Finding affordable and comprehensive car insurance cover for young drivers is often a challenge, especially after the hard work of passing your test and saving for your car.
The average cost of car insurance for a 17-22-year-old currently stands at an extortionate £1,290 per year. With hundreds of providers, the task of finding the best deal can seem overwhelming.
We’ve got some simple and easy car insurance tips to help you find the best deal.
1) Consider how comprehensive the cover you need is.
Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance is tempting when you are trying to save on your premium; however, this option ends up expensive once you consider the cover it provides. On top of this, some third party only insurance can be more expensive than the comprehensive cover, so it is worth shopping around.
Although adding non-compulsory policies can seem expensive, the simple CTP insurance will not cover any vehicle/property damage, and only covers third party injury. However, once taking into account the value of your vehicle you should be able to consider the level of comprehensive cover you need.
For example, for less expensive second-hand cars, it can be cheaper to add fire and theft cover with third party property insurance than going for a comprehensive policy.
2) Consider adding a second driver.
Adding a second driver to your policy can reduce the costs, even though this may not seem logical. If you are adding a driver who is a lower risk to the insurer than yourself, you can save a lot on your policy. In particular, drivers with a good history should reduce the cost substantially, as insurers are allowed to take driving history into account. Any second driver that you do add needs to be someone who would reasonably drive your car. Do not add any driver as the primary driver if they are not one as this counts as fraud, and you can face a criminal conviction for doing this.
Adding a second driver to your policy can reduce the costs, even though this may not seem logical. If you are adding a driver who is a lower risk to the insurer than yourself, you can save a lot on your policy. In particular, drivers with a good history should reduce the cost substantially, as insurers are allowed to take driving history into account. Any second driver that you do add needs to be someone who would reasonably drive your car. Do not add any driver as the primary driver if they are not one as this counts as fraud, and you can face a criminal conviction for doing this.
If you share vehicles between friends and family, insuring them together can save you money. You will need to compare the cost of insuring each car separately before deciding whether multi car insurance could be cheaper. Multi-vehicle discount insurers include Aviva, Churchill, Directline and Privilege, and you will need to get direct quotes from these providers.
3) Minimise the risk to insurers
Choosing a car that sits within a ‘low risk’ band will mean cheaper insurance premiums. However, adding simple features to any vehicle such as alarms and kill switches can dramatically affect your premium. Similar to this, if you store your vehicle off-road, either in a garage or driveway, you can save a lot of money. Even completing an additional safe driving course after your test can pay for itself in the long run by reducing the cost of your insurance. These are simple factors that can make a huge difference to money saving when quoting for insurance as a young and inexperienced driver.
4) Black Boxes
A telematics device often referred to as a “black box” measures data while you drive, feeding back to your insurer and affecting your insurance costs. It measures your speed, braking speed, acceleration around corners and time of driving to determine your risk of an accident or damage. For safe and cautious drivers, installing a “black box” can single-handedly have the best impact on the cost of their insurance. However, the cost of insurance for young drivers is often a reasonable measure of their risk, so it is worth serious consideration before deciding on telematics. Poor driving will result in dramatically increased insurance premiums, and the black box can be more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to reducing your costs.
5) Consider the periodicity of your payments
This is the most simple tip of them all, and an easy way to knock money off a policy without having to change any of its features. Paying for a year up front is often cheaper than making regular payments, so if you have the money put aside for a year’s worth of insurance, it is worth paying in one go.
6) Get the excess right
Considering the excess that you require vital in making sure that you are paying the right amount- you need to make sure you are covering yourself to afford any potential damage, while not paying an enormous fee to cover all eventualities.
Paying for a policy with a higher excess will reduce the cost of your premium, but if you need to claim you will need to pay a larger amount out of your pocket. On top of this, claiming for less than £500 worth of damage increases the cost of any future insurance policies, and removes a no-claims bonus that you may have. This makes any excess below the £500 damaging to your future insurance. However, if you need to cover yourself in the case of damage to make sure you can afford a claim, your premium will reflect this and likely be increased.
Some companies such as We Pay Any Excess will charge a cost to pay out any excesses that you may have, whilst allowing a reduced premium by increasing your excess when you get a quote. For example, increasing your excess from £500 to £1000 and getting this excess payment covered can cost you as little as £80 for four years.
7) Get a new quote- don’t auto renew
Insurers make money out of customers who don’t bother to change their insurance provider. If you know that your renewal date is coming up, make sure that you take the time to get a new quote, as it is likely that switching to another provider will save you a lot of cash.
Car insurance costs are typically increasing, so using insurers who provide quotes that can be locked in can be beneficial. Some insurers allow you to lock in a quote price as far in advance as 60 days before your renewal date, enabling you to avoid an increase in the quote if the price has gone up.
8) Extend your search outside of comparison websites
Some of the biggest and best insurers do not sit on comparison sites and are worth getting direct quotes from. Direct Line, Aviva and Zurich, for example, do not appear on comparison websites, so although they can be an easy way of saving time comparing quotes, it is worth looking outside of these if you want to get the best deal.
9) Cashback Websites
Although these websites do not directly affect the price of your car insurance quote, they are a useful way of getting money back into your pocket. These cashback sites have paid links from retailers/financial service providers, so if you click through they get paid for it. They then compensate you with some of this cash, so it can be an additional bonus if you find a quote and can get cashback once you purchase the insurance. It is not worth using these websites to narrow the pool of insurers you will get quotes from, as they may not get you the best price, but it can be an added benefit if you find your insurer sits on one of these cashback websites.
10) Keep your details updated
After the time and money invested in getting yourself a good deal on your car insurance, make sure you cover yourself by making sure that all your details are correct on your policy. If you need to make a claim and your insurer finds some of your details to have changed or to be incorrect, your claim may not be valid. Typical examples where customers forget to update their policy include a change of job or any modifications they make to their vehicle.