Swiftlydoesit Life & Insurance

Don’t pay above the odds on your car insurance

February 28th, 2008

Nowadays, owning a car is a very expensive necessity. You have the initial outlay for the car of your choice, the annual costs of services, taxes, and insurance and we also have to suffer with the ever increasing cost of petrol. I passed my local petrol station this morning and saw that a litre of petrol will now cost a staggering £1.05. Unfortunately there is very little, if anything, that we can do to influence our costs for services, taxes and petrol but we can make a difference on our car insurance premiums.

According to research carried out by Sainsbury Bank the average car insurance premium in 2007 increased by 5.24%. Similarly, research from comparison site Moneysupermarket showed an increase in premiums of 4.5% during the second half of 2007.

Swiftcover.com published an article yesterday stating that UK motorists are collectively paying £1.9 billion over the odds for car insurance, mostly due to motorists not shopping around at the time of renewal.

So what can we do to keep the costs down?

The first lesson is to always shop around when your car insurance is due and remember if you buy online you are more likely to save money. Other ways include ensuring your car is as secure as possible by using an alarm or immobilizer, parking on a drive or in a garage to minimize the risk of an accident whilst your car is parked in the road and not paying for unnecessary insurance add ons like cover for driving abroad.

There are lots of other ways to get cheap car insurance quote. Sky Money, MSN and Swiftcover.com have all published articles recently with their top tips.

If you are looking at buying a new car it is worth considering buying a hybrid car like the Honda Civic, Honda Insight or Lexus RX. Many insurance companies offer a discount on these cars so not only would you be saving yourself some money, you would also be doing your bit for the environment.

Entry Filed under: advice, green issues, insurance, cars