One thing that motorists have to pay a lot of money for, depending on the car they drive or what their driving history is like, is car insurance.
Image Credit: Gareth Williams (obtained via Flickr)
I personally pay around £300 for my car insurance (admittedly I don’t drive the most-economical car in history, as I love the sound of a 6-cylinder engine!) but I can remember a time when I paid more than £1,000 a year for my insurance – this was when I had only passed my driving test at the tender young age of 18!
Some of you may have seen advertisements on the television for car insurance firms and wondered to yourself whether it really is possible to get insurance that is super cheap? Well, actually you can – but only in some cases!
I know this doesn’t sound very encouraging, especially when you read reports in the media of how insurance in general rises due to the cost of fraudulent claims such as fake personal injury claims and ‘staged’ accidents. But, the good news is that there are a number of practical steps that you can take to reduce the cost of your car insurance. Here’s what you can do:
Buy a car that’s classed in a low insurance group
With a plethora of cars on the market, you will easily be able to find a car that will suit your requirements and be classed in a low insurance group! Car dealerships such as Carbase have awesome websites that you can check for such cars.
But generally, smaller cars or those with smaller, fuel-efficient engines tend to be cheaper on insurance than gas guzzlers or cars which are extremely expensive or exotic.
Use insurance comparison websites to your advantage
Instead of spending your time visiting the websites of hundreds of different car insurance firms, use comparison websites such as Go Compare to seek out the cheapest deals. You will have to manually check some websites though, as not everyone agrees to be on price comparison websites.
Buy your insurance through a cashback website
I remember reading something on the Money Saving Expert website about how someone only had to pay a few pounds for their car insurance due to them going through a cashback website which then directed them to a comparison website!
Whilst I’m not going to guarantee that your car insurance will only cost you a tenner, you will certain save lots of money by combining the purchase of your insurance premium through a cashback website.
Sign up to an owner’s club
Quite often car clubs that you pay an annual subscription fee to join will have affiliate insurance companies which can offer you big savings simply for being a member of a car club. This is because such people tend to look after their cars better, and, as a result, will be less of an insurance risk.
You will probably have to speak to the insurance company on the phone to get a quote, but you are highly likely to receive a quote cheaper that what you might have got through an insurance company’s website (or a comparison website).