Dont get ripped off...get smart. (Motor Insurance - Comments & Tips)

Member Name: zrblue

Product:	Motor Insurance - Comments & Tips
Date:	28/09/08 (210 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap Insurance

Disadvantages: None

What can i say?...insurance asbolutely stinks, and i just cant help but get the feeling that the minute a young driver calls up for a quote, the guy on the other end of the line is rubbing his hands together in preparation for the doing-over that the innocent caller is about to recieve. However, as bad as this sounds, if you know the "tricks of the trade" as it were, youll come out not half as bad as you expected.

Age & Gender...

Firstly, if your young, your going to get shafted. By young i mean under 25. And secondly, if your a guy, youll get shafted twice. Its damn expensive insuring a car on your own when your younger than 25, the best solution is to take out a policy and add older, preferably female drivers to your policy. The more the merrier, but more than three and it stops reducing.

Occupation...

For some reason insurance companies like to up/reduce your premiums based upon your occupation. And by the way, if you are a journalist/reporter, then insurers will happily take a hefty sum of money from you, however, if your a supply teach in a primary school, you will have one of the lowest premium paying occupations going. After reading an article on lowering your insurance on moneysavingexpert.com, i found that you are able to "alter" your occupation ever to slightly. You obviously cant blatantly lie, you cant say your a supply teacher if infact your a fireman. But it is suggested that if you are a university lecturer for example, and occasionally fill in for other lecturers, then you would be permitted to state that you are a supply teacher. (I dont condone this, i am simply passing on information)

Cars...

Currently i drive a MG ZR160, which is a nice, speedy car, unfortunately it also happens to be group 17 as far as the insurance is concerned, so i pay a fair bit to keep it on the road. My friend however has an MG ZR 160 Express, which is the van version of my car...the only difference being there are no rear windows or seats, meaning this one actually weighs less meanign ti is infact faster that my car, yet being a commercial vehical, it is only classed as group 5. And my friend and 18, on his own policy with no other drivers on this policy is only paying £900 a year for insurance. Look out for these little loop holes.

Modifying...

Another strange loop-hole ive come across over the years...After a few years of driving i purchased an MG ZR 105, which only has a 1.4 engine, albeit the most powerful 1.4 engine around today (non turbo of course), i decided to do and engine conversion on this car, and the common conversion at that time was a Rover 220 2.0 Turbo engine conversion. So this engine produced between 190-220 bhp, alot more than a ZR160, yet it cost me less to insure the conversion than a 160. This is because the conversion was classed as a modified 1.4, whereas the 160 was a 1.8. Strange loop holes that make no logical sense, but then again insurance rarely is. Another thing to watch for when modifying is that slight modifications increase your premium, very large modification can actually reduce it...the insurance company sometimes takes the point of view that if you take time and effort over your car exemplified by the amount of modifications, the belive you are less likely to be brash and cause an accident.

I hope this helps some of you out there...ill add more over time when i come across them.

Summary: Use your head to get cheap insurance.