There are numerous factors that affect how much you pay for your car insurance and below are some of them: –
Type of Policy
Whether you choose fully comprehensive, third party fire and theft or third party cover will affect your premium with fully comprehensive often, but not always, being the most expensive and third party often, but not always, being the cheapest.
Group Rating
Cars are given a group rating of anything between 1 to 50 with 50 being the most expensive to insure. There are a number of factors that affect the rating a car is placed in such as its make/model, value and performance.
Age
Car insurance is likely to be cheaper for a driver aged 50 than for one aged 20 as the former is likely to have more driving experience.
Claims
The more claims someone has made can be an indication of their driving ability and therefore the risk to the insurance company.
Driving Convictions
If you have received points on your driving license perhaps for speeding your premium will be higher.
A racing driver is likely to pay more for car insurance than a bank officer
Occupation
What you do for a living has a bearing on the premium you pay. For instance, if you are a bank official you are likely to pay a lower premium than if you were a racing driver as it is felt that you will take less of a risk when driving.
Location of car
Both in which part of the country you live and where you park your car overnight will have a bearing on your car insurance premium. If you live in an inner city area that has a reputation for car theft your premium will be more than if you lived in a sleepy country village where crime is virtually non-existent. If you park your car in your garage overnight it is at less risk of being stolen than if it were parked on the road outside your home.
Security Devices
If your car is fitted with an alarm, immobiliser and tracking device it will be cheaper to insure than if it did not have these security features fitted.
Modifications
If you have had your car modified in some way such as having expensive alloy wheels fitted it will cost more to insure.
Mileage
If you drive an average of 30,000 miles per annum you are more likely to be involved in an accident than if you only do 1,000 miles per annum so expect to pay more for your car insurance.
No Claims Bonus
The higher your no claims bonus the lower your premium should be.
Excess
The bigger the voluntary excess you pay towards a claim then you should pay a cheaper car insurance premium.
Optional Extras
If you start adding in optional extras such as car breakdown cover, personal accident cover and legal protection cover then you can expect to pay more for your car insurance.
Paying annually or monthly
If you pay your car insurance premium up front and all in one go expect to pay less than if you paid monthly as, in the later case, you are, in effect, taking on a loan for your car insurance and likely to pay interest.
