During the last few years, the average cheap car insurance premium has virtually been at a stand still. The reason is price competition. There are now over 100 cheap car insurance companies fighting for your business and competition is fierce. There are always bargains to be found as companies cheap car insurance cut their premiums to attract motorists in the hope you’ll remain loyal and stick with them in following years. Indeed, every year, 23% of us renew our motor insurance with our existing insurer.
But in recent years the Internet has created a revolution in the marketing of cheap car insurance. It makes shopping around so easy without the need to make loads of phone calls and without spending time threading yourself through the automated phone systems beloved by so many call centres.
But you’d be wise to remember that the lowest premium is not always the best. For example, some insurers have recently pushed up the level of claims excess they want you to pay as this helps them provide you with a much lower quote. You should also check out whether a courtesy car is provided if your car is in for repair. You might also feel you want legal insurance cover cheap car insurance and automatic windscreen replacement. An accident helpline can also very useful in the middle of an emergency! You’ll need to phone the broker or insurance company you’re thinking of dealing with in order to check out these points.
17 Top Tips for cheaper cheap car insurance
Get your online quotes through cheap car insurance brokers. Their computer systems will search for the best quotes from 40 or more car insurers and save you lots of time. When you’ve got their cheapest quote, phone them to discuss the relative merits of the cheapest quotes they found.
Garage your car at night. Insurance companies know that a car left on the road at night is much more vulnerable to theft and damage. If you don’t have a garage, if possible keep it on your drive.
Update the estimate of your mileage each year. If you’ve moved home or changed your job you may have shorter commuting journeys. If so, your premiums should be less.
Your premium can be influenced by your job. Landlords, journalists, and professional footballers to name but a few, all pay more! Go for a job that’s a bit more boring! Accountants and civil servants pay less!
Getting married could save money on your cheap car insurance, particularly if you’re male and under 30.
If you’re under 25, add an older experienced driver with a good riving record onto your policy as a named driver. But don’t let him be too old! – premiums start rising again after age 60!
Consider paying a higher accident excess. The average excess is about £100. If you are prepared to increase you claims excess, your premium will fall significantly.
If you have cheap or old car, consider buying just 3 rd Party cover. Get quotes for 3 rd Party and comprehensive insurance and weigh up the savings.
Are you aged between 18 and 21? Then consider pay as you go insurance. Norwich Union has recently introduced the first pay as you go cheap car insurance policy, which charges you exactly for the miles you drive. It also charges more for the miles you drive between 11 and 6 at night. The system works through a Global Positioning System which is fitted to your car for a one off fee of £199. The GPS black box tells Norwich Union how many miles the car’s been driven and they send you an monthly invoice.
A new driver? Spruce up your driving technique by taking some more driving lessons. New drivers can slash their insurance costs by as much as 35% by taking Pass Plus lessons. These give you extra training for driving in rush hour traffic, motorway driving and night driving. Lessons cost between £15 and £30 per hour. (https://booksg.com/index.php/health-and-fitness/an-add-case-study-what-does-it-mean-to-fail). You can also reduce your premium if you’ve taken a course with the Institute of Advanced Motorists (www.iam.org.uk).
Buying a new car? Then check out the insurance group before you buy. Cars fall into one of 20 insurance groups with 1 being the cheapest and 20 the most expensive. If the proposed insurance premium is too high, chose a car that’s in a lower group.
High spec and performance cars attract thieves and are more expensive to repair – so they always cost more to insure. Consider something with a little less voroom!
It’s hard we know but try hard not to speed! Most insurance companies will ignore one fixed penalty fine but get more and your premium will rise.
Got 4 or more years no claims discount? Pay the extra get the discount protected.
Fit a satellite navigation system. Some cheap car insurance companies have noticed that sat nav cuts the accident rate by letting drivers concentrate on the road. Insurers will soon be giving discounts if you have it fitted.
Get a engine immobiliser or alarm fitted. It could save you between 5-8%.
Got more than one car in the home? Some insurers will give a discount for insuring them all in one policy.
