institute for Advanced Motorists or the Royal Society
for Prevention of Accidents for details.
Consolidating policies. By insuring all the family's cars under one policyholder with the same insurer you may be able to secure a ‘bulk buy' discount. 10% is fairly common.
The driver with the best driving record. If you are shopping
for a new policy and have a partner with a particularly good driving record
and you both expect to drive similar mileage, then get the car insured in
their name with the other partner as a named driver. That may well save you
money.
Named Drivers. Your policy can
be arranged to insure “all drivers” to your car or just specific “named” drivers.
So long as your named drivers have a reasonable driving record, it will be
cheaper to buy insurance on a named driver basis rather than “any driver”.