Cheap car insurance

Finding Cheap Car Insurance Online
By Dave Healey

Finding cheap car insurance can be like looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Everybody is looking to make savings on their annual motor insurance premiums as the recession bites. We offer 7 proven money saving tips that will help you purchase cheaper cover online.

1. Improve you car's security to deter Thieves

Virtually all modern cars and newly bought vehicles have in built anti-theft devices and alarms. As long as they are approved by the government testing agency Thatcham, you will receive substantial discounts for implementing one. Extra and additional security measures such as window and glass etching of your cars number plate details will command further discounts with some insurance companies.

2. Pay for the cover upfront

You could save as much as twenty five percent on your annual premium charges if you pay for the whole years cover upfront, at the time of purchase. Most car insurers charge this amount in interest over and above the basic premium cost, for the privilege of paying for the cover in installments or by credit card. Additionally avoid untried pay as you go insurance schemes - you may be in for a very unpleasant surprise.

3. Do Not change cover mid-term

It is also a wise move not to change your car insurance provider in the middle of the current policy term. Primarily it is going to cost you more, as canceling an existing policy will only get you a small return on your annual premium and not a pro-rata payout for the amount of time you have left. Secondly it is highly likely that car insurance premium pates will have hardened or risen over the course of a policy and changing mid term will only ensure you pay more earlier.

4. Do you own more than one car?

If you own more than one car and perhaps have separate policies for these or for your wife, partner or children it would be worth your while investigating multiple car or mini fleet family policies. You may be surprised at how much you can save on annual premiums if you insure multiple vehicles under the same cover. Quite often the cost of insuring two cars can be virtually the same as one, particularly if one car is much more expensive than the other.

5. Keep an eye out for Group Discount policies.

Many car insurance companies offer premium discounts on cover if you belong to certain clubs or are affiliated with certain organizations. When purchasing online keep a look out for affinity codes, usually your membership number, in order to obtain what are often substantial discounts for being a member of a certain risk group. Visit a specialist car insurer or apply for your groups car insurance scheme through your motoring or leisure organization.

6. Take on some of the risk yourself

You can substantially lower premiums if you take on some of the risk that the policy covers, yourself. You can do this by increasing excesses, which is the amount you will have to pay in the event of a claim before the insurance company pays out. Voluntary excess is one such example. Be careful to weigh up the costs of any excesses and whether you can afford them in the event of a claim.

7. Improve your credit rating

Most online insurers as soon as they have your name and address will automatically make inquiries to one of the big consumer credit firms such as Experian. Before you have finished filling in the form the car insurance application will know whether you are credit worthy or not. If your credit score appears bad the insurer will probably weight the policy rates against you as they either do not want your business or perceive you to be a greater risk of claiming.

As with all insurance, you can be guaranteed money savings if you take the time and trouble to investigate alternative policies and compare companies cover and quotes on the Internet.

You can find out more about how to purchase and find cheap car insurance quotes online if you visit a specialist car insurance website that compares multiple insurance schemes and policies and offers you wider cover.

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Before you buy any type of insurance but especially car insurance where there are so many possibilities, you should attempt to get as many quotes as is possible in order to get the latest and best deals that are available in your area or for your type of car. Shopping around could save you a small fortune in the current economic climate as the auto insurance companies battle it out to win your trade with ever increasing discounts and so called 'special offers'.

Cheap Car Insurance?

Car insurance is very competitive and rates and special offers are changing all the time as differing companies have various campaigns to get you to buy their type of insurance, many of which may be specifically targeted at certain groups of people or car .

So, in order to get a feel of what you are going to have to pay for a car insurance quote, a good place to start is either by visiting a comparison website or specialist auto insurance supplier's online website. alternatively if you have the time, it is often possible to save money by ringing around different insurance companies on the phone to find the best cover before it is time to buy.

Paying for your policy and buying motor insurance cover

Buying car insurance quotes can be a minefield. Whoever you are, you need to consider how much you are going to have to find for extras such as insurance and breakdown cover, even before you start looking for a car to buy.

If you are a young driver who has never had cover for a car before, it is worthwhile considering putting money away each week while you are learning to drive. Car Insurance is not cheap, in fact its notoriously expensive for new or young drivers who present the greatest risks to the Insurance company underwriting the motor policy.

Indeed it is worth going online even before you part with your money for the new car to get an idea of the various rating groups that different cars have, and to see how much you are probably going to have to pay in premiums when you take up and buy a quote.

Payment Methods

After you have selected the policy that is right for you at a price you can afford, it is time to buy the car insurance quote. Nowadays, most online providers offer various ways and means of paying for the quote. Standard online payment options usually include debit or credit card. Others may offer monthly bank direct debit schemes and payment plans, or transcash facilities such as those provided by Worldpay, for example. You will then need to decide the best and cheapest way of paying for the cover, and find a company that offers not just the right policy for you, but also the right payment method!