Cheap car insurance Legal Expense Cover – The Policy Essential
Like many people buying cheap car insurance, you shop around and buy online. You’ve found a really good, cost-efficient deal. So when it comes to the final checkout, do you choose to tick Yes or No in that Legal Expenses Cover box? It will add a little more to the total, and it’s not an absolute requirement, so you may be tempted to leave it out. Not least because it’s definitely not the most well-known part of insurance! It is, however, something we think you really should consider adding if it’s not in the policy as standard. And here’s an example of why:
Earlier in the year Jake, one of our freelance writers, was involved in a car accident. His Golf Mark I is his pride and joy, and he’s spent many happy weekends working on it. So naturally, he wanted total insurance coverage for every eventuality – even legal expenses.
This certainly proved to be the right decision after the accident. The car was hit from the rear, so some of the vehicle damage could be fixed. The commercial auto insurance quote company worked fast to deal with the claim. Unfortunately, Jake also suffered a broken wrist and some whiplash. If he hadn’t taken legal expenses cover, the bill for a solicitor to pursue his compensation claim would have been solely his responsibility. Fortunately, since he had the cover, Jake was able to get his compensation quickly. Working as a freelance writer, Jake doesn’t have the safety net of employer sick pay. Lost hours mean lost money. Jake was out of work for a month – and a month’s wages. With legal expenses cover, however, Jake was able to claim for loss of earnings and will receive compensation for them any day now.
The total cost of this peace of mind and earnings security? An extra £2 a month on his premium, surely a worthwhile investment for anyone’s money!
Fully comprehensive cheap car insurance ensures that your vehicle is well taken care of, but how about the driver? Jake’s accident was not his fault, but he had to spend a month off work. Without legal expenses cover, the cost of getting compensation would have fallen to him. With it, he was as well protected as his beloved car, and didn’t have to worry about being able to afford to make a claim.
Take another example of a typical accident: you are unharmed, but your car has to wait in the repair shop for two weeks while parts come in. Without replacement car hire as part of your commercial auto insurance quote deal, you will have to rely on public transport – not the reason you bought your own vehicle! With legal expense cover, you can use a hire car and know that your trouble and inconvenience will be compensated.
All you need to do when you claim on your legal expenses policy is to provide the accident details in the same way you normally would – all the paperwork will be taken care of for you. It’s possible that you may need to speak to your solicitor, or appear in the stand in the event of the case going to court, but you won’t ever have to pay any legal fees.
And the cost is low, sometimes even free. Admiral include it as standard. Most insurers do make a charge, but it averages around £20 a year – for example, More Than charge £17.85, and Budget add an extra £24. Consider the legal battles that have resulted from accident claims in the past – especially those where serious injuries and claims were involved. Compensation – and costs – can run into millions. No-one can doubt that in cases like these, legal expenses cover is a worthwhile addition to any policy.
So next time you buy cheap car insurance, make sure your policy includes legal expenses cover. Take it as an extra if it’s not part of the standard package. You’ll barely notice the extra cost, but you’ll certainly be aware of the benefits if you ever need it.
Cheap car insurance on Rentals
When it comes to cheap car insurance, there are a couple of traps you can fall into. The contracts are complicated and extremely difficult to understand, and that’s if you even have the time to read them. The fact is that most people don’t read insurance contracts and there is a significant information shortage when it comes to consumers and the contents of their own commercial auto insurance quote contracts.
One of the problems with this information gap is that it can lead to wasted money. Every time you rent a car you are asked what kind of insurance you would like. The options are generally to take none, which costs nothing, or you could cover liability insurance, which should cost about $10 per day. Then you have a variety of options to cover the rental cat itself, prices for which vary from company to company and state to state. The full coverage option, which includes liability, passengers, and the rental car usually, comes to about $25 to $30 a day. Most people genuinely don’t know what option they should be taking.
Liability
Liability insurance is the only commercial auto insurance quote you are required by law to take out. All the others are optional. That’s the first and most important thing to remember when you’re at the rental desk, and the total price for your two-week vacation car is quickly adding up and up. The other thing to know is that in many cases, you will be covered, to some extent by your existing cheap car insurance. You will have to check your insurance policy to make certain, but for the vast majority of drivers, they will have liability insurance by virtue of their own cheap car insurance, and this will carry over to the rental car.
