Car Insurance Guide

If you want to go directly to another section of our guide to car insurance, you can click on one of the links below:

How to get the best car insurance deal
What kind of motor insurance do you need?
What drives the cost of car insurance
Where does my money go?
Where to go for your car insurance
What you need before applying for car insurance
How to cut the cost of your car insurance
Other ways of cutting your car insurance bill
How to make a car insurance claim
What happens if a claim is rejected?
Motor insurance jargon buster

How your car insurance quote is set

A number of factors will determine the cost of your motor insurance quote.

Postcode: you are deemed to be a higher risk if you live in a city or urban area - especially if you park your car in the street. Security measures – alarms, locks and immobilisers help to reduce premiums.

The car’s value and insurance category: cars are placed in specific insurance categories, with expensive or powerful performance cars being the most expensive to insure. For example, categories range from Group 1 for a Fiat Panda through to Group 20 for a Porsche 911.

Age and experience: newly qualified drivers - or drivers under 25 - are deemed more likely to have accidents than older, more experienced drivers.

This has important implications for parents: adding teenage drivers to a policy can significantly increase your premium.

TIP: It is sometimes cheaper to add a teenager on a temporary basis, for example during a holiday. Alternatively, if the child drives his or her own car, ask him/her to obtain a third party, fire and theft quote in their name. Bear in mind that in the event of an own-fault accident, they will have to pay for repairs to the vehicle.

Also, attending special courses, such as those by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM), will often lead to a discount.

Claims history: the less you claim, the less you pay. Five-year no-claims discounts are best. If you have an own-fault accident, you typically lose up to two years’ bonus.

TIP: Not all insurers operate no-claims bonuses in the same way. You typically get a 30% discount after one year of claim-free driving, rising to 65% after four or five years. But companies vary. Some go up to a 70% maximum while others specialising in younger drivers will give higher discounts at an earlier stage. Again, it is important to shop around.

Occupation: your job may well determine the cost of your motor insurance. For example, a teacher might pay less than a pop star of the same age. A journalist will find it harder to get cheap insurance because of assumptions of how they drive and whom they may have as passengers in the car.

Excess: this is the amount of money you will have to pay yourself before the insurer then chips in for additional repairs. The more money you’re willing to pay out as excess, the lower your premium. The average excess is £200, but can be higher.

Next: Where does my money go?