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How to fight back against the rising costs of car insurance

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One of the biggest concerns for motorists at the moment is the fact that car insurance premiums are constantly increasing – even for those who consider themselves to be careful drivers. So how can people manage to keep up with these ever-rising costs and manage to stay on the road?

This is a question that certainly deserves some attention, although there is no quick fix answer.

It is becoming increasingly trickier every year to work out what insurers see as their greatest risks when calculating premiums. As the price will differ between each provider, it does take some careful thought and a certain amount of research to settle on the best deal for your individual situation.

Haggling with your insurer

The very least any driver should do is contact their current insurer to discuss their upcoming renewal price. Even if it cannot be reduced, maybe an extra incentive could be included within the premium?

Shopping around is worthwhile

Don’t settle for the premium you are offered to renew automatically. Check out the current market prices, even if you do have your heart set on making things as simple as possible. Remember, your insurer won’t make it easy for you to go with someone else, so it is up to you to do the legwork.

Try comparison sites

Of course, here at Carinsurancequotes.uk.com we would be wanting to champion our own website, but we genuinely want our customers to benefit from the best prices on the market. By using these tools, you only have to fill in a form once and we can provide you with a range of car insurance quotes to match your circumstances.

This can give you a better idea of the premiums offered by the leading insurers, and even if you do want to go directly to some of those not featured on such comparison websites, you are free to check those out as well.

So far, we have suggested the most effective ways of getting the full picture with regards to your car insurance, we will now go through some of the finer details of choosing a policy and keeping the costs down.

Have a named driver on the policy

It should never be presumed that a premium is calculated in a certain way. As we have already explained, some factors may affect the total price offered by one provider, while others might not carry as much weight. However, having a named driver on the policy could result in a lower premium. This all depends on the person being included on the cover and their driving characteristics. It is not as complicated as it seems, but you just need to think about their habits. For instance, are penalty points likely to become an issue? If this did happen, would they make you or the insurer aware of these misdemeanours?

If they were unlikely to tell you these kinds of things, it could invalidate your insurance and so make the cost savings redundant. One thing you need to be aware of is that the main driver should never be put down as a second named driver, just to drive the price down. Again, this would certainly affect your insurance and so it always pays to be as honest as you possibly can when completing a quote form.

How insuring for less can often end up costing more

This may sound like a strange thing to say, but opting for third party cover or fire and theft rather than comprehensive insurance can end up being more expensive in the long term. Insurers have been said to view those customers choosing the lowest form of cover and the cheapest car insurance as being more careless with their driving. They have been known to factor this into their pricing structure.

What the new gender equality rule means for all motorists

The gender equalisation ruling by the European Court of Justice, which came into effect at the end of last year, will only now be apparent to female motorists who have not had to buy a policy since early 2012. Men can now swap their insurance mid-term, with premiums made equal to both genders. However, there will still be penalty charges for those hoping to be released from their insurance early.

What’s in a job title?

Apparently a lot, according to some insurers. This is because some job descriptions have far-reaching implications as far as a positive or negative perception of a driver is concerned. For example, a ‘writer’ may be preferable to ‘journalist’, with ‘landlord’ usurping ‘publican’. Those who are unemployed are more likely to have to pay more, in some form of ‘kick them while they’re down’ principle.

Where do you keep your car?

You may have heard this before, but where you keep your car can affect the premium too. A private drive, garage or carport is often more preferable than parking the car on the road. Rural locations are also seen in a better light than inner-city areas, with double the premium in some cases. Students will have to think very carefully about where they leave their car as the postcode could make a lot of difference to the price.

Expect car value and engine size to be factored in

The premium you can expect to pay will also take into account the value of the vehicle and its capabilities, so the higher the insurance grouping, the greater the risk you pose to insurance companies.

Other things to consider

When it comes to insurance, it is true that if you have modified your vehicle in any way, this could prove to be expensive.

If you decide to look for ways of making the vehicle more secure, such as with an alarm, immobiliser or tracker, you need to ensure it is a recognised and accredited product. Otherwise you will be unable to legitimately include this in your favour.

By going for a higher excess, even though it means that should you ever need to make a claim, you will be expected to pay this before you are due any pay-out.

Only insure yourself for miles you’ll actually drive, so it can be worth calculating this figure accurately and working out whether you actually need to drive so many miles.

The quality of the motorist is what concerns insurers and you can better demonstrate your trustworthiness by considering having vehicle telematics installed in your car. This little black box takes into account how you drive, including breaking speed, acceleration, speed time and cornering. The data collected is used to measure performance and the AA have revealed that this could help to reduce a driver’s premium by up to 50 per cent in their first year. However, this is really only for mega confident drivers!

Driving safely and keeping to the rules of the road will ensure you don’t commit motoring offences and in turn means your premium costs won’t be affected, so bear this in mind.

Those with a substantial no claims discount built up over the years should think carefully about protecting it. This is so that the percentage discount applicable on the premium is secured in the event of a claim, although you would still notice a rise in the insurance cover.


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