Car insurance has never been more expensive than ever! We’re in a time of uncertainty, and there’s more cars on our roads than there has been for many years, car collisions are on the rise, and so is finding the best car insurance deal.
Whether you’re a new driver, a young driver or having been driving for several years, we all want cheaper car insurance right?
We take car insurance for granted, and in most cases, we dig into our pockets every year and take out the debt or credit card and are paying for something that we might not ever need for years to come!
So we all want to get cheaper car insurance, and find the best car insurance deal out there right?
In this blog post, I’m going to give you 12 tips for getting cheaper car insurance that you can action TODAY for searching for your next insurance quote!
1. There’s No Need To Put Everyone On Your Policy!
So you might already have car insurance, and you think you’ve got the best insurance deal because you’ve got multiple people, friends, family and partners on your car insurance…
Well actually…
You could be paying a lot more than you actually need to! When searching for car insurance, remember to only add the people that are actually going to be using your car.
If you’re a younger driver and have just passed your test, it is likely a good idea to add an older family member to your policy as car insurers will do some basic calculations and will assume that the older person has more experience and likely is to be driving your car at least some of that time.
It can however work in the opposite favour, we’re seeing that some older people are actually increasing the cost of your car insurance policy.
There’s many factors that contribute to this, and I can’t pinpoint an exact reason. But the general rule of thumb is that adding one or two trusted, experience drivers who are related to you is likely to reduce your car insurance costs.
2. You Need To Increase Your Voluntary Excess For The Best Car Insurance Deal!
When taking out a car insurance policy, you’ll be given an option to choose your voluntary excess.
It will likely be defaulted to the region of £50 – £300 if you’re in the UK.
What Is The Voluntary Excess?
The voluntary excess is the amount of money that YOU will have to pay, in addition to the compulsory excess should you need to make a claim on your policy.
That’s right, I did just mention a compulsory excess, and this is paid in addition to your voluntary excess.
The compulsory excess is an amount determined by the car insurance provider, and is going to calculated based on:
- Your Age – you’ll normally pay a higher compulsory excess if you’re a younger driver, then, when you reach 21 you’ll pay a little less, and at the age of 25 you’ll likely be paying the same as more experienced drivers.
- New Policy V Existing Policy – this factor might come into account with some policies, they could change the compulsory excess based on your policy.
- Previous Claims and History – if you’ve made a claim in the past few years, you could be paying a larger compulsory excess now.
So for instance, if you’re under the age of 21, your compulsory excess could be £500, you’ll then have to choose a voluntary excess, you could set it to be £0, but as a younger driver or new driver, you’ll be paying a lot more in the long run.
I recommend going with what you can afford.
At the end of the day, you’ll have to pay both of these in the event of a car insurance claim.
3. Secure Your Car Correctly
Another factor when trying to get the best car insurance deal, is to make sure that your car is secured correctly.
This means that you lock all of your car’s doors, windows and when parked, ensure your parking brake is correctly on, and if you’ve got a manual car I recommend keeping it in gear.
If you don’t secure your car correctly, your car will be at risk of car theft, so I absolutely recommend getting some car security devices.
You can check out my guide on how to help prevent car theft if you’re looking at what security devices to buy!
What Car Security Devices Should I Buy?
There are several car security devices that you can look into, here’s my summary:
- Car Steering Wheel Lock – these are a device that prevent your car’s wheel from being turned, it acts as a deterrent to a potential car thief.
- Car Dash Cam – a car dash cam could be a great way to capture video evidence when you’re driving around, or even when parked.
- Car Wheel Lock – a wheel lock is a device that will prevent your car wheels from moving, typically made out of a strong material.
Whilst these are a few ways to secure your car to get cheaper car insurance, there are many more.
A car insurance claim isn’t going to go down very well if they pinpoint the problem down to the fact that you didn’t secure your car correctly.
