Lower Your Car Insurance
How to lower your car insurance – One of the most expensive mistakes you can ever make with your car insurance is letting your insurance policy automatically renew.
If you do this instead of shopping around for a better deal, your insurer can and will usually take advantage and push your premium up.
So shopping around is one of the best ways to get a cheaper deal on your current car insurance deal.
Here are a few other simple hints and tips that may help you get a cheaper insurance policy.
1. Limit Your Mileage
Limit the number of miles on your policy – fewer miles means you’re a lower risk for insurers, so cheaper to insure.
But always give an accurate estimate of your mileage when getting a quote – your policy could be invalid if the vehicle has travelled considerably more.
2. Pay annually
Paying monthly for car insurance is a loan, with interest added, so paying for your car insurance as a one off payment is cheaper.
If you can’t afford to pay it all in one go then it’s worth considering other options such as paying on a 0% credit card – just make sure you are able to make at least the minimum monthly repayment and pay off the balance on the card before the interest-free period is over.
3. Improve security
Improving your vehicle’s security, such as adding approved alarms, immobilisers and adding locking wheel nuts, could get you a cheaper premium.
Get quotes on how much your insurance would go down before fitting any security upgrades, so you can see if the extra cost of installing outweighs the insurance saving.
4. Increase your voluntary excess
Selecting a higher voluntary excess when taking out your policy will reduce the price of your insurance.
But just be careful if you have to make a claim as you’ll have to pay that excess towards the cost of repairing or replacing your car – so be certain you can afford the excess if you do end up having to pay it.
5. Build up your no claims bonus discount
Building up your no-claims bonus discount will help you to get a cheaper insurance policy because insurers reward motorists who are claim-free with discounts on their premiums.
6. See if it’s cheaper to buy add-ons as separate products
Car insurance add-ons can include:
- legal assistance
- courtesy car cover
- personal accident cover
- windscreen cover
- protected no-claims bonus
7. Garage Or Driveway
If you park in a garage or on a driveway, park your car there overnight.
Parking off the road overnight could lower the chance of your car being vandalised or stolen, and insurers will deem you as less of a risk to insure, potentially lowering your premiums.
8. Avoid Modifications
Modifications – whether they’re upgrades to styling, audio or performance – could mean a premium on the price of your insurance.
Adding alloy wheels, body kits and performance upgrades could make your car a lot more attractive to thieves.
Modified cars also tend to be more expensive to fix than ordinary cars due to the expensive parts.
9. Take a driving course
Although advanced driving courses such as Pass Plus cost money, they’ll get you a discount on your insurance with some providers, especially for young and inexperienced drivers.
Bear in mind that some insurers won’t take courses like these into account, and you should weigh up whether the savings on insurance will outweigh the course cost.
10. Think about how you describe your job
If, for example, you don’t commute, you may be able to find a cheaper policy by describing your insurance as being ‘for social use’.
The way you describe your job can also affect your premium. While a ‘chef’ might pay a different premium to a ‘cook’, and a ‘hairdresser’ might pay a different price to a ‘barber’.
But be honest or you risk invalidating your policy.
Also think about the level of business use cover you need, if your vehicle is for business use, you must be honest or you’ll invalidate your cover.
11. Consider a black-box telematics policy
Telematics car insurance bases premiums on actual data about your driving, which is recorded by either a black box fitted in the vehicle or a mobile phone app.
As an added bonus the black box acts as a tracker if your car gets stolen.
Telematics insurance can make your car insurance cheaper, whatever your age, as long as you’re a careful driver.
12. Shop around for the right quote
You won’t be surprised to hear that our top tip for getting the car insurance cover you need at the right price is to shop around.
It doesn’t have to take a long time to check whether you could get a cheaper deal – just compare car insurance quotes with us.
Shopping around individual insurer websites, phoning them all up or using a high-street broker is time-consuming. Compare prices with us and you’ll have lots of quotes to choose from in minutes.
13. When to renew your car insurance for the best price
You can buy your car insurance up to 29 days before the policy start date and ‘lock in’ the price you’re quoted on that day.
And our research shows it’s better to buy early. The closer to renewal date you get, the more you could end up paying for your premiums.
Our customers saved over 40% on average by buying their car insurance 26 days before their renewal date, compared with those renewing on the day.*
Insurers can change their prices at any time, so the price you see when you first compare quotes might change if you return to buy later.
*Average premium paid by all customers over the age 18, for annual fully comprehensive car insurance policies bought through GoCompare between January and December 2021.
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