Monday, March 4, 2013

Common Approaches to Finding Good Value Car Insurance

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.

Friday, March 1, 2013

Car Insurance Cost Cutters - Top 5 Tips Revealed

Are you looking for reliable ways to cut your car insurance premiums without exposing yourself to too much risk? You'll be happy to know that it is very easy to reduce vehicle insurance if you take the trouble to discuss the issue with your insurer. The following tips are the most popular ones that vehicle owners use to save quite a bit of money:

1. Don't take comprehensive insurance because you might not end up using it at all. Most vehicle owners do very well with the basic insurance policy available because car accidents do not always happen (unless one is a really bad driver). Be sure to find out what the minimum insurance requirement is for your state before you take out a policy. A liability policy is generally the basic requirement for vehicle owners. It is a fact that insurance companies make a lot of money because most of their customers are over insured.

2. Make sure that you are not being billed for services. At the very least, you should be able to get these charges reduces if they cannot be written off entirely. The only way that you'll find out about these charges and fees is if you get a detailed breakup of the offer made to you. In fact, you should compare breakups of more than one offer in order to have a good idea about how they stand.

3. Maintain a good credit rating at all times. You'll be very surprised to learn that your credit score is sometimes taken into account when an insurance quote is offered.

4. Ask your insurer for a yearly policy instead of a 6-month one. Taking a 6-month policy is costly in the long term even though you pay less money in the short term. It is therefore better to budget for the annual payment which works out less on a monthly basis.

5. Be a tough negotiator with your insurance company representative. Be aware of the fact that the insurer has budgeted for a discount and will pocket the difference as profits if you do not ask for it.

Your insurance payments will become a lot easier to deal with as long as you put in the necessary effort to get a good offer from your insurer, without compromising on the quality of service you receive. It is very easy to get discounts on car insurance if you follow the tips given above.