It is however, unlikely that full or comprehensive coverage will carry over from your own cheap car insurance. This is because comprehensive insurance is calculated based on the value of your car. Insurers don’t want to be in a position where they set your policy based on your say, $15,000 vehicle, and then have to pay out when you crash a $40,000 rental. So your policy will state that only liability insurance is provided when you rent.
Credit Card Cover
You may still require no insurance from the rental company however. This is because many credit card companies, including both visa and MasterCard, offer this insurance if you pay for the rental with one of their cards. This is a major benefit of using a credit card and should not be wasted. Again you should check with your credit card provider what they cover, but the bottom line is, if your own insurance covers liability, and your credit card covers the rental car, why pay a couple of hundred dollars for extra insurance when you’re already covered?
If you are in doubt as to your insurance, it is wise however to take the rental company’s policy, especially liability.
Cheap car insurance Online Purchase – Some Benefits Of The Internet
Is it possible to purchase cheap car insurance online? Most folks are used to purchasing their cheap car insurance by leafing through a telephone book and calling local insurance agencies. When you call a local agency they usually request a copy of your current coverage in order to give you an accurate comparison as well as advice . This same process can happen with online quoting as well. The online quoting system will require you to post all pertinent insurance information to give you an accurate quote. You do more of the work but you are better informed when you complete the process.
Cheap car insurance Information Needed for Online Quoting
1. Expiration Date – The expiration date is critical because it proves that your insurance has not expired and that will qualify you for a preferred rate with most companies. If your insurance has expired then you may be underwritten into a substandard carrier and those rates are higher.
2. Driver Information – All resident relatives that have a driver’s license need to be rated on the policy. You will need to enter the name, date of birth, and driver’s license number.
3. Driving Record – Accidents and violations need to be disclosed to pre-qualify you for the insurance. This needs to be accurate because commercial auto insurance quote companies will find out about your driving record anyway. They check motor vehicle reports from your state as well as your prior carrier.
4. Vehicle Information – You will have to list each vehicle on the policy. You will need the vehicle identification number for each vehicle. That number will give the insurance company the pertinent information that it needs to discount the vehicle for air bags, anti-lock brakes and other safety features.
5. Current Coverage – Use your declarations page to list all of the coverage that you currently have on all vehicles. This will include liability limits, first party benefits and physical damage limits.
Cheap car insurance Policy – What To Know About Cheap car insurance Before You Shop
The cheap car insurance policy has a lot of legal language that most of us do not begin to understand. The essential parts of the car policy are found in the declarations page that you receive when your policy renews. Car insurers are always competing for each other’s policyholders. Every cheap car insurance company uses actuaries and underwriters to help determine the rates.
Rating Territory – Whether you like it or not, your neighbors and friends in your community help determine the rates in your area. These areas are called rating territories by the insurance companies. If there are high losses and frequency in your area then your rates are going to be higher. The opposite is also true.
home and auto insurance quote – Liability insurance protects you when you are liable in an automobile accident. This is valuable protection for you because this is the portion of the possible that insures you against the highest risk and financial loss. Liability claims because of death and injury are by far the largest. Don’t cut yourself short in this area.
Physical Damage Insurance – This portion of the cheap car insurance policy pertains to your vehicles. It is a good idea to self-insure in this area by purchasing this coverage with high deductibles. Low deductibles no longer warrant the high premiums for the protection afforded. High deductibles will save you thousands of dollars over the life time of a policy home and auto insurance quote.
Cheap car insurance Discounts – There a number of discounts in cheap car insurance, Vehicles with air bags, seat belts, anti-lock brakes, and anti-theft devices all have discounts. Senior drivers can receive retirement discounts. home and auto insurance quote Young drivers with driver training education receive discounts. Some companies give good student discounts for the young driver with a 3.0 grade point average.
It’s also important to have certain information available when shopping for cheap car insurance. The vehicle identification number for all home and auto insurance quote, the driver’s license number for all drivers, and your current insurance information will make your shopping easier.