| Getting cheaper car insurance | |
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silentdice Moderator
Posts : 1999 Kudos : 107 Join date : 2010-10-13 Location : Lampeter
| Subject: Getting cheaper car insurance Thu Dec 01, 2011 10:15 am | |
| I'm trying to lower my monthly costs because moneys getting tight, an obvious one to work on was my car insurance - so I had a bit of time and thought I'd put the hours in to try and get myself a cheap quote.
Getting insurance at a reasonable price is such a cunt that I thought I'd write my findings incase it helps anyone on here. These are all findings based on my quote using confused.com. I haven't got exact figures, I just rounded it up. Its a bit long winded for fuck all savings so I've put key bits in bold so you can skip through.
One thing I found recently is that when I was unemployed, my insurance (that is usualy around 600ish) went up to over a grand as the cheapest quote. Seems pretty unethical really, because when you're unemployed you need to cut your costs, but keep a car on the road for interviews etc. Car insurance is cripling (almost as cripling as fuel is).
As usual, 3rd party fire and theft was the cheapest option. And as you'd guess, a social only poilicy is cheaper than a social and commuting policy.
In previous years I had changed my job role in quotes to get completely different prices for job roles that were practicaly the same thing. This year it seems to have evened out a bit. All I know from this time is that an office worker on confused.com will pay £40ish more than a web designer.
Changing the value of my car makes no difference... usualy as a rule I set it to the lowest book value of my car... about £500... but I set it up to £1500, and the quote stayed the same.
Security devices on my car also made no difference, which is good... because the only thing stopping someone nicking my car is the kids that'll call them a hairdresser or a woman as they drive it off.
The fact im insured on another car helps, I guess if I drive another car, it halves the chances that I'll crash my own car.
Putting my father as a named driver also brings my insurance down quite a bit, hes got no claims and no points. A couple of years ago this put my insurance up, but these days it seems to bring it back down again.
Two of the stupidest and most important things I found.
1. If I wanted my cover to start the same day, it would cost £50ish more, if I wanted it to start the next day, it would cost £20ish more. So if you're doing a quote... do it for at least 2 days in the future.
2. "Do you usualy pay for car insurance annualy or monthly" If you say monthly, it'll cost around £50 more again.
Modifications I checked the extra on a couple of modifications. Alloy wheels (non OEM) £20 extra Lowered £30 extra Lowered a lot £1300 extra Rollbar / rollcage £110 extra Exterior decoration (whatever that is?) £0 extra
At the end of this, I went for a quote with aviva... when the best quote i could get was £577 on confused, aviva managed to get me a quote of £397. Also, the cheap confused quotes didnt offer me a monthly payment plan, but aviva does.
If anyones got any good tips on how to get it down cheaper, I'd like to know. | |
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matt_666 Regular Member
Posts : 135 Kudos : 7 Join date : 2010-10-20 Age : 36 Location : cardigan
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:53 am | |
| i to have put my parents down as names drivers which has helped in the past, iv also been told that in some cases been garages or not may not make any difference as some people tend to bend their car going in and out of the garage and claim, no idea how true this is but suspect it also depends on the area which you live in. | |
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evoman Keyboard Warrior
Posts : 355 Kudos : 16 Join date : 2010-12-19 Age : 32 Location : Aberystwyth
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Fri Dec 02, 2011 11:20 am | |
| I pay £387 for my volvo, it is 2.0 and rwd, I am 20. That is a huge steal! I do have 3 years no claims, which i guess is rare for someone of my age, I need to keep them!
You didnt mention phone them, I got £40 knocked off mine just by asking.
I recently did a quote for an e34 TDS, £600, Volvo 850 tdi £500. So you can get cheap quotes at my age.
The biggest thing to remmber is that insurance is all done on risk, they are gambling on your money, the higher the odds of you claiming the more it will cost, clearly, but remmbering that helps as you want to come across the most risk free possible. | |
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OcaToro Regular Member
Posts : 114 Kudos : 9 Join date : 2011-07-16
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:33 am | |
| 3rd party fire and theft, and 3rd party only are both over 100 more for me than fully comp. its been that way for perhaps the past 3 years now too. surprised its still cheaper the other way round for you tbh.
another tip... add your mum, both my parents knocked off over £300 each when i had them on mine. (if she cant drive, add someone else old who can, like your nan)
security devices make no difference anymore to most, but a tracker will... i believe you can get shit ones for as little as £35 on ebay, and will knock considerable amounts off your insurance.
saying garage helps a lot as usual....(legally they cannot check if you even have one) as does not telling them youre unemployed, or a student or an entertainer or motoring journo.
