Top tips for getting cheap car insurance
1. Shop around
Firstly, don’t simply accept your insurer’s renewal quote. Instead, take the time to shop around and compare car insurance quotes carefully.
Keep in mind that the cheapest policy isn’t always best. It’s important to make sure you have the right level of cover for your needs.
2. Don’t assume third-party insurance is cheapest
Third-party insurance is the minimum legal level of cover needed to drive a car. It covers you if you damage someone else’s car or property or if you injure someone when driving. It won’t cover damage to your own car.
Fully comprehensive car insurance, on the other hand, is the highest level of cover you can take out. It covers you and your car as well as other road users.
Many people therefore believe that fully comprehensive insurance is more expensive. In fact, comprehensive cover is often cheaper than third-party insurance.
This is because those who take out third-party cover are statistically more likely to make a claim than those who buy fully comprehensive cover. As a result, the price of third-party insurance has gone up.
3. Consider extras carefully
When you compare car insurance, check whether extras such as courtesy car cover, legal cover and windscreen cover are included as standard, or whether they are add-ons you have to pay for.
In most cases, you’ll have to pay for these extras, so before agreeing to do so, consider whether you actually need them or whether you could do without. The key is making sure you don’t feel pressured into adding cover you don’t need.
4. Pay annually
Paying for your car insurance annually is usually cheaper than paying in monthly instalments. If you pay monthly, your insurer is effectively lending you the money to pay for your cover and interest will be added to your repayments.
If you can’t afford to pay for your car insurance in one lump sum, you could consider using a 0% purchase credit card. This will allow you to spread the cost of your repayments interest-free over a number of months. It’s best to try and keep this to a maximum of 12 months so that your payments for this year’s insurance don’t overlap with next year’s.
Representative example: If you spend £1,200 at a purchase interest rate of 19.9% p.a. (variable) your representative rate will be 19.9% APR (variable).