Save ££££s On Your Cover (Motor Insurance in general)

Member Name: opinions4u

Product:	Motor Insurance in general
Date:	14/02/03 (583 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Saves money

Disadvantages: Take a little time

It is motor insurance renewal time for my wife, and the opportunity to pay premiums of up to £400 difference, for the same risk, is here! Experience in shopping around now means we work to a lower differential between best and worst, as we know who charge silly money!

The rule of buying car insurance is simple. Shop around. Never simply accept the renewal that is offered to you.

So, what should you do?

First, you need to accept the need to pay. The law of the land requires you to have at least third party insurance as a driver. In other words, if you injure somebody, or damage another vehicle or property, at least your insurer can make partial amends on your behalf financially. This is the cheapest form of cover, although very often it is sensible to add on fire and theft cover, as the additional cost is minimal.

Even if your car is only worth a modest amount, comprehensive cover should give you that modest amount if your car is written off. Personally, I would always have comprehensive cover, but it is, naturally, more expensive!

So, you have it clear in your head what level of cover you want. Insurers are also keen to add on all sorts of extras. As ever, they are probably making a profit out of whatever service they offer, and you should consider your own circumstances carefully. Typical add ons are legal expenses cover (something to cover the legal bills you may incur pursuing another motorist for damages, often useful if you are injured as the result of another drivers actions), no claims discount protection (to stop your premium increasing dramatically if you claim (including theft claims, as I discovered to my benefit a couple of years ago), and breakdown cover with RAC, AA or Green Flag. The latter should only be bought if it is preferable to the terms offered normally by these organisations. Beware, they often have nice incentives to new members, so it may be preferable to change breakdown provider a

nnually and pick up an incentive (like M&S vouchers) each time!

How do you find the best premium? Well, the Internet and some patience is the best way. For my wife, we scanned 12 different companies. Most direct providers, a couple of them brokers. Most offer online discounts that are not matched if you purchase using more traditional methods of buying motor insurance. All were members of the General Insurance Standards Council (GISC). This body is meant to offer consumers protection against mis selling. Personally, it irritates the hell out of me when I hear a recorded message telling me about their membership if I am in telephone contact with an insurer.

Two hours was allocated to the task. Two hours that saved £70 on the renewal offered by Direct Line.

The cover selected was fully comprehensive, no claims protected with legal assistance cover. I get an AA discount at work, so will go with that independently.

The insurers approached came back with the following figures:

Budget.co.uk £340 - their quote system was awkward and they emailed the figure to us 4 hours after request.

Elephant.co.uk £338 - annoying adverts, annoying site, annoying quote.

Directline.com £295 - decent site, crap quote.

Tesco.com £280 - with the added incentive of £15 worth of Clubcard points to factor in. The site was almost identical to Direct Line, who underwrites the cover for Tesco, and as far as I could see, the cover provided was identical.

Churchill.co.uk £234 - surprisingly cheap, although the accident excess was £150, higher than all the other companies approached. I have insured with Churchill previously (under the Halifax brand at the time) and their service then was excellent.

Theaa.com £279 - an awkward site to get the quote out of. My previous experiences of the AA tell me they will never shop around for you at renewal unless you make them, so I am always wary of returning
my trade to them.

Halifax.co.uk - I am a bit of a Halifax fan, and their £222 premium (including 10% customer discount) was looking good. Interestingly, the policy is underwritten by Esure who have the most annoying TV adverts.

Sainsburys.co.uk - £256. At least I got £1.25 in Nectar points for my time and the site was easy to get through. The terms appeared to be identical to Halifax, so an interesting differential that a few more Nectar points did not cover was ignored! Underwritten by Esure.

NUDirect.co.uk - their systems simply would not quote for a low risk driver and car in our postcode area. Stuff you guys!

Esure.com - £232, more expensive than the same policy through the same company with a Halifax branding. For non-Halifax customers this could be a winner, but you need 4 claim free years!

Morethan.com - £237. I liked this site, and considered taking their 1.6% cashback credit card too! The premium was good, but not good enough.

Egg.com - their site told me about how they guaranteed to beat the renewal by £1 and not increase at next years renewal. 3 attempts to get a quote ended in the site crashing. Not a good omen, so Egg was aborted.

So, for Mrs Opinions4u, Halifax gets the business. But you can do more to knock your premium down.

Here are some thoughts:

Restrict to just yourself as driver. If you usually add any driver cover, or spouse, consider how often they drive your car. Do they just reverse it off the drive? Are they covering 3rd party anyway on their own policies? Do they have penalty points that weight the premium unfavourably? If you weigh it up, simply insuring yourself can be a good thing. Remember to avoid putting yourself in a potential drink/drive scenario with this though. If you are a two car family, you can insure for single named driver only, and amend your cover part way through the year if the other car is off the road for any reason. r>
Increase your excess. Each additional £100-£150 in voluntary excess will knock around 7.5% - 10% off the premium. Make sure you can afford to meet the excess in the event of a claim. I always keep £150 in an account just in case and earn a couple of quid back in interest on it! Useful reserve to have if a tyre bursts, as your insurance doesn't cover tyres!

Tell the second best company what the best company is charging you. See if they can beat it. The AA seems remarkably capable of coming back with a significantly cheaper premium than their first quote. That said, if this is how they treat you before you are a customer, beware what happens once they have you!

Never pay by instalments (unless its interest free). Most companies charge 20%-25% interest if you pay monthly. Ideally, pay annually on a cashback credit card. I save a little every month to ensure, come renewal, I can cover the premium in one payment. If you cannot, take out an interest free credit card with someone and spread the payments over 6 months. On a £300 policy, you should save £30!

In summary, work out what cover you need, who needs to be named on the policy, shop around, work out a suitable excess and ask for a Dutch auction between the best companies! Two hours work should save you around 15%.