How to get cheap car insurance

There's a very knowledgable article over at Ezines from Dave Healey, our classic car insurance expert who has given away the secrets the underwriters don't want you to know - How to get Cheap Car Insurance!
we gratefully reprint it here...

Twelve Car Insurance Money Saving Tips For Much Cheaper Premiums

By Dave Healey

It can be quite a daunting experience trying to purchase car insurance, and with the myriad of products and sales channels available today, it is often difficult to know where to start the process. It can be even more complicated when you start to look to reduce your premiums without sacrificing either your levels of cover or increasing your risk.
As most motor insurance is basically rated by your birth date and age, and your postcode or zip code, short of moving property or growing older, it often appears that reducing your vehicle insurance premiums is an impossible task.
This is not necessarily so! Whichever method or distribution outlet you use to purchase car insurance, if you consider these twelve money saving tips, implementation of any one will virtually guarantee a reduction to your premiums at both onset of a policy or at renewal. By simply making changes to any one of these premium rating factors that go to make up the quotes you are given, will result in an alternative quote which should be to your favour.
Before we start remember - Don't automatically renew your policy with the same company. It is virtually guaranteed that you could get like for like cover cheaper with another insurance company if you shop around and compare covers and prices from different providers.
1. Investigate on the Internet - Visit different suppliers
If you were getting paid at least £150 or $200 for two hours work, you should be pleased. That is the minimum you should look to save on your annual premiums by spending a couple of hours shopping around for quotes on the Internet.
Visit a car insurance supermarket comparison site. If the premiums are too expensive but you like the cover offered by a particular insurance company then, visit the supplier direct and cut out the expense of the middleman.
The large motor insurance comparison sites you see advertised all the time on television will send you off to the suppliers site themselves to complete 'the deal', so its best to close down the application, clear the cookies from your browsers memory to ensure that you are not charged their commission inclusive rates, and visit the insurance company direct.
Additionally you should visit a specialist auto insurance scheme provider. These were once only available on the High Street but are now springing up everywhere online. No matter what your particular individual needs, be it lady driver cover or perhaps classic car cover, specialist car insurance providers by their very nature usually offer cheaper quotes as they benefit from the economies of scale allowed by group buying of cover.

2. Do your research
Who is offering the best deals on television at the moment?

Everybody who seeks motor insurance is an individual with a different car and individual cover needs dependant upon their circumstances. Write down what you think your exact cover needs are and think about where you might find providers for your individual needs. For example, if are you a senior citizen, you should search on the Internet for specialist car insurance schemes for over fifties.

3. Go for a no frills policy
If you are not worried about quality of cover and only require basic road risks, go for one of the many policies now being offered by insurance supermarkets as 'value car insurance'. These policies usually only offer the very basics of cover required under the Road Traffic Act, however may be very suitable for low mileage, cheap cars and younger drivers.

4. Only get cover for what you need
Why pay for car breakdown insurance or other sometimes hidden extras such as the cost of including a replacement vehicle should you have an accident, when you already have AA breakdown cover and another car sitting on the driveway at home that you could use. Check your existing policy cover details carefully and exclude all unnecessary or duplicate covers.

5. Take on the risk yourself
With Car Insurance you have two basic options for taking more of the risk on yourself. These being, one by choosing how much cover you require in the first place, that is, either comprehensive or third party, perhaps with the fire and theft options included. Secondly you are given the option on most systems to choose how much of the cost of damages of an accident you are prepared to take on board yourself, before you call on the insurance company to make a claim. This is known as the voluntary excess and is the amount that will always be deducted first from any amount you claim. If the cost of repairs of an accident are not much more than the voluntary excess amount you have chosen then it would be prudent to pay for the repair costs yourself, rather than lose your no claims bonus.

6. Reduce the cars risk with improved car and location security
If you park your car off road or garage it at night you will receive further discounts. If you own a classic car which does not have them fitted as standard, fitting security devices, for example car alarms, immobilizers and GPS trackers to your car will substantially reduce your premium.

7. Improve your driving or change your lifestyle
If you need to make a claim because of the way you drive, or if you have more than one SP30 for speeding, your premiums are going to be heavily loaded at renewal. You can reduce your insurance costs therefore by improving the way you use your car or changing your lifestyle.

8. Cut down on your Car's Usage
By thinking about how you use your car and reducing unnecessary journeys you will be cutting down on your cars usage and by implication the risk you present to an underwriter. Check how many miles you run up each year and make sure that this is what you are paying for! Do not make a false mileage declaration in an attempt to save money because in the event of a claim, your mileage and MOT if applicable will be noted by a claims assessor. If there is significant difference between the declared mileage and the actual amount you have driven, you risk having the claim refused or seriously reduced in value.

