It's this easy to save hundreds on your car insurance! (Motor Insurance - Comments & Tips)

Name: ross1979

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Product:	Motor Insurance - Comments & Tips
Date:	10.08.01 (353 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Legal Requirement, Protection, Piece of Mind

Disadvantages: Expensive for younger drivers, Stressful

This week, I have been trying to sort out my car insurance for the next year. It's one of those things that is about as much fun as kick to the privates but it has to be done. I believe my story will help others to save a great deal of money on their car insurance, especially youngsters like myself, by following a few simple principles.

***MY STORY***

I am 21 years old and a post-graduate student and I have been driving for 4.5 years without an accident, claim, points, etc. I have a Ford Fiesta 1998 Zetec LX, and I had this car on fully comprehensive insurance last year for the first time. It cost me about 880 pounds for 1 years cover with 17to40 direct, which is a branch of Endsleigh insurance and makes special deals for NUS members. This sounds expensive but, considering my original quotes from other major companies were well over 1000 pounds, it was a good offer.

This month, I was shopping around again for the cheapest fully comp cover I could find. I started off on the net and looked up a lot of the major insurance companies and major online only companies and filled in forms to obtain a quote. Despite trying alledgedly cheap companies like elephant.co.uk, direct line, churchill, etc., the best quote I recieved over the net was around the same as last year, over 800 pounds. This isnt good enough thought I, and the phone was my next strategy.

Firstly, I phoned up Norwich Union Direct, since I recieved a mailing from them offering discounted rates for my postcode. It was a freephone number and, after giving my life story to a salesman, and saying my best quote so far was 800 pounds, I was offered a 'discounted' rate of about 750 pounds for a fairly standard package of cover with better excesses than last year (250 accident, 50 windscreen, 100 fire and theft), as well as legal cover and a courtesy car. Not bad, I thought, for just making one free phone call. But I still had to make some further enquiries. <
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So I phoned up my previous insurer (17-40 Direct) and mentioned my previous quotes. Taking into account my loyalty bonus and no claims bonus, they gave me an almost identical form of cover, but they said they would manage it for 695 pounds. I was tempted to accept this since it was 200 pounds less than the original quotes I was getting on the net. But I noticed that they were undercutting eachother by quite large margains and decided to give it another go.

I tried a few others who stated that they could not match that quote and they could offer no better than 800 pounds. I stumbled apon LLoyds TSB and my ears perked up when they managed to bring up a figure of 627 pounds. I was giving this some serious thought until she mentioned that I could pay in 10 monthly installments. This was odd, so I asked how long the cover was for, and she says 10 months despite clearly leading me to believe up till then that it was for a year (or certainly not mentioning that it wasnt!). So bye-bye LLoyds TSB if only for deceipt.

So back to NU Direct with my tale of the 695 quote from my previous insurers. The chap on the phone is refreshingly honest and says 'look, I am going to undercut that because I get a percentage if I sell this to you' So he offers me a quote with the same conditions for an improved 663 pounds. Again, tempted to take it, but decided to give my old insurer one last chance to keep me as a customer.

I subtly said 'look these guys have offered me the same level of cover for 663, you will have to beat it if you want me to remain with you guys'. So they went away and I think she searched for some special offers or some rubbish, but she came back with 'great news', she could reduce the original 695 quote down to 649. I gave this a little thought, checked out the terms of the quote and accepted (you have to draw the line somewhere before all the companies tell you to stop annoying them). But I had succ
eeded in getting a more attractive policy than last year for 230 pounds cheaper and also saving over 150 pounds on the best quotes I was getting on the net (some were quoting more than double this!)

So there we go, its still expensive but I am happy. But the purpose of this review is to help other people, so here is some advice from my experiences:

***ADVICE***

1. Don't accept any quote you get on the internet. The chances are that you will be able to get it cheaper by phoning.

2. Phone up numerous companies and 'play them off against eachother'. Most are freephone so it only requires a bit of your precious time to save a lot of money. Dont lie, just say what you have been quoted by previous companies and they will tell you whether they can beat it. The salespeople will be very keen to do so, if at all possible, so they can take their commission.

3. Make sure you get the main terms of the quote and the level of cover you recieve. CHECK THAT IT IS FOR A YEAR!! Also, check out the excesses they are quoting you and whether you are getting adequate protection in case of the worst. Things to look out for include legal cover, courtesy cars, etc.

4. After you have phoned round all the companies, phone the second cheapest quote you get, and tell them if such and such a company have beaten their quote. Just ask directly if they are able to match it.

5. If they manage it, go back to the original cheapest etc. But you have to know where to draw the line, since they are bound to get a little bit annoyed if you keep phoning up asking for better quotes and they may tell you where to go!!

6. Dont let them pressure you into taking anything. If they offer you a special discounted deal that may only be available for a few minutes or whatever, dont take it for this reason. Ask for the details of the quote and say you will phone them back when you have thought about it (or tried to get
other companies to beat it!)

7. Relax and dont get stressed!

There you go, hope this has been helpful for young drivers like myself who have to suffer extremely high insurance prices because of a stupid minority of drivers, but thats a different story.

Insurance is a service, makes sure you get the best possible service for the least possible amount of cash!

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