Lower your insurance costs

The easiest way of making your insurance cheaper is to shop around. It’s a competitive market, and with plenty of providers keen on getting your business a few minutes effort could save you hundreds.

You can just phone around a number of providers to see what deal you can get, but thankfully there’s a quicker way to do it. Price comparison sites will allow you to put in your details and get quotes from hundreds of insurers.

If you plan on paying your premium monthly, check that the insurer doesn’t charge interest on the cost. Some providers charge in excess of 20 per cent for people looking to pay monthly, which really will hit you in the pocket.

You can get reduced premiums if you don’t use the car all that often – reduced mileage policies cost considerably less.

There are some more specific schemes that reduce premiums. One insurer has trialled pay as you go schemes, where your cost rises for every mile you drive. Another is fitting tracker devices to the cars of young drivers and applying the premium on the basis that they don’t drive late at night. If they do need to do so, a one of charge is debited from their bank account. This product has proved amazingly popular, so much so that there is a waiting list for trackers to be fitted.

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Predict and find out insurance costs before you buy

If you’re thinking about buying a car, then car insurance is going to be a serious consideration. Reports show that a third of British consumers are paying more than they need for car insurance and 50% fail to shop around. Here are a few tips to make the process easier and quicker, so that you don’t get caught out.

Check your driver’s record for infractions. You need to have this on hand to get realistic quotes.
Think about which kind of car you need. Every car in the UK corresponds to one of 50 car insurance groups. These are determined by the cost of the car, parts and maintenance as well as aspects of its performance such as acceleration and top speed.

Shop around for the best cover. In order to obtain the best deal, research shows that you need seven quotes. Make sure that you are comparing fairly as a cheaper quote may come with less cover. You can compare online. Bear in mind that not all insurers take part in comparison sites so be prepared to look further afield.

Agree to a predetermined mileage restriction. It can bring you a large discount but this can be tricky to work out. However you do need to make sure you get it right, or any claim you make will be in jeopardy.

Fit a tracking device, alarm or immobiliser, keep your car in a locked garage or take an advanced driver’s course. All these measures will help bring down the cost of car insurance and are good ideas in any case.

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Great News On Car Insurance prices (UK)

Car drivers across the country have had a bad few years for insurance premium increases recently, but according to figures released by the AA today premiums have at last started to fall.

Every quarter the Automobile Association release the latest figures from their AA British Insurance Premiums Index which keeps track of various insurance markets including car insurance, as well as home insurance.

Naturally there’s problems with every survey of this nature, the main one being that not every customer uses price comparison to check the entire market. Those who stick with their existing insurers will often be taking out insurance that’s far more expensive than the cheapest policy. What the AA’s finding indicate though is that customers who shop around, such as those who use the Monkey price comparison tool, will get a better deal than they did three months ago.

The index shows a fall of 1.4% in the average premiums over the last three months to £747.75. The fall isn’t that great, but it’s a turn towards the right direction and represents a saving of around £10 per policy, which incidentally is the same amount we donate to charity if you take out a policy after using our price comparison service.

The survey also found that over the last year there’s been a fall of 4.1%, which represents an average saving of around £30. Enough to buy the bottle of champagne to celebrate your lower premiums!

Insurance premiums had been rising for various reasons, but one of the main causes was the rise of personal injury claims against drivers. But despite a continuation of claims from personal injury we’re still seeing a downward trend.

The reason is likely to be due to the legislation that came into force on the 1st of April limiting these claims. Insurers are predicting the impact of this over the next year will cut their costs. The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 will change how the personal injury market works by banning referral fees. This should help end the common place calls by marketers asking if you’ve been injured, and should reduce claims against motorists.

In recent years there’s been much controversy about no-win, no-fee whiplash lawsuits where the injury is hard to prove or disprove. Some companies have been encouraging those involved in crashes to claim whiplash in order to get a payout from the insurance company of the driver at fault. The number of unscrupulous companies doing this is thankfully likely to fall as a result of these changes, which should reduce premiums for everyone.

