Car insurance providers will try to sell you expensive car insurance – learn how to use an Independent Price Searching Company to find the cheapest quotes based on your status and how to haggle with insurance providers to find affordable insurance.

Why is it a good idea to use an Independent Price Searching  Company  for car insurance?

When you attempt to renew your car insurance, your provider will offer you a price. This is most likely not going to be the cheapest option for you.

January 2022 onwards the government will make it illegal for them to offer a new or different price from the original insurance you had with them, so your price will not increase following the new year. However, there are many insurance providers, and different companies will have different ways to view your claims history, your car, even the neighbourhood you live in. It is possible that another insurer is willing to offer you a lower cost premium compared to your current one.

The process of searching car insurance providers is complex in deed, not allowing you to determine if your renewal offer is the best available option. Do not worry about if you have a large no claim discount with your current provider, this will normally carry over to another insurer.

We will now explain the process of searching different insurance providers, how to find the cheapest possible option using Independent Price Searching Company, as well as some other ways of saving, including haggling.

How to use Independent Price Searching  Company  for car insurance?

A good place to start finding the ideal insurance provider is to use an Independent Price Searching Company. Unlike regular comparison websites, they allow you to find many quotes from many providers. After they have found a good quote from any provider, they will direct you to the provider with a quote reference number to contact the provider as well to check all the information on the policy is correct. It only takes five minutes to fill a form in ICUK Insurance website, they will check at least ten comparison websites and will deal with their expertise to pick the best choice for you.

What information is needed for a car insurance quote?

There are several pieces of information required to use an Independent Price Searching Company. These are:

• Vehicle registration number (if not available, make and model)
• Driving and claims history, including history of no claims discount
• Your driver’s license
• Annual millage of the vehicle, which can be estimated using your MOT certificate
• What you will primarily use the car for (social, domestic, commuting, etc.)

What website should I use to get cheapest car insurance quotes?

There are many different sites available for comparing car insurance, which use standard algorithms to determine the best insurance across many different insurers. However, since these sites simply check across multiple insurers there is a great deal of overlap between each site and their respective search results. Independent companies such as ICUK insurance have the same search methods, but in addition also have dedicated teams that will attempt to find the best and most affordable insurance tailored for you.

Are price comparison websites trustworthy?

When using a price comparison website, they will always provide real quotes from the insurers they are comparing. However, there can be some issues involved.

• Often these sites will only display a basic form of insurance. If you want to purchase add-ons, such as legal advice or breakdown cover, these will often cost extra and will increase the price of the quote the website provided.
• The cheapest insurance provided by the comparison website might have less options than a standard insurance. It may exclude insurance when travelling abroad, for example, which may be something you are interested in. Due to this, you should always check what the insurance covers before making any purchase.
• If a quote is cheap, it may be due to a large excess price you need to pay in the case of a claim. This is often adjustable on the website, but it is something you need to keep in mind, and cheaper insurance often have compulsory excess prices that need to paid as well.Also sometimes cheapest quote comes with a telematics/black box, people who have used it they know how annoying it is

Several of the large comparison websites have these issues, meaning you will be receiving insurance that may seem good initially but will cause you problems later in case of an incident. Using a company like ICUK insurance will eliminate any risks involved in using these sites, as they have teams that will communicate with you directly to find the best possible insurance.

How much does car insurance cost?

The price of your car insurance is based on your circumstances and characteristics. This includes your age, the area you live in, how long you have held your license, years of no claims bonus you hold, the make and model of your car, etc. On the same car, someone who has recently received their license will likely get a higher price than someone who has held it for several years for example.

What type of insurance will I need? 

There are three types of insurance you can buy.

1. Third part only (TP)
   1. Third part insurance is the minimum insurance required for anyone to legally drive. Like the name indicates, this will not cover your vehicle but instead only other people and their property.
2. Third party, fire and theft (TPF&T)
   1. As the name indicates, this is the same as third party only, except that it will also protect your vehicle in case it is stolen or in case of fire.
3. Fully comprehensive
   1. This is the same as third party, fire and theft, and in addition insures your own vehicle against damage as well.

It is worth noting that different insurers will cover different things in within fully comprehensive insurance. It is important that you read through what the insurer covers before you make any purchase.

Which type of insurance is most expensive?