9. Pay the full premium amount upfront
Most UK insurance companies charge additional costs for handling monthly direct debit payments. There is often a five to ten percent effective discount if you pay immediately online or over the phone by debit card.

10. Investigate Specialist insurance and Car Insurance Schemes
Investigate insurance specialists that target specific groups of people of car type, for example performance motor insurance or cover for young drivers. These schemes offer with unique policy options and cover modified for the particular specialist driver group. They are often far cheaper than standardised covers offered by comparison sites as they have group bulk buying economies of scale regarding underwriting and claims and a known risk pool of similar types of people and car.

11. Join a Car club
Many car owners clubs and specialist marques clubs have special affinity group rates for specialist car insurance schemes. The cost of getting membership of these clubs can often be less than the five to ten percent savings you can make on your premiums by joining such a scheme.

12. Take an Advanced Driving Course
You can save a further large percentage with most online insurance companies if you have taken an advanced driving skills course or ADC. The courses are run nationally and the cost of the course is outweighed by the annual savings you will make on your insurance premiums. The savings are greater for young drivers and this is one of the few positive actions that a young driver can make to reduce his or her annual vehicle insurance costs.

And Finally - Haggle!

And here's an extra tip which we often find works when all else fails. Complete a quote on the Internet for the policy you desire with the company you like. Do not complete the quote beyond the screen where the premium prices are displayed, merely save the quote reference number. Quotes are usually legally binding for thirty days.
Leave it a while then pick up the phone and call the insurance company. Tell them that you've had problems completing the quote online. They will ask you the quote reference number and then have all you details in front of them. When they tell you the quote amount (which you should know already), tell them that you've got a quote that is, say a hundred cheaper at so and so company, and ask if that's the best they can do. Just by haggling you will be surprised just how much you could save on your car insurance costs!

Dave Healey is a specialist car insurance expert whose field of expertise extends from underwriting Classic Car Insurance polices at Lloyds , to designing car insurance supermarkets online.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Healey
http://EzineArticles.com/?Twelve-Car-Insurance-Money-Saving-Tips-For-Much-Cheaper-Premiums&id=2141735

Cheap Car Insurance and Cheap Classic Car Insurance

Classic Car Insurance Comes of Age!

Maybe we are all getting older and maybe we are going to suffer some clasic car crisis like the pensions scandal that is about to explode around the world as the baby boomer generation ages.

The fact of the matter is there are more classic cars on the road these days.
Do you remember those awful motors produced by BLMC when it was owned by the Government in the 1970's.

Like me, you may well have been chauffeured around by friend's Dads in those tank top coloured rust buckets when you were a kid.
'Commie Cars' Mr Clarkson calls them.

Yeah OK! they were all pretty ugly, even the Jags and Aston Martins were angular and boxy and painted in two pack mustards and browns. But there were many exceptions to the rule in the UK, for example the classy Triumph Stag and the beautiful Triumph Spitfire.
Many of the long disappeared British Car Marques actually produced some amazing motors during that tacky decade, and consequently they are still sought after today.

Unfortunately, and this is with no disrespect to all those departed members of my family that had to work in the press and paint shops of Ford's, BLMC, Rootes etc during the Seventies - the paint was crap and the engines very unreliable.

Every thing was done by hand in mass lines of organised production that Adam Smith would have been proud of, in those vast hangers the size of six football pitches, the British Car Industry churned out those mosters with the padded settees in the back, in employment scenes not dissimilar to those of industrial Victoriana.

The fact that the cars were awful and didn't last is probably a good thing on reflection, so you can thank my family and others that toiled in those unionised hangers of radicalism that brought down Governments, that most of the cars built then ended up in the ubiquitous and very fast growing Scrappys.

Consequently the volume of classic cars we could have had now from the Seventies, has been mercily spared us!
Depreciation and built in obsolescence was as much a part of the green revolution as the Wombles
This all started to change in the early Mid-Seventies with the arrival on our shores from the Land of the Rising Sun, in the form of the lovely Datsun! (Nissan to you nippers) - cars that actually lasted a bit longer - though the paint technology was just as bad or even worse and gave birth to the ubiquitous estate rustbucket.

The longevity technology wasn't resolved until the Eighties, and thus it is cars from the Eighties that have led to the recent dramatic rise in the demand for classic car insurance.



In response to this demand generated by a surplus of motors from the Eighties that we now see the number of car insurance schemes available today, rising on an almost daily basis to unprecedented levels as underwriters cover more bespoke model policies. The number of specialist car insurers for classic motors is three hundred fold what it was when these cars were first being produced under the Thatcher Regime.