The biggest change to insurance recently was the ban on insurers taking gender into account. This has meant that for women, especially young women, premiums are considerably higher than they used to be even if the overall trend is down.

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Insurance rates as it stands

A new survey has shown that in the third quarter of 2012, comprehensive car insurance premiums fell at a record rate. Car insurance price index from confused.com and Towers Watson recorded an average fall in rates of 5.1% between July and September – the steepest reduction since research started in 2007.

As a result of this, rates have dipped by 10.3% in the last 12 months. At the end of September, the average comprehensive premium in the UK stood at £757 – a drop of £87 in the last year. In addition, for the first time since 2007, the annual price movements for 3rd party, fire and theft cover also became negative, falling by an average of 2.1% (24%) over the last 12 months.

The largest portion of price reductions was accounted for by young drivers – specifically females. Comprehensive rates for all 17–20 year olds have fallen by 13.6% in the past year. Females in this age group having seen average decreases of 17.3%. This was significantly aided by a 9.1% drop in the third quarter.

Duncan Anderson, Towers Watson’s global pricing and product management leader states that price decreases of this order signify jostling for position amongst insurers due to the implementation of EU gender ruling from 21st December 2012.

Having won more ‘young driver’ business, they will seek to retain profitable segments by substituting other factors for gender and minimising the impact of the future price rises that are anticipated to affect many women in 2013. 

Shockingly, almost half of drivers would still lend their car to a friend, knowing they’re not insured. When this happens, both parties are committing the offense and could land themselves a fine of up to £5,000 and up to 8 points on your license, or in severe cases, even a full ban.

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Tracker insurance information

Tracker insurance can help young drivers reduce the cost of their annual motor cover premium, but the various companies use this new technology, known as telematics, quite differently from one another and this is causing confusion among new motorists.

Telematics technology, contained in a small box fitted to the insured's vehicle, monitors an individual's driving habits and allows them to prove to their insurance company that they are a safe and responsible driver.

By reviewing the data collected from their car journeys, motorists can alter negative driving behaviour to become even safer on the roads.

However, one insurer using telematics technology is also letting the young driver's parents view the data results.

Under this company's proposal, drivers who stay in the "green" zone will not receive any correspondence from the insurer, whereas drivers who enter the "red" zone will receive a written warning along with their parents – any driver receiving two warnings within a month face the possibility of a maximum of £400 additional charge being levied.

The founder of the company states, "Youngsters may be wary of [the technology] because it could be seen as a spying eye – a sort of 'black box' which records their every move."

For those new drivers who wish to improve their driving with a telematics device, but who don't want to be punished for mistakes or have results shared with parents, there are companies who accommodate these individuals.

Some tracker car insurance providers, such as insurethebox, offer data to help new motorists drive more safely, but do not directly penalise them for negative driving behaviour and do not send collected data to their guardians.

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Interesting fact about insurance companies

It is well known that married couples often receive better rates with insurance companies when both partners are on the same policy and this can be up to a fifth off the price of the premium. Research has shown that married couples do drive more safely.

However, it seems there is still a big discrepancy when it comes to couples who are in civil partnerships of the same sex insuring on the same policy.

Women in civil partnerships were more likely to be offered the reduced motor insurance premiums, but nonetheless almost two thirds of companies did not recognise the partnerships. If both members of the civil partnership were men then the premium would be slightly higher, the reason for this is that, in general, male drivers are considered to be a higher risk.

Those that did recognise civil partnerships offered an average of around 12 per cent motor insurance discount to women, compared to an average of around ten per cent discount for men.

Motor insurance brokers have revealed that only around one fifth of men in civic partnerships were offered the reduced motor insurance quotes offered to married couples as lower risk drivers.

Brokers estimate that these are the same figures as for heterosexual couples but say that they have as yet been unable to compare data.

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