How Can I Make Insurance Cheaper?

How Can I Make Insurance Cheaper?

Author
Discussion

Mules

72 posts

146 months

Friday 14th November 2014
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When I was a youth, I couldn't afford insurance on the likes of a GTI or Civic, so bought a Spitfire, easy to fix, bit different to the regular Eurobox's. Would recommend a GT6 for the extra ooommph - oh and pick the right classic insurance policy and it's just a few hundred quid and you can accrue NCB.

Willy Nilly

12,511 posts

166 months

Friday 14th November 2014
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Jbadman06 said:
Ahhh a fellow teen. Best thing to do is settle for a car thats not gonna hurt you on insurance as much. As above.

I started fronting when i first passed at 17(I'm 19 now ).Bad i know, but was possibly the only way to get insured.
and the amusing thing is you weren't even insured.

I wanted a MKII Golf GTI back in the day but they were too expensive to buy and insure, then I had a brain wave. How about buying a car you can afford to buy and run, young Willy? So that's what I did.

DUMBO100

1,878 posts

183 months

Friday 14th November 2014
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Add a Chartered Accountant with 7 NCD to your policy. It halved my insurance costs

MarshPhantom

9,658 posts

136 months

Friday 14th November 2014
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Can you get limited miles insurance?

Tried Confused? I always find them cheaper than the others.

I paid £600 to insure my Renault 11 Turbo 25 years ago when I was 19.

Would added security bring the price down.

StottyEvo

6,860 posts

162 months

Friday 14th November 2014
quotequote all
Go to comparethemarkert.com

Start a new quote, say the cars value is high (3995 is probs high for a mk4)
4 seats
Add two low risk additional drivers, I had my mum and grandma (both have spotless licenses)
4995 miles per year
Park on the street (not garage or drive)
Run the quote, then change little things one by one and note down the price differences.

For example if you're a computer programmer, change it to computer developer etc until the price drops.

Put the start date as far possible into the future as you can (this is a biggie, usually knocks 20% off)

When you find the quote of your dreams give them a call and they'll ask when you would like the policy to start. You can say immediately and the price won't change (although if you change it online, the price will change considerably)

I do quotes for all my friends and they have all had exotic machinery for rock bottom prices for years. My flat mate got his renewal through at £685. He was happy to pay the price, I persuaded him to late me take a look and he paid £382. He couldn't believe it! Fully legal btw.

Oh, admiral/elephant will be the cheapest. If you have 1yrs ncb I'd be surprised if you weren't quoted considerably under £2k.

Petrolhead95

Original Poster:

7,043 posts

153 months

Friday 14th November 2014
quotequote all
Thanks for the advice guys.

The obvious answer is to wait a couple of years until insurance comes down but I'm just trying to see if it's possible to insure as of now. If not, I'll carry on in my trusty little 1.2 for a while.

Spare tyre

9,458 posts

129 months

Friday 14th November 2014
quotequote all
When I was younger I found adding parents and older relatives dropped the price

Also oddly if I put I I did say 6000 a year it sometimes cost more than if I said I did 60000

I guess it all comes down to,statistics, lots of odd things make a difference

StottyEvo

6,860 posts

162 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
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Petrolhead95 said:
Thanks for the advice guys.

The obvious answer is to wait a couple of years until insurance comes down but I'm just trying to see if it's possible to insure as of now. If not, I'll carry on in my trusty little 1.2 for a while.
irked Why? Of course its possible to insure now, probably for less than you pay on your Corsa

ArmaghMan

2,398 posts

179 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
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h0b0 said:
take a look at bigger cars. You may be surprised how "cheap" a BMW with a V8 can be compared to a corsa. Thats because not many 18 year olds crash BMWs with V8s compared to corsas.
Just for fun decided to add my daughter to the M5 quote.
£28000 yes twenty eight thousand, not a misprint

CBR JGWRR

6,518 posts

148 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
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Buy Golf, store Golf, use Golf once insurance is reasonable.


0a

23,879 posts

193 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
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Get onto Moneysupermarket and spend a few hours getting quotes. I purchased my merc because insurance was so cheap for a male in his 20s with zero no claims!

Some cars are just not insurable for the young and those without no claims; that's life, there's nothing you can do about it unfortunately.

lbc

3,212 posts

216 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
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Op, just wait until you reach 50.

That's when insurance prices drop significantly. biggrin


TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
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RacingPete said:
Having just spent a few days with a top insurance aggregation company, they say that the top 6 main factors for insurance are:
  • Post Code
  • Price of car
  • Age
  • Convictions
  • Length you have been driving/Experience
  • Disabilities
Well you're either making it up or they lied to you.

Price of car makes little difference. Most claims costs are for tp damage, so the cost of your car is largely irrelevant.

Length of driving experience is a minor factor. A 50 year old who has just passed their test will pay far less than a 22 year old with 5 years experience. And not a huge amount more that a 50 y/o with a licence for 30 yrs. (although the 30 year driver may benefit from NCB that the new driver won't)

Disabilities are completely ignored. As long as DVLA are aware (if it's a notifiable condition) and have granted you a licence, insurers cannot charge extra due to 1997 disability discrimination act. If it's not a DVLA notifiable condition (eg. deafness) then you still have to disclose it but they can't charge you extra.

The other 3 you quoted, postcode, age and convictions are very relevant to price.

thelawnet

1,539 posts

154 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
quotequote all
Postcode, age and car type are the biggest things. My insurance premium fell by 20% when I moved from Uxbridge (hardly Moss Side) to Surrey (I moved half way through the year, and they gave me a nice refund as a result).