Now if you had to live through the Eighties you either joined in and became a Yuppie uncaring scumbag, made a load of money and drove around in a flash sports car, not giving a flying fart old boy that the country was being ripped to pieces on lie, around you, or......

Or you drove around in a beat up old Commie Car from the Seventies, on third party fire and theft and a dodgy MOT you bought off Eric in the garage down the road, starting riots and calling for revolution.

The Eighties created the largest legacy of classic cars which has led to the current boom in classic car insurance demand. The battle was temporarliy won by champagne swilling, Harry Enfield characters in the Porsche 911 turbo set. This was confirmed with the collapse of Communism in 1989 and the introduction to us all of the lovely Trabant!

So even the bad have given us something good!

Whatever type of classic car you may own from these two notorious decades, why not give Lancaster a call or get a quick quote online from one of over a hundred classic car insurance schemes at Car Insurance TV.

The people who work here are really friendly and are only too happy to answer your questions. They are all petrol heads and products themselves of the Seventies and Eighties and all think they should go on Mastermind answering questions about their own classic car insurance specialisms.

Classic Car Insurance and Cheap Car Insurance

You are Paying for that Uninsured Driver!

The amount you pay for your car insurance premiums is directly influenced by the number of uninsured idiots on the UK roads. The problem has exacerbated in recent years and is costing billions, which the likes of you and me are paying for in hiked premium charges to cover these morons. Fortunately the Police and Insurance Companies are now hot on the trail of the perpetrators. Dave Healey explains.........

We are constantly reminded that the cost of car insurance is exacerbated by the number of uninsured drivers on the roads, and it is certainly true that in the United Kingdom all car insurance companies are required by law to pay into the Motor Insurance Fund (MIF).
This pool of money was designed to protect and recompense the innocent public from damage or injury caused by uninsured drivers and untraceable hit and run drivers.

The fund was set up over sixty years ago immediately following WW2 when the licensing laws and car insurance regulations were still being formulated and put onto the statute books.
The war years had seen the number of cars and vehicles in the UK rise exponentially and for the first time women were systematically taught to drive in their thousands, to help the war effort.
At the end of the war Britain's roads were beginning to become cluttered and returning troops and foreign bases exacerbated the number of unlicensed cars and drivers on UK roads without car insurance to record levels.
As the number of accidents involving uninsured drivers rose steadily, public outcry forced the government to act and in 1946 a Government 'Quango' called the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) was established to oversee the whole operation of public compensation for damage, where no car insurance covered the costs.
The MIB is to this day funded by a proportion of every policy sold, and to date has paid out over £2 billion in total. The MIB have calculated that the cost to each of us when we purchase car insurance is an additional £15 to £30 per policy to cover uninsured drivers, which amounts to more than £200 million every year.
Furthermore, recent statistics from the Bureau indicate the problem of driving without car insurance has not declined over the intervening years since its foundation, and show that the UK continues to have a very poor record, with one in every twenty cars on the road being driven without proper car insurance cover.
Drilling down into the statistics further, reveals that the amount of damage caused by drivers without car insurance each year far exceeds the amount paid out in claims every year through the risk fund.
It is often difficult to receive full compensation even if you have identified the uninsured driver, who may well have been prosecuted by the police, and you make a claim through the MIB.
A satisfied claim, that is those claims that are paid out, usually only occur when a particular claim has run the full course of the law and a judgement handed down.
In a case of a hit and run driver without car insurance who is unidentified, the MIB does not pay all legal costs, which can quickly run into thousands, but merely makes a contribution with a deduction to cover the balance of legal costs and expenses.

Thus the hidden costs and misery caused by the actions of those who choose to drive without car insurance is far greater than the official statistics of two hundred million pounds every year.
It is with these figures in mind that the MIB became the centralised point of a new database, the Motor Insurance Database, created at the turn of the century. The database is updated daily with details of every person and their car, who buys a car insurance policy. This information is now immediately available to all police forces throughout the Country, who through automatic number plate recognition systems, can instantly send a car registration number to the MID.
This allows the system to immediately indicate to a police office in the field, cars that are being driven and the driver has valid car insurance in force.
Dave Healey is a car insurance systems expert who was responsible with others for the design of the MID. He also designed the first car insurance supermarket and is also a specialist car insurance underwiter who has been underwriting Classic Car Insurance polices for the last thirty years.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Healey
http://EzineArticles.com/?Car-Insurance---Uninsured-Drivers-Cost-You-Money!&id=2136605

Car Insurance and Cheap Car Insurance