Letting your car insurance auto-renew is guaranteed to waste your money. Yet only 27% of vehicle owners bother to compare prices on their insurance every year.
You could pay hundreds of dollars more every year than you really need to. Instead, shop around for the best insurance policy that you can afford. You’ll save money and have the top cover for your price, too.
Here are five top tips to follow when you’re looking for the most affordable vehicle insurance that fits all your individual requirements.
Five Steps to Finding the Best Insurance
Finding car insurance can be confusing: different levels of policy cover, excess charges, and additional driver costs can all affect how much you’ll pay.
Here are five ways you can make sure you’re getting the best car insurance for your money.
1. Know What You Want from Your Policy
We all want to pay as little as possible when it comes to auto insurance, but sometimes it’s worth spending a few bucks extra.
The worst insurance companies may offer really cheap prices but have terrible customer service. Will you be able to make a claim if you’re in an accident, or would it be impossible to get customer service to help?
Make a list of your must-haves for insurance, such as great customer service, legal cover, temporary rental cars, or even lost key cover. This will help you to narrow down the most suitable insurance companies for your needs.
2. Ask Friends and Family
Personal referrals are a powerful thing: you know that your parents or friends wouldn’t recommend a bad insurance company to you.
Speak to your network and find out if they have any suggestions based on their own experiences. Has anyone you know had an accident? Find out if it was easy to sort out the insurance claim, or if they’d never use the company again.
3. Check the Financial Standing of a Company
If everybody pays a cheap premium for insurance with a company, how do you know that they are able to pay out when you make a claim?
Check the financial reputation of a company online. This will give you the peace of mind that the insurance company would be able to support you through a claim, and that it isn’t likely to collapse (taking your premium with it).
4. Check Independent Reviews
There are lots of independent review services out there to help you decide on which is the best car insurance for you.
Try to find a review site that uses independent reviews and feedback from validated customers to make sure you can trust what you read.
Take a look at these Liberty Mutual insurance reviews as an example. You can easily see whether customers recommend the company, and filter reviews by rating to really get a full overview of the insurance company’s performance.
5. Get Quotes from Several Companies
It’s tempting to just stick with the first company that gets back to you with a quote, but make sure you shop around first.
If you like one company, but another offers a more competitive price for the same policy, try haggling with the first one. A good insurance company will offer a like-for-like price match if you ask them for it, or offer add-ons to their quote such as lower excess charges.
A New Vehicle Could Lower Your Premiums
One way to get the best insurance for your budget is to improve the vehicle you drive. A newer car is less likely to malfunction, has lower emissions, and higher safety standards. All of these will reduce insurance premium costs.
Take a look at our car buying guides to decide if it’s time to upgrade your vehicle (and pay less on your insurance).