4. Lower Your Annual Mileage To Get The Best Car Insurance Deal
Have you ever wondered how many miles you do per year? 8,000? 10,000? 12,000? Or more?
It’s likely something that you don’t pay much attention to right?
You take out your car insurance policy, and you select the default 10,000 miles per year not realising that in reality, you’re driving around 15,000 miles a year…
What does this mean for you?
Well…
Simply, it means that for 5,000 of those miles, you aren’t technically covered should you have to make a car insurance claim!
Here’s An Example To Your Annual Mileage
So I like to give you practical examples of what I mean throughout this blog post right?
So here’s the thing, let’s assume that you commute to work 5 days a week, and each day you do an average of 60 miles (that’s 30 in the morning to work, and 30 coming home from work).
That’s going to equal around 300 miles a week, which ends up coming to around 15,000 miles per year of commuting right?
This doesn’t even include your weekly shop, unless you’re able to walk to the shops, and in my case, I’m not able to do this.
And it doesn’t include any weekend driving throughout the year, or holiday driving.
The simplest way to make sure you’re getting the best car insurance deal in terms of your annual mileage is to actually add an extra 20% give or take to your mileage calculations to make sure that you’re getting the best car insurance deal.
And most importantly, to make sure that your car insurance policy remains valid, year after year!
5. Black Box Car Insurance Deals
If you’re a new or young driver, and have recently passed your driving test and are now shopping online for the best car insurance deal, why not consider black box car insurance.
So you might be wonder…
What Is Black Box Car Insurance?
Put simply, black box car insurance is a way of reducing your car insurance by fitting a “black box” to your car, this device logs information about the following:
- Your Driving Style – how harshly do you brake, accelerate, and corner.
- Your Speed – how fast are you driving? Are you breaking any speed limits? The black box usually has a GPS antenna fitted allowing it to figure out the speed limits of the roads you’re driving on.
- Your Location – like about, the black box is typically fitted with an on-board GPS antenna which is useful for locating where you are at any given moment, and can even aid in the recovery of your car should it ever be stolen!
There are many different type of black box car insurance on the market for drivers fitting all ages and gender, but most typically, we see drivers under the age of 25 taking out these policies.
A black box policy is likely going to improve your driving as well as you’ll always know that your driving will have a direct impact on your overall annual car insurance quote and decides how much you pay.
What About The Cons Of Black Box Car Insurance?
Despite the benefits of black box car insurance, there can actually be several reasons why this type of cover isn’t appropriate for you!
Some insurers will claim that their data is accurate, and the processes that are involved in logging the data is accurate.
This just isn’t always the case, and GPS coverage in some areas just isn’t great, this can mean that the data logged is inaccurate.
I recommend finding out by taking a look at online black box car insurance reviews on places like TrustPilot first.
6. Use A Car Insurance Comparison Website
I know it sounds obvious, but seriously…
Use a car insurance comparison website to find the best car insurance deal. There are many car insurance comparison sites that you can use. Some of them are:
- Go Compare
- Compare The Market
- Confused
- Money Super Market
Whilst these are just a few, there are many more out there to help you find the best car insurance deal!
7. Protect Your No Claims Bonus – No, Seriously!
Something you might’ve seen when searching for car insurance is the ability to protect your no claims bonus!
This is where you pay a little extra every year to protect your no claims bonus and your no claims bonus that you’ve built up would in some cases be wasted if you don’t protect them.
Car insurance companies will likely make a little extra by you protecting you no claims bonus, but in the long run it can save you up-to thousands of pounds.
How Does Protecting My No Claims Bonus Save Me Money?
So you’re probably wondering how this actually saves you money right?
You’re spending a little more every year and this isn’t saving you any money right?
Well…
It might not save you money on your car insurance at this moment in time, but at least in the future it might.
Let’s say you’re parked on a quiet side road somewhere, your new or used car doesn’t have folding wing mirrors, and you go shopping, and come back to find out that your car’s wing mirror has been taken off by a car passing by.
