Many of us overpay for car insurance quotes and we spend a large amount of time searching for cheaper car insurance. One of the most popular car insurance quotes comparison websites confused.com provides a car insurance price index that provides an analysis of car insurance pricing in the UK. According to the index, insurance price has risen by 14% in the period from 2016 to 2017. The analysis reveals another insight – if you live in Great Britain you can get cheaper car insurance than if you would live in Scotland, as well as the older you are, the cheaper car insurance quotes you can get. These and other factors (listed below) affect car insurance premiums.
Factors Affecting Car Insurance Quotes
Car insurance quotes are calculated by formula where certain factors more or less can affect your insurance price. The main factors which can contribute to cheaper car insurance (or more expensive) are:
- Age. Generally speaking, the younger you are, the less driving experience you have. That is why young drivers, typically aged between 17-25 years old have to pay a higher cost for their car insurance than drivers older than 25 years old.
- Occupation. Some jobs require using a car for work purposes, meaning that a person would be on the road more often and therefore is more likely to get into an accident.
- Type of car. Let’s put it simply – the fancier your car, the more you will be asked to pay for insurance. New, expensive, powerful, and customized cars are more likely to be stolen as well as be involved in an expensive car accident. It would cost huge amounts for the insurer to replace/repair such an expensive car.
- Your address. Some areas have higher crime/accident risk than others (especially build-up areas), so your postcode matters a lot.
- Where you keep it. Common sense says that cars would be more secure if kept in a private garage, private yard, or safe car park than on the road.
- Purpose of having a car. If you use your car every day for getting to/from work, your insurance could be higher than if you would use the car on weekends only.
- Annual mileage. The logic is simple – the more you drive, the more likely you’ll get into an accident.
- Points & no claim bonus. If you have no driving offenses and have some no claim bonuses, your car insurance should be cheaper.
- Excess. On one hand, insurers like when people are willing to pay voluntary excess since it reduces insurer’s costs. On the other hand, if you would put too much on your excess, it might seem suspicious, so you’ll need to play with numbers at some point.
- Type of insurance. There are three types of insurance – comprehensive is usually the most expensive while the third party only – the cheapest.
These are the major factors affecting your car insurance price according to confused.com. Other car insurance comparison sites provide the same or very similar lists. However, we all understand that we cannot do anything about the majority of these factors: you cannot change your age, the car you have at the moment, postcode, or driving offenses – so what should you do if you are in the situation where you are paying way too much than you think you should?
Here are some secrets which can make your insurance cheaper:
5 Secrets Of Cheaper Car Insurance
- Renew it early. Another price comparison website comparethemarket.com has found that you can save money by renewing your insurance earlier than on the last day. Their research has found that car insurance prices tend to get higher on the last day of the old insurance policy. In comparison, those drivers who renew their policies 3 weeks ago saved an average of £326 per policy. The reason for such savings is that insurers have more time to compete on price and it’s assumed that driver has more time to search for cheaper car insurance.
- Use the right job title. You would be surprised how much words matter when making a quote for car insurance. Although you cannot change your postcode or age, here you are way more flexible to play with words. Music teachers would pay £86 more than teachers and Chefs would pay £98 more than kitchen staff (source). So try several variations of your job title until you get the best car insurance quote.
- Pay in advance. Well it is not a secret, but you will save money when paying the whole amount at once instead of dividing payments monthly. The trick here is to save money in advance so that on the day of renewal it won’t hurt your pocket too much.
- Get some Cashback. All these popular websites which you usually find at the first results of google earn money when you get insurance through them since they get a referral fee. You can take this money for yourself. Topcashback.co.uk offers up to £70 for switching via them.
- Increase your excess. Your excess is another field to play around with. Increase your excess until you’ll get the cheapest car insurance quote. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Just make sure you have the amount of money to pay if you would are in an accident and need to claim.
Car Insurance Price Comparison Websites In The UK
AXAINSURANCE.COM
COMPARETHEMARKET.COM
CONFUSED.COM
GOCOMPARE.COM
MONEY.CO.UK
MONEYEXPERT.CO.UK
MONEYSUPERMARKET.COM
MUSTARD.CO.UK
MYCHEAPINSURANCE.CO.UK
QUOTEZONE.CO.UK
Q4.CO.UK
RAC.CO.UK
USWITCH.COM
