Anyone with a car knows that they will need car insurance, but finding one that’s affordable if you’ve points or are a new driver can be quite a task these days. So here are a few tips to what’s what, and how you might be able to lower the amount that you pay for your car insurance.

The basic legal requirement is third party insurance, and this is the cheapest sort of policy as well. It will cover the cost of damage to another drivers vehicle, but it won’t cover you for most things that might happen to your car, or to you as a driver. You can add a ‘fire and theft’ part to a third party policy, which will then cover you if your car is burnt, or stolen, but again, it won’t cover the cost of repairing your car under any other circumstances. For your car to be covered for replacement or repair if it’s involved in an accident, you will need what’s called ‘fully comprehensive’ cover. It’s the most expensive, but it does cover so much more than third party or third party fire and theft, including things like damage to your car, and personal injury costs and sometimes even legal cover, that it’s the option that most of us go for.

Legal cover is something that you can usually choose to have or not have according to your desire, one thing I would say is that if you ever find yourself in a situation where another driver has caused an accident and they try to put the blame on you and it ends up in court then trust me you will want this cover, it means that the legal costs of going to court are met for you, and they can be quite substantial.

So, what are some ways you can try and reduce the cost of your policy?

The first thing is to check to make sure that you are telling your insurance company all the correct details. That might sound like an obvious thing, but most policies are based on a standard number of miles driven in a year for example, so if you do a lot less than this you may be able to lower the cost of your premium by a few £’s. Another thing to make sure you’re telling them is about where the car is kept over night – do you have a garage which is alarmed? If so TELL your insurance company this. Again, leaving a car in a locked garage might make your insurance cheaper than it would be if your car was parked on the road, or even on an open driveway over night.

Excess – this is the amount of money that you have to pay if something happens to your car & it needs fixing. If it’s someone else’s fault then hopefully you’ll get it back through your insurance company but if it’s you that’s at fault then you will have to pay this amount and won’t get it back. However, changing the amount of excess that you’re willing to pay, can make quite a difference to the amount of your policy. It is a bit of a gamble however, as if you are involved in an accident and the car has to be fixed, you would need to fork out a larger sum of money on the excess.

Get lots of quotes – Many of the bigger insurance companies have freephone numbers that you can call for a quote, and there are lots of online places to look as well from individual companies to comparison sites where they look at lots of different insurers for you. Spend a little time, do your homework and get a good number of quotes. If you like the insurance company you’re currently with, when you’ve got a load of quotes, try going back to them and telling them that x company can beat their quote and how much by, and see if they’ll either match or beat it. Sometimes you’ll find that at the discretion of a more senior staff member they will do so in order to keep your custom. Also make sure you’re getting a ‘like for like’ quote. It’s no good checking out 3 different policies and thinking that company A is cheapest if in fact it doesn’t include legal cover and has a larger excess. So make sure you know WHAT you are getting in your policy as well as how much you will have to pay.

Pay in one lump sum if you can – paying by instalments usually costs more than paying the lump sum in one hit. So if you can put a little savings aside over the year and then pay the next year’s car insurance in one hit, it will also help keep your costs down.

Insure together – some companies are now doing policies where if you have more than one vehicle at a property then you can get a discount for insuring them through the same company so even if one is in your name and one in your partner or child’s name it’s worth asking. Another alternative for younger drivers, is for the car to be insured in an older person (like a parent)’s name with them as a named driver. This can reduce the amount they will pay again.

Finally, if you’re buying a car, make sure you check what insurance group it is. Smaller cars that are factory standard (no added extras), and ones which are not grey imports are going to be cheaper to insure than larger cars with larger engines and lots of added extras. Particularly when you are first driving, try sticking to these cheaper group cars and you will definitely save a lot of money on insurance.

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