Save money on your Car Insurance TODAY!
The cost of car insurance is rising year on year and it is becoming increasingly more difficult to find the money to run a car. With the average driver now facing an annual premium of ?533 and drivers under the age of 25 paying more than ?1000 for their cover it is a wonder that any of us still drive.
We would all like to save a bit of money wherever we can so here are our top tips to help you save money on your car insurance TODAY!
?1. ADD A SECOND DRIVER.
By adding a second driver, particularly one with a good driving record, to your policy the average risk decreases and this may reduce your premium. Even if the second driver won’t be using the car very often it is perfectly legal to add them. You must, however, be careful and should NEVER consider adding yourself as the main driver to someone else’s car. This is referred to as ‘fronting’ and is fraud. If you were to make a claim, it would be checked up on and the insurance would become invalidated, which can lead to prosecution.
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2. REDUCE YOUR MILEAGE.
Not only will this decrease your carbon footprint, scoring you points on the environmentally friendly front, but if you are able to lower your annual mileage it will lower your premium. It’s not always easy to do this, particularly if you use your car to get to work, but others will be in the same situation so think about forming a car pool where you share the driving between a group of you. Or consider whether you really do need to use your car, could you get the bus or the train? The less miles you drive the less chance you are of being involved in an accident and this in turn will lower your premium. Just remember, honesty truly is the best policy and if you are dishonest about your annual mileage and you go to make a claim it is highly likely your insurance will be invalidated.? Most online car insurance companies offer calculators to help you work out how many miles you roughly do in a year.
3. THINK ABOUT YOUR JOB TITLE.
It may seem such a simple thing, but thinking about how you word your job title can make a big difference on how your policy is worked out.? Insurers aren’t keen on certain job titles; journalists, estate agents, sales reps and entertainers are all on their blacklist. You needn’t lie about what it is you do, but there are small tweaks you can make to your job title that can make a difference. For example, a “journalist” might pay ?600 for car insurance, but if she lists herself as an “editor” the premium is ?576. This handy website http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/car-insurance-job-picker/ allows you to search an occupation and lists varying job titles in that sector with the respective premiums that each may be charged.
4. DON’T AUTOMATICALLY RENEW EACH YEAR.
You have been with the same car insurance company for a few years, they’ve provided good customer service and it just seems easier to stay with them and automatically renew each year. That’s all well and good, but it is not going to save you any money. Car insurance companies are all desperate to get new customers and will therefore offer them the best deals they can, usually to the detriment of they’re existing policy holders.? Loyalty means absolutely nothing to them and the only one losing out on the best deals is you! It can even be worth applying to your existing insurance company as a new customer, this way you will see how much they were planning on over charging and in some instances it may be up to as much as double the price! The most effective way to search for the best deals is to go online and use some of the many comparison websites out there. Martin Lewis of moneysavingexpert.com advises that you start your search with moneysupermarket.com first (he says that gives you 48% of the total insurers and brokers). Then go on to try confused.com, comparethemarket.com, tescocompare.com, followed by uswitch.com and gocompare.com.
5. CHOOSE YOUR CAR WITH CARE.
It goes without saying that if you choose to drive a flashy, pimped up car then expect to pay a higher price on your car insurance. Insurers divide cars into 50 groups according to factors relating to their engine size and the likely cost of repairs. The higher the insurance group, the higher the premium. If you have added anything onto the car such as spoilers or fancy wheels etc it will without doubt increase your premium. These things all make a car stand out and arguably increase it’s chance of being stolen. Not only that, but the drivers associated with these sorts of cars fall into the high risk category that insurers will charge more for. However, if you add on security devices, such as an alarm or an immobilser, particularly ones that have been approved by Thatcham (The Thatcham Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre) this will lower your premium.
