How To Save Money On Car Insurance Premiums
If you are female, consider joining women only car insurers like Diamond. Statistically women drivers are much less likely to be involved in road accidents and as such your insurance premiums will be lower through a women only car insurance provider. After all why should you pay more money because of all those under 25 male drivers who make the most claims?
If you are a male driver and have a female partner or wife then having them named as the main driver on your insurance policy and placing yourself as a secondary driver, can drastically reduce your costs. Typically you can save between £30-50 on your car insurance premiums just by doing this. It is perfectly legitimate providing that you do not do excessively more miles each year than your female partner.
2. Research Insurance Premiums Before You Buy a New Car
It always pays to do a little research before you buy your next vehicle. Try to narrow down your search for a new vehicle to 5 or 6 vehicle types. Then get on the phone to two or three insurance providers and get some quotes for insurance premiums for those five or six vehicles. This is a great way to compare a number of vehicles and a number of insurance provider quotes at the same time. Once you are clearer about the cost of insurance premiums then head out and buy a car based on that information.
It sounds amazingly simple and it is, but it takes the impulsive element out of car buying. Remember that car sales people rely upon emotional and impulse buying and will try and push you into making a purchase. If you have no idea about the cost of insuring that vehicle you can end up with a nasty headache when you see the annual insurance premium and by then it’s too late to cancel your car purchase.
3. Haggle
It’s always good consumer practice to not accept the first quote offered. Remember most insurance companies don’t expect you to accept the first offer they make to you. Generally we advise that you should ask at least three times for a discount, using a phrase like “What’s your best price?” It often helps to read out over the phone other quotes you have received from other insurers, to get the price down.
4. Compare and Buy Online
Most car insurance providers offer customers a minimum 10% discount for buying their car insurance online. This is because the costs associated with processing your claim are often less than the costs of maintaining call centre staff or a branch on the high street.
Use insurance specific comparison sites like Moneynet.co.uk, Gocompare.com , to compare a wide range of insurance providers quickly and easily online. You can then visit those sites and get a further discount for buying online. Some of these sites also offer rewards to you in the form of a further discount or a cashback amount for using their site to find suitable insurers.
5. Make Use of CashBack Sites
Cashback sites, were set up to provide incentives to members for signing up for company offers. In essence the cashback site acts like an agent for the company and gets a share of the sale that you make on the site. The cashback company then passes a portion of this commission back to you as a thank you and everyone benefits! Many of these cashback sites provide offers with insurance companies and it’s a great place to get discounts on your car insurance. Typically you can expect to save between 5 and 15% on the standard premium. You can view some of the best cashback sites here.
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