Car Insurance tips and guide
Pay less for Car insurance less with smaller, safer, more
secure and environmentally friendly cars.
We strongly recommend
that you check the cost of your motor insurance before
completing your agreement since it could be quite different
to your current premium. You will be required to take
out fully comprehensive insurance cover. There are
opportunities for saving money by going for a lower insurance
group vehicle. Vehicles with better safety and security
specifications will generally attract lower insurance
premiums. Insurance companies will also factor in the
value of the vehicle, the cost of replacement parts,
typical labour costs and its brake horse power. Unsurprisingly,
the faster it goes and the more powerful the acceleration,
the more it costs to insure. Coincidentally, there is
quite a close relationship between vehicles with lower
insurance costs and vehicles that are more environmentally
friendly. The lower the CO2 emissions the lower your
GVED (road tax) will be and the lower your running costs.
If you are using a company car, lower CO2 emissions also
mean that you will pay less benefit in kind tax from
your salary. When looking for car or van insurance it
pays to shop around and check that you are being offered
the same features with each insurance quote you receive.
We show some points to consider below. Most of the big
UK car insurance companies will offer these features
as standard but it pays to check these details with them.
Car insurance checklist - important points to check
with your insurance company:
- Flexible insurance premium payment schemes
- Guaranteed or protected no claims bonus schemes
- Provision of a courtesy car while insurance work
is carried out
- Discounts for Pass Plus and Advanced Drivers
- Uninsured Loss Recovery
- Legal protection
Our review pages include information about most of
the above considerations. If we haven't reviewed a vehicle
our staff can tell you the recommended insurance group
of the vehicle you are interested in. These insurance
groups are based on ratings assessed and set by The Association
of British Insurers, a trade body with a code of practice
to which all their members must subscribe. Their web
site contains more information and any changes to ratings
that may have taken place since our data was last updated.
While you might want to check that your insurers are
a member of this organization, their ratings are purely
advisory and therefore the insurance group allocated
to any vehicle may vary from one insurance company to
to another. You can find more information about their
ratings on their web site at - http://www.abi.org.uk/carinsurance/default.asp
(copy and paste into your browser address bar).
Car insurance costs can be affected by individual circumstances
:
- Where you live
- Convictions & endorsements
- Occupation
- Health (you should declare anything that might affect
your policy at the outset)
- Age
- What the vehicle is used for
Many new developments in safety have been encouraged
by Euro NCAP. You can find explanations of their testing
procedures and criteria on their web site at - http://www.euroncap.com
(copy and paste into your browser address bar). Euro
NCAP test ratings are frequently quoted in reviews because
they provide an independent and objective set of benchmarks
against which to compare the overall safety of different
cars.
Another organization that carries out influential research
and testing on security and safety of vehicles is The
Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre at Thatcham (http://www.thatcham.org).
You can look up security and whiplash ratings on their
web site.
