See all Motoring AdviceRunning a car these days is an expensive job and one of the biggest outlays is for insurance. But if you think you’re paying over the odds to secure a premium for your vehicle, here are our top tips to help you reduce your car insurance costs.
Limit your annual distance
The more kilometres you do every year, the more of a ‘risk’ you are in the eyes of the insurance firms – put simply, no matter how good a driver they might be, a person who is doing 20,000km every year has a greater chance of being involved in an incident than someone who does 10,000km. So, assess your true annual distance by looking back at how many kilometres you covered in each of your previous three years of driving; if you’re not sure, take an average from your car’s odometer by comparing what its mileage was when you bought it and what it is now. If you only do, say, 7,000km per annum on average, don’t be paying for more cover – it’s just not necessary.
Enhance your security measures
A variety of ways of reducing your insurance premiums revolve around making the car more secure while it is parked up overnight. This can be as simple as parking it in your (locked) garage, if you have one, rather than simply sticking it on the street for convenience’s sake. If that’s not possible, store the car on a driveway rather than the road for lower premiums. However, this also extends to improving the car’s security, such as fitting aftermarket anti-theft devices like a Ghost immobiliser – a system which requires pressing a certain, unique sequence of the car’s in-cabin buttons to allow the vehicle to start.
Bump up your voluntary excess
Increasing your voluntary excess decreases your premium, so this will help you financially in the long-term – but be warned, if you have a crash then you’ll have to find more cash in an instant to pay the excess. However, ramping your voluntary excess up from, say, €200 to €500 will have a positive impact on the overall premium, so if you’re a safe driver who’s had lots of years of incident-free motoring, this is a good move to make.
Pay your premium in a lump sum, rather than monthly
Again, this is a case of finding more money up front, but if you can afford it then paying your insurance premium annually rather than monthly will save you cash. For example, if you are quoted €600 for an annual premium, this is the amount you’d pay in a lump sum. But if you spread that out over 12 monthly payments, then the insurance company will charge you interest – so your monthly payments won’t be €50, as expected, but maybe more like €55. That might not seem like much per month, but over the course of a year you’ll end up paying €660 for the same level of cover.
Watch out for fees and add-ons
Car insurance companies like to add in clauses for things like legal protection, covering the cost of courtesy cars in the event your vehicle is off the road being repaired in the wake of a crash, windscreen replacement cover (usually a small excess), personal accident cover and also choosing to ‘protect’ your no claims bonus (NCB). While some of these are useful items, especially the last, if you go for all of them then there will be extras added onto your overall premium, pushing up the price. So, for instance, if you’ve got a second car in the household, do you really need courtesy car cover? Also, watch out for insurance companies charging you an ‘admin fee’ for making changes to details on the policy midway through the annual cover; think carefully before making any amendments to your insurance.
Add another driver
Within reason – this can’t just be any old stranger, of course. Instead, if you have a partner or relative who is a safer or more experienced driver than you are, consider adding them to your policy as a named driver. It’s again a question of ‘risk’ in the eyes of the insurance company, as the firms will consider the potential time the named driver is behind the wheel as periods where the car is at less risk of being damaged. But you must always be honest and clearly declare who the main driver of the vehicle will be on any policy, even if that’s yourself and you’ve got various driving convictions on your licence and a record of insurance claims.
Fit a black box or recording device
If you’re willing to be constantly overseen by an electronic system, then you can reduce your premiums. Car insurance typically works on the basis of people submitting their past driving records, then saying how they will drive in the year ahead – underwriters then work out the premium from there, based on all the available evidence. But they can’t actually physically check how you’re driving all the time, which is where a black box or recording ‘app’ comes in. If you volunteer to have a black box fitted, it will monitor how you drive all the time, including straying over the speed limit and so on. Therefore, if you know you are an immaculate driver and the black box isn’t going to expose you as lead-footed, you can reduce your premiums by having one fitted and then declaring it to your insurance company.
Consider a lesser level of cover
Depending on the value and age of the vehicle you’re covering, you might be able to get away with third party, fire and theft cover, rather than fully comprehensive. But if you’ve got a very new, expensive car, or alternatively you’re driving around in a stone-cold classic that’s appreciating in value, this won’t be the best course of action.