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Tips For Cutting The Costs Of Your Car Insurance

Cheap car insurance is not always the best option, but there are times when you want to lower your insurance premium. Too many people fall into the trap of only focusing on the price of the insurance and they often end up with a policy that does not offer the cover that they need. While price is important, you need to ensure that your insurance suits your needs. There are also a number of other methods that you can use to lower the overall costs of your insurance policy.

Never Auto-Renew

Insurance companies love when people auto-renew because it allows them to increase the price of the policy when you are not paying attention. You should not be sucked into the auto-renew spiral because your insurance company does not have your best interests in mind with this and they are not going to be rewarding you for loyalty Insurers do have to state what your policy costs were for the previous year, but you might not always notice this if you are auto-renewing.

If you want to save money, you need to shop around when it comes time to renew your policy. You should do this even if the policy that you are offered by your current insurance company is good. You need to check what else is out there because insurance companies generally have the best rates for new customers. Always looks for an insurance comparison service.

Look At A Higher Excess

Getting a higher excess is not a solution that is good for everyone and should only be looked at by those who can afford it. By increasing the excess, which is the money you have to pay when you claim, you will decrease the monthly premium. Of course, you need to ensure that you are able to afford the new excess should you have to claim.

A higher excess may also serve as an incentive for you to not claim for smaller incidents. When you do not claim for these incidents, you are increasing the no-claims time which will also help lower your costs. Not making a claim is often considered one of the best ways to keep your premium down.

Do Not Pay Monthly

When you get insurance, you will be offered a monthly pay rate and a single lump sum rate. Paying your premium in one go is actually cheaper than paying monthly and you should consider doing this. Of course, this is not always something that you will be able to do, but you should try whenever possible.

Haggle

A lot of people do not think about haggling over the price of their insurance, but they should. When you haggle, you need to be armed with the quote the insurer provided and the suggestion that you could get a better deal elsewhere. If you are nervous about this approach, you should ask if they could move a bit on the price and you will be surprised by how often they are willing to do this.

You should then ask them if they would go even lower. You should not be afraid to tell the insurer that you are not willing to take their deal. There is always another to be had from a different company.

Also read: Why multiple car insurance is right for you?

Drive Fewer Miles

The less you drive, the lower the risk to the insurance company. This means that you could lower your insurance by driving less. Before you commit to this, you need to realistically determine how far you need to drive in a year and not simply pull a figure out of the air. If you are driving 5,000 miles less, you could be saving around $50 on your insurance which is not something to sneer at.

This is an easy way of saving that could tempt some people to be less than honest. This is a bad idea and you should only commit to this if you are going to be driving less. Insurance companies are aware that people lie about this and they will check how far you have gone.

Insure Your No-Claims Bonus

This might seem counter-productive because it will actually add to the cost of your premium. This is why many people are in 2 minds about this, but only you can determine if this is something that you will consider.

Protecting your no-claims bonus may seem like a logical step, but it does increase the cost of your premium by a substantial amount. However, when you do this, even if you have to make a claim, the years of discount will still apply the next time you renew. This is a double-edged blade because even though the discount will apply to the new policy, the costs will still go up because you have made a claim in the last year. This means that you are going to be paying extra for 2 years because you have made a claim. While you will still pay more the next year because of the claim, the bonus that you have insured will lower the increase.

Why Multi-Car Insurance Is Right For You

04 10 , 2016 No Comments

Do you have multiple vehicles on your property?

When you hear the phrase “a fleet of cars,” you probably think of a commercial venture. However, any home that has at least three cars is considered to have a fleet.

While that number might seem large, it’s not that strange to find households with multiple vehicles. If you have two children, for example, and one of them has reached driving age, you may have three cars. You likely drive one, your spouse has one, and you may get one for your child as well. You could also have a camper, an old fixer upper or even a motorcycle on the premises, too.

Before you know it, your driveway will be jam packed. How will you insure all of those cars? It is best not to have them on different policies, because doing so is very expensive. That is why you want to look for something called “fleet insurance” or multi-car insurance.

Taking Care Of The Family

Fleet insurance is really no different than regular insurance. However, you only need one policy for a number of different vehicles. You are also typically offered a discount as a result of putting several cars under your policy. This number could be as high as twenty percent, depending on which family fleet insurer you decide to go with.

Saving Money

Generally, you can insure up to five vehicles on your policy. You can have as few as two cars on the policy. The more vehicles you insure, the more money you will get off of your total bill.

Typically, you have to have all the vehicles registered to one address. The vehicles themselves can differ, however; they can be motorcycles, cars, SUVs, campers and more. You cannot have company or commercial cars on the policy, though.

Coverage The Way You Want It

The insurance can be set up in a number of different ways. For example, you may want comprehensive insurance on your newer car but not on the old junk car. Speak to your insurer about your needs and the agent should be able to help you set up the policy the way you want it.

Also read: Choosing a Fuel Injector for your car

The Driver

Anyone that is named on the insurance policy is covered. Therefore, you can put everyone of driving age that lives in your home on the policy. You may even be able to cover one of your children that is away living at school. The people named on the policy do not have to be related to you by blood, but they may have to be a certain age. Check with the insurer to be certain.

Benefits

There are a lot of benefits to going with a fleet insurance policy. Everything is set up under one account, for example. You save money by insuring multiple cars as well. However, keep in mind that the policy will still be expensive and all that money is due at the same time each year.

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