When it comes to car insurance, loyalty often doesn’t pay. If you have been with an insurer for a few years – it’s quite likely that you’re not getting the best deal on offer in the market, you may not even be getting your insurer’s best price either!
So it pays to shop around for car insurance. Simply by comparing quotes from several providers, you could save hundreds of pounds on your renewal price.
However, when shopping around be careful to make sure you’re comparing quotes on an equal basis. That means checking the finer details to ensure things like the voluntary excess, breakdown cover or even the level of insurance are the same.
You are required to have at least Third Party car insurance by law on any vehicle, unless it has a Statutory Off Road Declaration (SORN) on it. Find out more about the different types of car insurance.
Third party offers the least protection, but can offer the cheapest car insurance available. This isn’t always the case though, as with anything there are cheaper and more expensive policies – it can sometimes be true that the more expensive third party car insurances cost more than some of the less expensive fully comprehensive policies.
Fully comprehensive, as the name suggests, is the most extensive type of car insurance and will pay your medical and car repair costs if an accident is your fault, as well as if you are hit by an uninsured driver.
Do you need the extras?
Most car insurers offer optional extras that you can add to your policy. One of the biggest things to think about is a protected no claims discount.
If you have 5 years or more no claims, you can choose to protect this. Although this inevitably adds to the premium, weigh that up against the higher cost you’d have to pay if you had to claim.
 | A protected no claims discount can be particularly important when you
consider that if you claim after being hit by an uninsured driver, or a
driver who fails to stop, you may lose your discount. |
Read our guide to no claims discounts for more information.
Other optional extras you might be offered could include breakdown cover, or legal expenses cover. While these can provide good value, make sure you compare it against a standalone price, and check you’re not double covered (sometimes breakdown cover can be offered as part of a
bank account package for instance).