as chris said, its risk... and that is calculated on basically how many times people have claimed for your specific car's spec/trim level and balance it against how many people your age have accidents and the average cost of those accidents.... also the average cost of repairing the car youre quoting. which is why chris' volvo is cheap... as is the e34 tds... no young people have them let alone crash them. but obviously without swapping the 5 for a grandad spec car, this is irrelevant information to you mickey.
another trick that knocks a lot off, is telling them youve had the car for a long time. i guess because you are more used to a car that youve had years and less likely to knock it. | |
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evoman Keyboard Warrior
Posts : 355 Kudos : 16 Join date : 2010-12-19 Age : 32 Location : Aberystwyth
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:39 am | |
| Ye, id agree with all you said dan, i have always found third party more expensive. I think its more of a risk, bangers, cheap cars etc have third party plus it means you dont give a shit about how you drive as you dont care about the car | |
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silentdice Moderator
Posts : 1999 Kudos : 107 Join date : 2010-10-13 Location : Lampeter
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Sat Dec 10, 2011 5:57 am | |
| I think maybe it depends on what car you drive, because fully comp is consistently more expensive on every quote for me.
I really don't understand how insurance works - In the past, when living literaly two doors down from Stick, he could get quotes for £300ish that I couldnt get under a grand! And hes only a year (maybe 2?) older than me. | |
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Russ Keyboard Warrior
Posts : 471 Kudos : 4 Join date : 2010-10-20 Age : 36 Location : Carmarthen
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:27 pm | |
| my insurance is over 3.5 times dearer than your mickey, weighing in at £132.22 a MONTH! which equates to over 1300 a YEAR
First time insurer on the 306 Accident at fault and living on a housing estate slap dab in the centre of carmarthen
10k miles /year 3 named drivers, myself, Christina (gf) and my mum.
it started off at 70 something a month, but since moving and adding christina it's shot up...actually simply moving address was the biggest killer, where as adding just over 500 quid, where as christina was an extra 50 quid a year.
I love the car though, fun to drive and got some grunt behind it... bt i think financially it's relationship wih my pocket are numbered..... | |
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soc Regular Member
Posts : 232 Kudos : 2 Join date : 2010-11-04 Age : 38 Location : aberystwyth
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Sun Dec 11, 2011 12:38 am | |
| ive also found if you go to - confused.com gocompare.co etc etc depending on the insurer its cheaper to go through them than direct to the company.
my e36 318 through swiftcover was £466 but if i went through confused.com it was £428 | |
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Crease Over Enthusiastic
Posts : 719 Kudos : 30 Join date : 2010-10-21 Age : 34 Location : Aberystwyth
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Sun Dec 11, 2011 2:20 am | |
| im paying jus over 900, and ive got 12 points! | |
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OcaToro Regular Member
Posts : 114 Kudos : 9 Join date : 2011-07-16
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:10 am | |
| over how long have you accrued those crease? because if they were all within a 3 year period, youre actually banned.
soc... that is a strange phenomenon given that the insurers have to pay commission to comparison sites, which usually means they work out more expensive. what i often do is whittle down the cheapest few via money supermarket and then get a separate quote from the insurer themselves, and its always 100% of the time worked out cheaper for me.
mickey, i don't think it does depend on the car, i only put my mx5 on fully comp, because it was cheaper. i just went with the cheapest price i could get. maybe because imported? | |
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silentdice Moderator
Posts : 1999 Kudos : 107 Join date : 2010-10-13 Location : Lampeter
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:25 am | |
| Nah, I tried import and UK model to see the difference.
Car insurance just doesn't make sense sometimes - I swear they just have a random generated premium based on the letters in your name combined with your birth date. | |
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evoman Keyboard Warrior
Posts : 355 Kudos : 16 Join date : 2010-12-19 Age : 32 Location : Aberystwyth
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Wed Dec 14, 2011 5:28 am | |
| I'm not sure about how to save money on car insurance, but one time I drank my own wee and it saved me buying a drink. | |
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Crease Over Enthusiastic
Posts : 719 Kudos : 30 Join date : 2010-10-21 Age : 34 Location : Aberystwyth
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Wed Dec 14, 2011 9:27 am | |
| my points were aquired in the space of two, and no im not banned thanks! insurance is to do with risk factor, the popular cars, are well, popular, so therefore as a general rule going to have more crashes i think the trick is to find a unusual car, and try that | |
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OcaToro Regular Member
Posts : 114 Kudos : 9 Join date : 2011-07-16
| Subject: Re: Getting cheaper car insurance Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:28 am | |
| that is most odd. you really ought to check that out.
the government's website says "If you build up 12 or more penalty points within a period of three years, you’ll be liable to be disqualified."
or, since theyve not said anything, best not checking :/ | |
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