Car Insurance Tips

Car Insurance is a requirement by law that all drivers must have. There are many companies that offer car insurance so in order to obtain the best deal; drivers are advised to do the following:

Shop around – As there are a large number of car insurance companies, it is best to look around the market and obtain a quote from each one. It is surprising how varied the prices actually are. By doing this, you will be able to obtain the best quote for your needs. What one insurance company considers as a high risk factor, one of the other companies may not. A car insurance company will work out the quote for you adding or subtracting money in relation to each answer you reply to their questions. Each insurance company will have its own regulations as to what they think should increase or decrease your insurance premium. By browsing the market you will get a better selection of prices to compare.

Purchase a lower group car – A very important factor which insurance companies look at is of course your type of vehicle. There are a great number of different types of cars on the road therefore, insurance companies will divide them into insurance groups. A lot of companies will use the Association of British Insurers group ranking. This will split vehicles into 20 assorted groups. Basically speaking the higher the insurance group rating for the vehicle, the higher the premium will be. A few companies will also combine the driving experience of the insured along with the vehicle group. This will help them to get a better understanding of how high the risk is. Because of this method, it is very advisable for a young driver to consider purchasing a lower insurance group car if they want to have a low insurance premium.

Consider Third Party Only cover – These types of policies are the minimum amount of insurance cover which is legally required and it is also the cheapest. If the vehicle is of a low value, then this type of insurance is more suited. In the event of having a car accident, any damage which is caused to a third party vehicle is covered but your vehicle is not.

Maintain a good credit rating – A lot more insurance companies are using the credit scoring method as part of their total calculation of the car insurance premium. If the insured driver keeps a good credit history they may be able to avoid an additional premium which could be added onto the insurance price for having bad credit.

Buy on the web – As there are so many insurance companies available nowadays, a lot of them advertise on the web. If you purchase your insurance using the internet method, then you may receive some good discounts. The theory is that by buying your insurance on the internet, you are actually saving the insurance company money as they do not need telesales staff etc… This saving from there overheads is passed on to the customers in the appearance of a discount.

Have a higher voluntary excess - During an insurance quotation process the insured will be asked the amount of voluntary excess that they want. Insurance companies will normally include a required excess sum on the policy but let the insured increase it if they wish. The higher the voluntary excess the less their premium should be. Although, in the occurrence of a claim, they will need to pay a higher amount themselves, up to the whole amount of excess on their policy.

Reduce your annual mileage – The amount of miles a driver does in a year will affect their insurance premium. The more miles they do the higher their premium will be.

Keep a clean driving record - Insurance companies take all driving convictions very seriously and it is normally an important part of their evaluation process. If the driver has a driving conviction, they can expect to pay a higher premium.

Keep claim free - The biggest point that affects the cost of a car insurance premium is the total amount of No Claims Bonus Years the driver has. A full No Claims Bonus is basically considered by a lot of companies to be around five years or more. By having this, the driver can get large discounts, in some cases around 75%. For each additional No Claims Bonus year the insured has, the lower their car insurance cost will be. Quite a few companies are now even giving the option of the driver paying a little extra on their premium in order to protect their No Claims Bonus.