I have recently been shopping around trying to find the best policy for my motorcar, and I thought I'd share some of the tips that I've picked up along the way, in the hope it can help someone else save a bit of money.
The best place to start, when looking to get your car insurance premium down, is to shop around. Of course, it's obvious, but each company looks at every potential risk and puts their own multiplier onto it, which can mean wildly varying quote prices. There are plenty of comparison sites out there, so get signed up to Confused, Comparethemarket, Gocompare and any others worth trying. Each company uses actuaries to evaluate the risk multiplier for each situation, and of course they cannot be perfect.. so that's where you can take advantage, and get a better quote from one to the other.
One thing I've noticed, is that the comparison sites seem to take different levels of commission. For example, Confused always has a cheaper premium by around £10. I believe this is because the others take a larger cut. So, even though these comparison sites are checking the same companies.. they also can vary on price. Go and test this for yourselves, and you will see what I mean.
Another thing worth bearing in mind is the incentives that these various comparison sites offer you. At the time of writing, Confused are offering a whopping 1,000 nectar points to anyone who takes an insurance policy out with them. This doesn't make a huge deal of difference on a £900 insurance policy, but it does sweeten the deal a little bit.. especially when they are already the cheapest.. as they were for me.
Combine Vehicles onto one policy. Most insurers will give you an approximate 20% discount for adding multiple vehicles to your policy with them.. anything over 2. Think about your situation.. do you and your wife / husband have separate policies? Yes? Well then, you are throwing money away. This can even be extended to room mates / house sharers. As long as the vehicles are registered to the same address, there is usually no problem is sharing a policy.
Applying discounts you are eligible for can bring about significant savings. For example, you are deemed lower risk if you have a roadside recovery policy.. you may be a more conscientious road user I guess. There are discounts on offer for your job, where you live, where you keep the car over night, your education and many other variants. If you are serious about saving some money on your car insurance and bringing the cost of your policy down, then you have to look at these options within the quote forms.
Get lucky Sometimes you just get lucky with a quote. The more companies you try, the more likely it is to happen. It's not the most scientific of approaches... but it can work. Keep comparing! And good luck.
