Top 5 Tips to reduce your car insurance premium
27/5/2008 by Dara Walsh
First car? Or just feeling the pinch of rising oil prices & interest rates? Looking to save some money somewhere. Well if you currently are a car driver, maybe its time to look at ways to reduce one of your biggest outlays every year. Here are some of our top tips to reduce your car insurance bill.
1. The type of car you own
Don't buy a 'hot hatch' or modified car or at the same time a luxury car or a car with an larger engine (e.g. 1.5 Litre or more). These types of car are usually more expensive to insure, especially for young male drivers. Our first tip would be to buy a car with a smaller engine size, is of a standard model and with no modifications. A good bet would be to go for a three or five door hatchback in with a 1 Litre engine capacity.
2. Don't be bold!!
Act smart, drive carefuly and most of all avoid penalty points and convictions. Any points or convictions relating to dangerous driving will influence your premium for sure. Never ever drink and drive or speed. If you keep accident and claims free for the duration of the cover, when you renew your insurance you will be entitled to a 'No Claims Bonus' discount for the previous year of safe driving. Do the pass plus driving training (www.passplus.org.uk) as most insurers offer a discount to customers who successfully complete the training.
3. Only insure yourself to drive
When getting your car insurance quote, limit the insurance cover to you and don't add any named drivers if at all possible. If you add named drivers this increases the risk on your policy and could push your premium higher.
4. Your car valuation
During the car insurance quote process, you will be asked for the value of your car. A lower valuedr car is likely to be cheaper to insure. Don't go for the newest, fanciest and most expensive car you could buy. Save money on the price you pay as well. Also high value, flashy cars are considered a high risk by insurers. A good 2nd hand car that's under £3,000 would be a good place to start. We have listed on this site an up to date listing of cars from Ebay motors which may help your reduce your premium. The cars listed are all under £3,000 and with 1 Litre Engines. Check out these cars here.
5. Level of cover
Go for the third party fire and theft cover. Third party cover is the minimum level of cover you need to have to legally drive on the UK roads. This type of cover will protect you against damage to other people's property or injury you may cause to them. Third party fire and theft also covers you for loss or damage caused by fire or theft to your own vehicle. It does'nt cover any accidental damage you may cause to your own vehicle. Comprehensive cover is generally more expensive, but the advantage is that in addition to what's covered by third party fire & theft, it protects you for accidental damage to your own vehicle. All the above are obviously subject to the terms and conditions of your insurance policy and may vary slightly from insurer to insuer so be sure to read the detail!
Shop Around!
Car insurance is one of those necessary expenses every year if you want the luxury of owning and runing a car. However it doesn't have to be unecessarily expensive. Our last word of advice is to shop around for a cheaper premium every year and you stand a good chance of finding a cheaper policy every year.
Also remember that driving with no insurance is illegal. if you are in an accident that is your fault, you will have no protection against the unlimited cost involved, not to mention the legal ramifications of not having any insurance cover.
So check out our car insurance price comparisson to search for the cheapest level of cover out there!