Paying for everything we need is not always easy and if we own a home and car, we will have to pay for insurance. It is a legal requirement to have some car insurance and you may want more than basic cover so that you can get your car repaired if you are in an accident and also you may want breakdown cover, so you can have peace of mind that if you have problems while travelling you can get help. If you have a mortgage, then you will be required to take out life insurance for the term of the mortgage so that it can be paid off by the insurance company if you pass away. Some people also like to have life insurance so that their family will get money when they die. They will also require you to take out home insurance to cover the building if it gets damaged or destroyed. You may wish to have this even if you have no mortgage and you may also want contents insurance so you can get a pay out in case of fire, flood or theft. There are other types of insurance that some people like to have as well such as health insurance to get quicker medical care or pet insurance to go towards vets’ fees. You may also have caravan, holiday, dental and other types of insurance. There may be other insurance people take out too and they all cost money. There are ways to keep the prices down and it is worth investigating these to see if there is anything that you can try out.
Compare Insurers
It is well worth comparing the different insurers to see whether you can get a significantly cheaper price with one compared with the others. Rules have changed recently, which means that new customers cannot get better deals than existing ones. This will mean that you may find that insurance prices seem higher for new customers, but you will be rewarded for brand loyalty and will not have to look around for a new insurer regularly as you should find that if you stick with one, your rates will still remain fairly competitive. It is always good to have a check though as there will be some differences between different insurers. It can be handy to use a comparison website, just to get an idea of what prices are available. Be careful with these though, as you may not be getting like for like insurance. You may have added extras in your policy that are not available in the cheaper ones. You need to consider whether those extras are worth the money that you are paying for them. It is good to perhaps put together a list of what you are looking for and then you will be able to make sure that the insurers that you are comparing will provide you with the cover that you are looking for.
Negotiate at Renewal
If you take out a yearly policy, then it could be a good idea to call your insurer when you get your insurance quote. Ask them whether that is the best price they can offer you. Some will just drop their price when you call them. For some, you may need to explain that you have found a better price elsewhere (you will have to prove this and not make something up!) and that should help you to be able to negotiate a better price. It is always worth a try as you could make a significant saving. It is extremely unlikely that your premium will go up if you try to negotiate it down.
Have a High Excess
The excess is the amount of money that you need to pay before the insurer pays out. So, if your excess is £250 and you have a £500 cost to pay on a repair to your car after an accident, you will have to pay £250 and they will pay the rest. The higher your excess, the lower your premium. It is good to think about whether you would make a claim if the damage was low and therefore whether it is worth having a low or high excess. On your content’s insurance, if everything you have is destroyed, then the insurance will pay out for the value you have insured minus your excess. The pay out is likely to be a significant sum of money and so even if you have quite a high excess it will not make that much difference. It is worth thinking about under what circumstances you will make a claim and how much of an excess will make a difference. There will be a maximum and minimum amount that your insurer will allow.
Do not Claim
Making a claim on your insurance will put the premiums up. You will be seen as a bigger risk because you have made a claim and therefore insurers will charge you more. You have to let insurers know you have claimed and they will check anyway, so it is worth being careful with this. Not all insurances are the same though and sometimes claims make less difference. For example, if you have pet or dental insurance, they will just give you some money towards certain treatments or allow you to have some things for free. They work more like a savings scheme where you can spread the cost of treatments and therefore can be useful if you think that you will struggle to pay. However, others do not work like this and you will only get a pay out if you make a claim. So, if you damage your car and the repair costs are low, it could be better to pay these yourself, rather than claim it on your insurance because you will not have increased premiums as a result. With a car you will also lose your no claims bonus, unless it is protected and even if you have protected one, it can still impact your premium costs.