However you decide to pay you can save a small fortune if you pay the full amount of the quote up front.

Pay for the quote in full if you can afford to do so! If you decide to pay in installments or by credit card on a monthly basis, you could be charged as much as 25% on top of the basic quote premium!

Its now easy to pay for cover by all methods, and buy car insurance quotes online when you visit a specialist car insurance comparison website such as Car-Insurance.tv. They also compare classic car insurance quotes from over a hundred specialist schemes.

Original Article By Dave Healey

Cheap Car Insurance

Everybody wants cheaper car insurance, but where do you start in the face of the hundreds of adverts you see everyday? Are price comparison sites really cheaper?
We explore how you can lower the price and cost of your car insurance without skimping on the cover!

How to Get Cheap Car Insurance Rates Without Reducing Your Cover

Everywhere you go these days you will hear the same word applied to car insurance. On the TV ads and commercials and on the radio........

Compare!

You certainly do need to compare what you are spending your money on when it comes to car insurance, , there is a lot more to Comparing Car Insurance than what you are first led to believe by the giant car insurance 'price comparison' sites, whose advert jingles regularly ring in your ears......

How to Get Cheaper Car Insurance Without Reducing Your Coverage

When you enter your details online and ask for a quote, the car insurance rating system returns a price for your coverage determined by the answers you give to the questions asked. This is exactly the same process as if you walked into a high street brokers or telephoned a company you found in say yellow pages. The difference online is that you are doing the work filling in the form or researching the market for yourself, saving the insurance company the cost of employing people to process your application.

Online car insurance is therefore nearly always a cheaper method of purchasing coverage as nearly all online motor insurance companies offer an immediate discount to the basic insurance rates, of at least ten percent for purchasing this way. To get the cheapest cover then, it is necessary nowadays to spend some time online.

The art to obtaining cheaper car insurance is found in a combination of first identifying a set of policies or companies that suit your particular insurance cover needs and then adjusting the factors within the preferred policy to tailor the price of it to your pocket.

Different companies ask different questions to assess your risk, but all ask a basic set of questions called rating factors. Although rating factors vary from policy to policy, the standardised method of rating a vehicle according to its risk group (engine size and cost to repair) and a driver by his age and experience, apply almost universally. When looking for cheaper insurance always answer the questions asked truthfully, in order not to invalidate your cover.

Your answers to the standard rating factor and risk questions should always be the same, as things such as your age or the type of car, do not change.

Identifying a company which is right for you and your car is of particular importance as it is not desirable to reduce coverages to save on price. Getting cheaper premiums is about negotiating a price for the level of cover you desire. For example, reducing your coverage from comprehensive to third party fire and theft may save you a lot of money up front, but will cost you dearly in most cases in the event of a claim, especially if you are at fault!

A good place to start, if you have the time, to get an indication of what you are likely to pay, is to visit a car insurance price comparison site. These websites compare rates and policies, often from hundreds of different insurance suppliers. Some online systems particularly these so called aggregator or price comparison sites are more often obliged to ask more questions, so getting a cheaper quote can be time consuming. This is because certain of the insurance companies on the panel require differing information about the driver or the car, in order to return the quote. This obviously takes a lot longer to complete the quotation and purchasing processes where sometimes hundreds of policies are involved, however the time spent is rewarded with a list of competing companies offering a variety of quotes, giving you a very good indication of what you are likely to have to pay. These may not be the cheapest quotes you will find online, but being presented with various offers and options is a starting point for identifying cheaper car insurance.

If you like a look of a particular policy that you have found on a car insurance price comparison site, you can often save money by visiting the company's own website and applying direct. In order to ensure you get the full benefits of cheaper cover it is often necessary to remove all cookies from your browser window, before visiting the car insurance provider direct.

It is also worth remembering that many of the cheaper car insurance companies do not have their motor insurance products for sale on the price comparison sites, and many make a point of this direct exclusivity, in their advertising campaigns. These so called direct car insurance companies are also able to offer large discounts for purchasing their insurance because they cut the costs of production of the policy by cutting out the costs of the middleman, in the form of a price comparison site fee or car insurance brokers commission. The commission savings these direct insurers make by conducting business this way can then be passed onto their customers as cheaper car insurance premiums.

Another area to explore if you have particular driving coverage needs or own a classic or expensive performance car, is the specialist car insurance market. This market is comprised of many specialist car or niche motor insurance schemes, often operated by much smaller companies who could specialise in, for example, a particular classic car make and model scheme, young inexperienced driver insurance, or drivers with convictions.

These specialist policies are often available at much cheaper prices than both the price comparison sites and the direct insurers because they have both the bulk buying power and mutuality of affinity groups, where these economies of scale can be passed on as cheaper car insurance premiums to the customer; and also benefit from the fact that where the risk is known and can be grouped, much more accurate and tailored risk pricing can be achieved. To identify a suitable specialist company simply search online for insurance for your vehicle type.

