10 Smart Ways To Save On Your Car Insurance (and how I saved £400 a year on mine!)

Daily car journeys are a necessity for many families, from school runs to communing to and from work. Running a car can be a major cost for motorists especially with MOTs, services, road tax and of course car insurance. However many of us don't realise you could actually reduce your car insurance with just a few simple steps. 

My renewal was due to be renewed in March and when I had the letter through the post with my renewal quote I was shocked to see that it hadn't gone down from the previous year. More often than not existing customers don't get the best deals where as new customers can get some great deals by shopping around. As I had recently been looking at ways to reduce my monthly outgoings I decided to tackle this right away. I managed to save a whopping £400 a year on my car insurance and today I'm sharing 10 ways to help you save on yours too!

1. Compare car insurance 

It's a good idea to shop around for car insurance to see if you can reduce the price you pay for cover. Use a car insurance comparison tool such as Compare the market or Go compare to see how much you could be saving by switching insurers. Comparison sites do the leg work for you so you don't have to. It would take you forever to go through each insurers website and dozens of forms where you can just do it once instead to bring up hundreds of quotes.

2. Use cashback sites 

Once I had looked on numerous comparison sites I headed to Quidco and used their comparison tool. There are many cashback websites which have comparison tools where you can earn money back through them just for doing quotes. If you're not already signed up to Quidco or Topcashback I'd highly recommend signing up as you can get cashback on many things you buy online throughout the year. 

3. Increase your excess 

Although some people may not wish to do this as you'll be left with a higher excess to fork out if you need to make a claim, it could save you a lot of money. Try comparing online how much it would be at a £100 voluntary excess and then increase it to a price you're comfortable paying. 

4. Get rid of extras you don't need

Do you really need motor legal protection or wind screen cover? If not then remove it! Some insurers offer these free in the first year but then come your renewal and you forget to remove them. It's worth checking what different insurers are offering and see if you can get them included for free if you do really need them. 

5. Tweak your job description

Another way to save some money on your car insurance is by tweaking your job description, legally of course! For example you could still be down as a marketing director of a company but are now a housewife, an editor is often cheaper than a journalist. It must be a legitimate tweak and not a lie as this would be considered fraudulent. 

6. Don't renew automatically

More often than not it can work out cheaper to take out a new customer policy with the same company than renewing it as an existing customer. Don't ask me why, because it's just ridiculous but when I filled out a quote for a new customer with the same company it worked out £200 cheaper than my annual fee! Once you have your renewal date jot it down in your diary and closer to the date check out the comparison sites and then ring up your car insurance company and see if they can match it, or even beat it!

7. Are you paying for too many miles?

The majority of people are doing 1000s of miles less than what's on their policy. When I first took out car insurance policy about 8 years ago I put down 15,000 for the year. These days I'm lucky if I do 5,000 as I don't travel far. By amending this on the policy it automatically saved me £70 for the year! 

8. Don't pay monthly

It works out a lot cheaper paying for your premium upfront than monthly direct debit. By paying monthly you are likely to be paying a high APR. For example if your premium is £700 but you wanted to pay monthly this would be nearly £900 (£200 more a year). Of course it isn't always possible to pay upfront but if you have the option to it may be worthwhile doing so. Another option is to use a credit card with a lower APR rate which means you'll be paying off less each month instead.

9. Add a named driver 

You'll be surprised to discover that adding an older or more experienced driver to your policy can actually reduce your overall cost of insurance and is one of the biggest secrets when looking at the cheapest car insurance quotes online. Just because you're looking to insure your own car doesn't necessarily mean that you'll be the only one driving it. If you have a spouse or parent who has been driving for some years, with their permission add them to your policy as a named driver and see just how much it shaves off your annual premium costs! I did this with my parents when I was still living at home and managed to reduce my car insurance by over £500! 

10. Haggle 

I'm not one to haggle usually however since I've been trying to get my household bills down I thought I'd give it a go. If you're looking to renew with your current insurer and don't want to switch its worth getting on the phone to negotiate with them. If your insurer can beat or match your best quote it will save you the hassle of switching policies. Always go in a bit lower than what you wish to pay for your policy as more often than not they will agree. If you don't like asking then you could ring up to cancel if you've found a better deal elsewhere and they will put you through to the cancellation team who will try and find you a good deal to keep your custom.

Do you have any tips for saving money on your car insurance? Let us know below!

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