You realise that you don’t have much money saved up to cover this, and now you’ve got to make a claim, and for the sake of your wing mirror, you’ve now lost a few years no claims bonus…
And you wished that you had protected it earlier!
This is the very reason that protecting your no claims bonus might save you money on your car insurance and help you find the best car insurance deal.
8. Put Your Car Into Your Garage – Utilise This Space
Do you own a garage? You might even be able to rent a garage at a low cost near you. A garage is a great way at helping you save money on your car insurance and will help get you the best car insurance deal.
How?
Well, if you’ve got a garage, and you’re able to correctly secure both your garage and your car, then you’ll be able potentially lower the cost of your insurance by putting your car into your garage.
A car insurance company might see this as a reason to give you a better insurance deal as your car can’t be accessed as easily when compared to having your car simply parked on the road.
Utilise your garage to store your car, and get the best deal.
Now…
I’m not saying that this is going to save you money and help you find the best insurance deal in every circumstance as there could be some cons of doing this.
What Are The Cons Of Putting My Car In A Garage?
I think the most obvious problem of using a garage to store your car actually is the fact that you can’t see the car.
And to a car thief this is going to potentially play on their minds.
They might be thinking about what’s in your garage.
What car do you have, and is it a classic car?
These reasons could mean that your car is at a higher risk if it’s stored in a car garage.
9. Be A Better and Safer Driver On The Roads!
You think you’ve already got the best car insurance deal already right? And you might even believe that you’re the best driver on our roads.
Even experienced drivers can still make improvements in their driving.
Ultimately, better driving is safer driving, and safer driving will lead to lower car insurance claims in the long run right?
This is the theory, and whilst it might not be true for every instance, I reckon it’s a pretty good reason that you’ll be able to get cheaper car insurance over several years.
10. Purchase A Car Dash Cam
So we’ve finally reached number 10 in our guide to getting the best car insurance deal, and we’ve still got more to cover!
But firstly, if you’ve made it to this point, then you’re that 1% of people that are truly engaged in the car topics that we post!
Why not share this post on social media and share it with friends and family!
Anyway…
Number 10 on our list, is to invest in a good quality car dash cam. A car dash cam is simply a device that records video footage whilst you’re driving, they typically attach to the inside of your car.
On your car’s windscreen, and will capture video footage of potential car collisions and help dispute any problems with a car insurance company should a claim arise.
There are many different car dash cams available, each with their individual pros and cons, and I’d for sure recommend one with at least 720p HD video, and one that doesn’t restrict the maximum memory limit of the memory card that you can install (as some do).
How To Pick The Best Car Dash Cam
Picking the best car dash cam shouldn’t be hard. You need the facts and an honest review that covers the strengths and weaknesses.
You want a car dash cam that is able to save data to a memory card (SD card), and ideally you need it to record video and allow you to decide how it records the video by splitting out files based on time.
11. Use Car Security Devices
One of the easiest ways to get the best car insurance deal, and more importantly, the cheapest car insurance is to correctly use car security devices.
There are many different forms of car security devices that you can buy.
Some of these might include dash cams, wheel locks, steering wheel locks, windscreen protective films and many more.
The general rule of thumb here though is to shop around, and make sure that if you do utilise a car security device that you apply some common knowledge to try and reduce the cost of car insurance.
12. Check Car Insurance At The Right Time
Next on the list to get cheaper car insurance is checking car insurance at the right time.
What do I mean by this?
If you’ve already got car insurance, and your renewal date is coming up, you want to try and take out a new policy around 24 days before your renewal date, and this is also going to be the best time to search for a new policy.
You want to make sure that you’re getting the best car insurance deal by making sure you take out a policy at around this time.
Final Thoughts
And that’s a wrap, we’ve covered a lot of content in this post, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it!
If you made it this far, I’d appreciate if you could share the blog post, share it with friends and family if you’re trying to get cheaper car insurance!
- Check Car Insurance At The Right Time
