Don’t Make a Mistake with Your New Car’s Insurance
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When it is time to buy a new car you could be forgiven for getting a bit carried away. It is a fun feeling to spend thousands of pounds on a car and then sit in it for the first time. However, it is essential that you get the financial side of things right as soon as you can.
A big part of this is the way you deal with the insurance premiums on your new vehicle. Here are some ways to make sure that you don’t make a mistake in this respect.
Get an Insurance Quote Before You Buy
The most important point of all is to work out how much the insurance is likely to cost you for the car you want. You don’t want to just guess this figure and you don’t want to rely on the seller’s assertion that it is cheap to insure. There are a number of factors taken into account when an insurance premium is worked out and the insurance group of the vehicle is one of the most vital ones. If you have a couple of cars in mind then ask for a quote for all of them to see how much it differs by. It isn’t just the value or the age of the car which is used to work out the insurance group. This rating also depends on issues such as the performance and the cost of parts, so it isn’t worth trying to guess what group a vehicle might be in. You can now go online and very quickly get a quote* worked out for the car you are thinking of buying. Be sure to confirm that you have all of the vehicle’s details exactly right before you try to do this.
See How Much It Costs on a Monthly Basis
When you get quoted the annual premium it might be enough to put you off the idea of buying a car altogether. This can seem like a really expensive piece of cover when you see it quoted on an annual basis. However, by splitting the cost out into monthly instalments it can be a whole lot more affordable for you. One point to bear in mind here is that some insurers charge you extra for doing this and some don’t. What this means it that the cheapest annual premium might now always work out as the cheapest on a monthly basis.
Check the Existing Cover
If you are upgrading your car then you might also think about checking out the cover you currently have. It could be that it is now worth increasing the cover, changing the excess or just making sure that the policy you have in force is still suitable for your new car. If you have had the policy for a while then it could be that you have forgotten about some of the details on it. This is also a good moment to see if there are any extra discounts you could be taking advantage of. By asking your insurance company agent to run through your policy and tell you about any discounts you don’t currently have you can quite quickly see if the premium can be reduced in any way. Even a relatively small looking discount on your car insurance can add up to a decent amount over time, especially if the annual premium is quite high. In other cases, managing to bring the cost of your insurance down a little could make the difference between being able to afford your dream car and having to look at something else.
There are indeed differences when it comes to cars, so it’s indeed smart to find out how it will cost before getting the car. In my country paying monthly can get your annual costs to almost double the money, so I usually pay for 12 months (actually I paid my insurance yesterday – it will last till next year this time).
Good point Dojo. It pays to check how much paying in instalments is going to cost you extra before you accept the quote
I thank you for your advice. It is not something that I have considered before but now I realize that I could be saving quite a lot of money.
Thanks for the comments Martin
I get a new quote every year. If you stay with the same company they tend to give the new customer price, which is lower, only for a year then raise the rates. Even if you don’t get a new car it is worth checking.