You would assume comprehensive is always the most expensive. However, for younger drivers who normally get the worst prices for their insurance, buying fully comprehensive may in fact be the cheapest option.

Companies make third part only more expensive because the people that buy third party only also tend to be the ones that make the most claims. Therefore, as companies often need to pay out more for third party only insurance, they increase the prices of third part to cover their losses.

Due to this, when you are a newer driver, it may be a better idea to search for fully comprehensive insurance as opposed to third party only.

What extras can I get on top of my insurance?

• Enhanced courtesy car cover
  • If your car is undergoing repair in a garage following an incident, your insurer will often provide you with a courtesy car. However, sometimes a courtesy car is not available, there may be no courtesy car like your previous one, and you won’t likely get one if your car was stolen. Due to this, you may buy enhanced courtesy car cover, which will cover all of these possibilities to make sure you receive a proper courtesy car.
• Legal expense insurance
  • Legal action following some incident on the road isn’t unheard of. The prices for legal assistance can be quite high, so insurers will offer you with the option to cover all legal expenses for legal action when claiming compensation for an incident.
• Breakdown cover
  • Insurance covers accident costs, but not breakdown costs. If your car breaks down in the middle of the road, having breakdown cover will cover all related expenses. Rather than getting this from your insurer however, it may be cheaper to get it from a third-party instead.
• Personal accident cover
  •  Fully comprehensive cover often covers cases of serious injury but dedicated personal accident cover can be helpful in covering a wider range of incident, and to a higher claims limit as well.
• Key Cover
  • As the name states, this will cover you in case you cannot find your car key. It could also cover replacing the lock inside your car as well.

No-Claim Discount and Cheap Car insurance

If you don’t make car insurance claims several years in a row, you can get a no-claims discount (NCD) on your insurance that increases year by year. Over time, this discount could increase to more than 60%.

Even if you have a large NCD however, doesn’t mean you still have the most affordable car insurance.

For example, a large NCD of 50% on 2000£ annually will still be more expensive than 30% off 1200£. An overly expensive insurance can cancel out the effect of a high premium. Note that if you do get a high premium, you can switch insurers and still retain your NCD – the discount is not based on loyalty towards an individual insurer and be transferred to almost any insurer.

Interestingly, when you are in an accident and decide to make the claim, it could be cheaper long term not to make a claim and pay out of pocket instead. This is because the no-claims discount will be removed following the claim and over the year you may have to pay a significantly higher premium for your car insurance instead. If you took your insurance was found through a price searching company, such as ICUK Insurance, they will be able to advise you on whether you should make a claim or not.

Cheapest Insurance for Newer and Younger Drivers

New drivers or drivers younger than 25 will often find insurance to be much more expensive than those with more experience. Often the most affordable option is a black box option, where the insurer puts a black box in the car that tracks your driving behaviour and miles to determine if you are driving safely enough for your insurance provider to give you a low premium.

Making your first car a newer car with a smaller engine (1-1.5 litres), having a more experienced driver as a second driver (like your guardian), and paying a higher voluntary excess are some ways to reduce the price of your insurance.

However, it is still likely the insurance will seem unreasonably priced. There are several different factors that would make insurance cheaper as well that people often are not aware of – for example, having an experienced second driver can make your insurance more expensive in some cases. The average person won’t understand the ins-and-outs of the car insurance industry, nor will they have the time to test all the ways to make insurance as cheap as possible. For that reason, using an independent insurance price searching company such as ICUK insurance can help find you a much lower premium for your first car. They are experts on the insurance industry and have dedicated teams and that use expert methods to find the cheapest insurance possible for anyone.

Haggling for Cheaper Insurance

Insurers reserve the best deals for newer customers, and when it comes time to renew your insurance, they will try to increase the price for loyal customers. If you’re ever in this situation, haggling with the provider might be the best possible solution.

• Should I haggle?
  • If you have ever spoken with an internet service provider or energy provider, and threatened to switch providers because of a better deal, you will have learnt that they are more than willing to lower the price to keep you as a customer. Often, the best prices go to those willing to walk away. The same technique applies for car insurance.

• Will haggling lower the price of my insurance?
  • Research shows that it will. There is a strong trend between customers that haggle and customers that pay lower insurance prices.