How To Get Cheaper Car Insurance

Car insurance is just one of the many costs involved with owning a car. How much you’ll pay for car insurance depends on your age, where you live, your past driving history, your marital status, and the type of vehicle you have. If you’re worried about the cost of car insurance, read on. We’re going to share nine tips that’ll show you how to get cheaper car insurance. 

1. Use Price Comparison Sites

Price comparison sites can help you search through a whole range of different insurance policies. 

Once you’ve added your details into the price comparison page, they’ll search through hundreds of different providers to give you multiple quotes. 

Reviewing each of these quotes isn’t necessarily the most fun job, and it can take time, but it’s important you spend the time picking a policy and cover that suits you. 

2. Pay Your Car Insurance Annually 

You can get cheaper car insurance by paying for it in one lump sum. This is because by paying it in monthly installments you’re basically taking a loan from the insurer that will then charge you interest. 

If your only option is to pay in monthly installments, then consider getting a 0% purchase credit card. You can use the money from the credit card to pay your car insurance in one lump sum, and can then pay your credit card back every month knowing you’re not being charged any interest. 

If you have an emergency fund you might prefer to use this money to pay your car insurance instead. If you do, calculate how much your insurance is if you divide it by 12 months and then replenish your emergency fund each month in preparation for the following year. 

3. Don’t Auto-Renew

Auto-renewing your car insurance is definitely the easier option, but it’s not the most cost effective option. If you want to get cheaper car insurance then don’t let your current insurer tempt you into sticking around. They rarely offer the best deal, so shop around to make sure you’re getting a competitive price. 

4. Change Your Excess

Excess is the amount of money you have to pay if you make an insurance claim. Usually, the higher the excess, the cheaper the premiums. 

If you’re looking for ways to get cheaper car insurance, you could decide to pick a policy with a higher excess. However, you should consider this option carefully as it can be a little risky. 

For example, if you choose a policy with a high excess and you have an accident, you might find it’s not worth making a claim as the excess costs the same as it does to repair any damages. 

5. Drive A Cheaper To Insure Car

As mentioned above the type of vehicle you have plays a part in the cost of your car insurance. 

Before you buy a car, find out how much the car insurance is likely to cost by adding the details into a price comparison site. 

You could also complete a vehicle search by checking out the Thatcham Research site. Add details about your car’s make, date, fuel type, and so on, and they’ll tell you what safety rating your car is. You can then use this to determine how expensive your car insurance is likely to be. 

For example, a 2008 petrol Mini has a group rating of 21E. Vehicles in this group are on the cheaper side to insure. Compare this to a 2008 petrol Porsche and the group rating goes up to 49E because these cars are considered a higher risk for insurance companies.

6. Have A Good Driving History 

Having a clean driving record will help you get cheaper car insurance, as insurers will consider you a safe driver. 

Other ways you can prove you’re a safe driver is by completing driving courses like Pass Plus or The Institute of Advanced Motorists. 

Getting black box insurance can also prove to your insurers that you’re a safe driver, and can result in lower car insurance premiums. This type of car insurance sees a small device fitted in your car. It then measures how well you drive, what time of day you’re driving, if you’re staying within a certain mileage as well as safety features like how fast you’re driving, and how quickly you brake.

7. Choose The Best Job Title 

Your job title can impact how much you pay for your car insurance. It doesn’t make much sense, but insurers will consider some jobs riskier than others, so before you proceed with any type of insurance play around with your job title. 

You still have to be truthful, but tweaking your title is one way you can get cheaper car insurance. For example, you might pay more in insurance if you’re a writer than if you’re a journalist, even though these jobs are very similar.

Money Saving Expert has a great tool that can help you compare insurance quotes by job title – check it out here. 

8. Buy Multi Car Insurance 

Some insurers will offer discounted rates for insuring more than one vehicle on a single policy. 

If you have multiple vehicles, work out whether it’s more cost effective to insure both vehicles on one policy. 

In some cases an extra car, or an extra driver, might push up the overall cost of the quote (they could be a new driver, or drive a more expensive car), so make sure you do your own research and compare the price of multi car insurance vs single car insurance. 

9. Add Named Drivers  

Another way to get cheaper car insurance is to add a “named driver” to your policy. 

A named driver is another person that you add to your policy, and give permission to drive the insured vehicle. Adding a named driver can be particularly useful if you’re considered as a high-risk driver, because it gives you an opportunity to add a lower-risk driver to your policy. 

There is sometimes a small fee to add a named driver, but in most cases this will then lower your premiums. 

Summary

There are lots of simple ways you can make your car insurance more affordable. 

While you’re there you can also save money on your bills, combine your pensions, start investing, pay off your debt, get a personal loan, earn cashback, grow your credit score, get mortgage advice and more!!