I just did a quick check for quotes on a MK4 GTI for a 19 year old in my postcode, and it came out as £4242 with £250 excess.

Putting the excess up to £1k reduces the premium to £3784, which is well worth it. Going to TPF&T does nothing to reduce the price.

Adding a 64 year old parent to the policy (not as main driver) reduces the premium to only £2404.

Which is still excessive, but not bad.

Adding 1 year's age/experience/NCD reduces the price:

No NCD: £2404
1 year: £1460
2 years: £891
3 years: £692 (or £673 with a telematics box)
4 years: £634

Anyway, very clearly the OP's first priority is to earn his 1 year's NCD. And get another driver named on the policy.

Switching from the Golf GTI to 05 plate Panda 1.2 Dynamic reduces the insurance cost to a ludicrously cheap (in comparison) £676, rather than £2404.

Of course if you don't live in Surrey, your insurance is likely going to be more expensive. Switching from my quiet street in Surrey to Moss Side, in Manchester, whacks the cost to insure the Panda up from £676 to £2283. Partly I think because many insurers won't even quote for there. And for the GTI the cost goes from £2404 up to £5625.

So if your insurance is too expensive:

  • don't be living in Hackney or similar sthole
  • don't be driving anything faster than a 1-litre city car
  • don't be young
  • don't be newly qualified/without a NCD

StottyEvo

6,860 posts

162 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
quotequote all
thelawnet said:
Postcode, age and car type are the biggest things. My insurance premium fell by 20% when I moved from Uxbridge (hardly Moss Side) to Surrey (I moved half way through the year, and they gave me a nice refund as a result).

I just did a quick check for quotes on a MK4 GTI for a 19 year old in my postcode, and it came out as £4242 with £250 excess.

Putting the excess up to £1k reduces the premium to £3784, which is well worth it. Going to TPF&T does nothing to reduce the price.

Adding a 64 year old parent to the policy (not as main driver) reduces the premium to only £2404.

Which is still excessive, but not bad.

Adding 1 year's age/experience/NCD reduces the price:

No NCD: £2404
1 year: £1460
2 years: £891
3 years: £692 (or £673 with a telematics box)
4 years: £634

Anyway, very clearly the OP's first priority is to earn his 1 year's NCD. And get another driver named on the policy.

Switching from the Golf GTI to 05 plate Panda 1.2 Dynamic reduces the insurance cost to a ludicrously cheap (in comparison) £676, rather than £2404.

Of course if you don't live in Surrey, your insurance is likely going to be more expensive. Switching from my quiet street in Surrey to Moss Side, in Manchester, whacks the cost to insure the Panda up from £676 to £2283. Partly I think because many insurers won't even quote for there. And for the GTI the cost goes from £2404 up to £5625.

So if your insurance is too expensive:

  • don't be living in Hackney or similar sthole
  • don't be driving anything faster than a 1-litre city car
  • don't be young
  • don't be newly qualified/without a NCD
Great post! Adding a second additional driver could reduce them premiums even further, and moving the start date to the further possible time ahead even more so.

Vyse

1,224 posts

123 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
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Say thats its parked on the street rather than on the driveway at night.

ecsrobin

17,019 posts

164 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
quotequote all
Your best bet is to leave it.

Take the £500 that you would have spent on the car
Take the insurance money you would be happy paying on the golf each year (I'm guessing £3kPA as the quote was over £7,000 so half seems a price you would have been happy with)

I assume you still have no NCD so save for 5 years NCD so that's £15,500 after 5 years to go from a corsa to something considerably better than a golf. You could also add in the annual modifying and maintenance costs on an old golf and you could soon have a very tidy sum just for driving a corsa for a few years. Plus you'd certainly have a better car than most of your 24 year old mates when you get to that stage.

Riknos

4,700 posts

203 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
quotequote all
ecsrobin said:
Your best bet is to leave it.

Take the £500 that you would have spent on the car
Take the insurance money you would be happy paying on the golf each year (I'm guessing £3kPA as the quote was over £7,000 so half seems a price you would have been happy with)

I assume you still have no NCD so save for 5 years NCD so that's £15,500 after 5 years to go from a corsa to something considerably better than a golf. You could also add in the annual modifying and maintenance costs on an old golf and you could soon have a very tidy sum just for driving a corsa for a few years. Plus you'd certainly have a better car than most of your 24 year old mates when you get to that stage.
This isn't what you want to hear. This isn't what you're actually going to do - but the man speaks sense!

By far the best use of your money, great man-maths there well done!

HootersGsy

731 posts

135 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
quotequote all
TwigtheWonderkid said:
snip
Price of car makes little difference. Most claims costs are for tp damage, so the cost of your car is largely irrelevant.
/snip
I wouldn't be surprised if there was some statistical correlation between the value of a car and how carefully people drive. If aged 17 I'd spent £5k of my hard earned (oh if I'd even had half that!) then I would probably have driven more carefully than I did in my £500 snotter.


schmalex

13,616 posts

205 months

Saturday 15th November 2014
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TVRJAS said:
I keep looking at those figures thinking you must of made a mistake..

£7730 yikes And it gets worse when you say a £500 outlay.

The joys of getting old.
Totally agree! I paid £240 for fully comp on 25k business and personal miles on my old Audi S4 cab last year and got really pissed off when it went to £246 when I changed it for my 6 series BMW.

Pleasingly, my Land Rover insurance stays at £62 / year, regardless of how much I seem to change it from standard.

I am 40, though.

Edited by schmalex on Saturday 15th November 21:12