Car Insurance

Buying your ideal car does not come without some ongoing costs which you need to bare in mind and budget for. It is essential to take into account these costs before you take the plunge and part with your hard earned cash as the last thing you want is to realise the running and ongoing costs are considerably more than you predicted.

Insurance is the biggest cost you will encounter and needs to be arranged from the second you drive the car, if you are stopped or involved in an accident and do not have adequate insurance you will be liable for a large fine and may end up in court. This can be avoided by simply taking out a policy that meets your own individual needs and keeps you on the right side of the law.

The type of car you decide to purchase will have a major influence on the level of insurance, for example a Ford Ka will be considerably less to insure than say a top of the range Audi. Each vehicle is given an insurance grouping, this gives you an idea of the level of insurance you may encounter. The grouping ranges from group 1 to group 20, the highest amount being group 20.

The secret of finding a policy that meets your needs without breaking the bank account is to shop around. With the internet it is even easier to compare a range of insuranc3e companies in one simple search. Using an online insurance comparison website means that you don’t need to do the running around, instead you will get a range of prices and will quite often receive an additional discount for purchasing your policy online.

If you have purchased an older car it may be worth considering taking a Third Party policy, this will cover you if you have an accident and you are at fault, however it wont cover the cost to repair your car. The best policy is a fully comprehensive level of cover, which although is slightly more expensive will cover you for every eventuality. However you may be surprised that when you look for your insurance policy, comprehensive cover can often be slightly cheaper than third part fire and theft, so when looking it is worth getting quotes for both sets of cover.

Your excess or the amount you must pay if you make a claim will have a direct influence on the amount the insurance will cost. By increasing your voluntary excess from £100 to £500 could reduce your premium by around 20 – 30% which can make a massive difference to an expensive policy. However you need to remember that if you then make a claim you will need to pay the higher excess to enable your claim to proceed.

The best time to begin looking for insurance quotes is before you purchase your new vehicle. This will give you the chance to see exactly what the cost will be and enable you to budget for it. Also it will avoid any nasty shocks after you purchase the car and effectively leave yourself scrimping and saving to try and find the money you require for your insurance. This site features useful information on car insurance in the UK.

Obviously as you get older your policy will become cheaper and at the ages of 21 and 25 the policies do tend to drop more dramatically. However there are other things that will bring your policy down. The obvious one is hopefully you have no accidents and do not make a claim. Building up your no claims bonus will mean that you will receive large discounts year on year. These discounts will build up over time and can offer 60% discount.