Once you have identified a few policies that are suitable for your personal driving requirements, there are certain adjustments that can be made within the quotation system that will reduce the premiums.

Many of the adjustments that online car insurance applications allow you to make, do not reduce your levels of cover but transfer some of the risk to yourself in the form of excesses. The excess is the amount that you personally have to bear the cost of in the event of a claim, before the insurance cover kicks in.

The higher the excess you are prepared to accept on a voluntary basis the cheaper the cost of the policy. This method of reducing premiums is fine if you are a careful driver and do not believe that you will ever have an at fault accident or claim. Higher excesses invariably mean small claims for bumps and scratches are avoided. A new type of car insurance called value car insurance was recently introduced into the UK market by supermarket chain Tesco.

The concept of this insurance is an ultra high compulsory policy excess to deter all but the most serious claims; coupled with ultra low premiums, sometimes as much as a third of the competitors prices. Companies are able to offer this cheap coverage because claims are reduced and profits higher.

So in order to get cheap car insurance it is necessary to dedicate some time comparing policies, plans, schemes, covers and prices. Going direct or haggling on the phone can also sometimes produce spectacular price reductions, particularly as there are many promotional offers these days that are only available direct from the supplier. The more time you dedicate to exploring and researching various car insurance options the more likely it is that you will find much cheaper car insurance than you are currently paying!

So there you have it...
Shop around, Compare Car Insurance at YouTube and check out TV and radio ads for great cheap car insurance deals.
Always remember to check what you are buying in terms of a claims service because at the end of the day that is all that matters!!

Unfortunately for US citizens this type of cheap car insurance comparison system is not yet available across State boudaries in many cases due to varying legislative handcuffs,, and in strength and depth of policy range and comparison. however it will not be long before these hurdles are finally overcome and we will see the UK cheap car insurance model exported across the Atlantic.

One of the leading companies in the field of insurance website comparison technology and design Insuretec plc has teamed up with the UK's specialist classic car inurance company Lancaster. Together they've extended the cheap car insurance model to include classic car insurance
, specialist car insurance and all types of non standard car insurance ensuring that the market is expanded to be more inclusive in the selling of cheap car insurance

Read this to see how changing the way you live will not only save you money with cheap car insurance but will also help the environment

Classic Car Insurance - Change Your Lifestyle and Save Money

Classic Car Insurance - Change Your Lifestyle and Save Money
By Dave Healey

Change your lifestyle and you will be eligible to apply for all sorts of non standard specialist car insurance that is tailored to a particular genre or lifestyle group or club. The lifestyle factor is more predominant in the calculation and issuing of policies for classic cars than in any other form of specialist car insurance motor underwriting.

Classic car insurance policies are now based primarily upon usage limits and consequently tend to reflect the fact that classic cars are used differently than a normal everyday car, although the types of use social, domestic, pleasure, business and commuting, or for hire and racing, will still apply. Many a beloved classic motor will stay under wraps in the garage for many a month and is only brought out and paraded for special occasions and events.

The range, length and risk of these events will undoubtedly determine the level of price for a specialist classic car policy. Such events can be as innocuous as local classic car club meetings at predetermined destinations, fun runs, treasure hunts, vintage runs, air shows and displays, national classic rallies, film shoots, motor shows, trade shows or as extreme and heavy premium carrying as classic car racing or hill climbing.

Most specialist motor underwriters therefore appreciate that you may need a more tailored and flexible type of car insurance for a classic car, one that allows you to fit the policy around what is effectively your lifestyle risk. Your risk levels are calculated upon the way you use the classic car and the number of miles distance you cover in that car each year. These so called rating factors are adapted to play a much larger role in the calculation of a classic car insurance premium than the traditional factors that weigh heavily in standard car insurance premium calculation, such as Age or Gender.

Price has tended in the past not to be a large driver in the classic car insurance market, where quality of cover for cherished vehicles has always been seen as the primary marketing message. Underwriters have appreciated that the classic car is quite often considered as a 'baby' within the family unit and may in the past have taken advantage of the irrationality when considering price. However the introduction of many classic car insurance comparison websites on the Internet means that premium levels can no longer be ignored and that customers now rightly demand service and cover for their specialist car insurance lifestyle vagaries, at the right price.

It is now possible to obtain tailored online cover for even the most obscure car marque and the introduction of online underwriting has introduced a welcome level of competition into what had become a stagnant market. Group and affinity market buying power has also helped stimulate growth and push premium prices down through bulk buying power schemes. Whatever aspirations you may hold as a classic car owner it appears that with technology you are more increasingly likely to be judged financially by your lifestyle than its trappings that you must insure.

Dave Healey is a specialist motor underwiter who has been underwriting Classic Car Insurance polices at Lloyds for over thirty years.

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