Tips for cheaper car insurence ?

simon06

Other than the usual doing quotes on well none insurance comparison sites what else can be done to find the cheapest quote ?

The reason i ask this is im finding bloody expensive to get insurance for a 10 yr 1.2l car worth about 850GBP im a late 20s guy with no claims or else held license for 5 yrs and getting yearly quotes of around 1000GBP cheapest i found which is nearly 40% more than i paid when i first starting driving on the same car about 4 yrs ago which is crazy.

jhe

could you add a named older driver with good driving history it can bring price down, fully comp can be cheaper than third party. if you up your excess it should bring the price down. my 20 year old has just insured with cis. has been with churchill for a few years but this year (he has an open claim) churchill quoted £4600 cis Quoted £2200 still expensive but half the price of churchill and comparison sites

lisyloo

Try adding named drivers (pref mature with clean record).

You could try some of the "box" companies like ikube, coverbox, insure the box. Be aware of the restrictions and that your driving might be monitored.

Capelgal

Probably best to add a lady with a good record on to your Insurance. Cut down your expected mileage, with fuel costs being so high most people will be cutting down anyway, sometimes it is cheaper to get fully comp rather than third party. Also if you have a certain job or career they load that sometimes, such as turf accountant or disc jockey,footballer etc., If for example you do two jobs choose the safer sounding one! I believe there is a list online.

mikey72

I think this post covers it all really, maybe increase the excess to £1000 or whatever the insurers maximum is, if it's a cheap car like ours (£400).

pixie_girl wrote: »

Its a tough one, I am 26 and have just passed, also live in London and the best quotes I can get for a modern car is around £1000*, far more than my car will be worth.

Having never driven before, my partner doesn't drive nor does anyone in my family I have found it hard to understand the weird world of motoring and insurance. Insurance especially seems nonsensical.

After many hours searching I have some tips though:
- As people have already said some cars are more expensive to insure than others, for example I have found that a 1.3 ford fiesta is much cheaper than a 900cc of other car makes. I look on autotrader and type in license plates I see and get quotes write a list of 'cheap to insure' cars and look in your local area.

It doesn't always make sense. Try everything. A smart car (you would think small engine, small car etc) cheap to insure - definitely not! Double the quote I get for other cars.:eek:

- Consider your milege - do you NEED 6000+ miles? A friend of mine after only 1 year of driving (male under 25) has a 2.5l engine sporty car (no idea whats its called) but he has the milege limited to 3000 miles pa. He has to send off his milege to the insurer every month. His insurance is only £700pa

-The same person above used a local insurance firm whose actuaries
properly worked out the risk - this can make it cheaper.

-Where is it parked? Roadside garage etc can make a difference

-Consider a security device. Work out the cost of the device+drop in premiums, plus the cost of the car. For me it was a false economy, but for a higher priced car it may be worth it.

-Wait a bit. Doesn't make sense but don't drive for 6 months (but you have held your license for that time) premiums drop. Doesn't make sense but it works!

-I have been told go to sites like gocompare, but then ring up the insurer direct, you often get cheaper quotes. (Haven't actually tried this one though).

-Classic cars are much, much cheaper (although check the policy VERY carefully some have a age limit). I have tried to drive a Morris Minor, great fun but completely different to modern cars, consider the driving differences (may not get to 70), the fact that the cars themselves are more expensive, sometimes more unreliable, need more maintenance and the safety ratings are quite low.
I ultimately decided that I would get a few years of driving experience/ experience helping fix others cars first before I went down that route.

-Don't choose 3rd party only it is nearly always more expensive than TPFT (again doesn't make sense). Fully comp can also be cheaper although the excess will then rise.

- Area- although I would imagine that you can't help where you live. Out of interest I put in a friends address and my families, one increased by a third, one dropped it by a third. ** Maybe if you are renting and the lease is going anyway pop in a few postcodes of where you might want to live and see if that changes anything.

As much as the insurance puts you off, remember once you start earning your no claims it should go down. Plus the extra freedom it gives you and the ability to get jobs that say must have a driving license

*yes I know bloody women etc etc
** DO NOT LIE about where you live, you will not be able to make a claim and may get in trouble for fraud. I just was interested to see how they work out the final figure, I did a science degree so I want to know how EVERYTHING works perhaps I will show the potential impact of each factor and put it in a chart to bore people hehehe

smartsaver2011

Try a broker also. Thing is believe it or not but when you do a quote online if you enter a vehicle value of £850 some insurers will quote more or won't quote as the underwriters believe you don't care for your cars value and therefore are more likely to cause an accident, even if you dont claim. Comprehensive may be cheaper as cars get older the cover depreciates and maybe less than TPFT or only £20.00 more. Increase the excess maybe but be carefull!...Most online comparison websites have a VOLUNTRY excess which means you add this to the compulsary so don't get caught out. Read T&C's, there is one insurer who promotes high excesses such as £1000-£3000 but they will want you to pay this irrespective if you have a fault or non-fault claim. Try adding a named driver, can you park it on the drive or garage?, And keep looking xxxx

kaya

saying your car was parked on a driveway used to bring premiums down, some companies actually load policy's more if you park on the driveway than if you park on the roadside nowdays, if its on your driveway the scroats know which home to break into to get your keys, which is the way most cars get stolen now

also worth noting with price comparison websites is thet one will have a better deal through a particular insurer than the other, they all get different rates and deals

analyst_2

I made a seemingly insane discovery last week using MoneySupermarket comparison site.

I had put in a voluntary additional excess of £100 but after fiddling about with other options I chose to reset the excess to £0 and found it brought the quoted insurance premium DOWN.

This was on Hastings Direct, the lowest quote for me.

Surprised, I re-checked this a few times, changing now't but the additional excess and every time it brought the premium down. So you get a lower premium if you pay less excess - great! :T

I'd be interested to know if anyone else tried this, as I find it hard to imagine I'd be the first.

And can anyone offer an explanation for it, apart from it just being an odd quirk.

As it happens, I used that quote to bring down my Saga renewal on their price guarantee

bikez

Strange days indeed - I did some alterations to an insurance quote and found a cheaper quote by INCREASING the annual mileage