With average car insurance premiums having gone up considerably in the past couple of years for many motorists, people have no doubt been looking for one or more ways of either containing or, better still, lowering their premiums.
One of the ways of achieving a reduction in the cost of your motor insurance is to agree to pay a voluntary excess on your policy in addition to the compulsory excess that is applicable. Doing so means that you will have to pay more towards the cost of the repair to your car should it be damaged such as in a road traffic accident or should it be damaged whilst being broken into.
With many insurance companies it is possible to choose the amount of voluntary excess you wish to pay with a range of monetary options. The more that you are prepared to pay towards the cost of repairing your vehicle following a road traffic accident the lower your premium will be.
However, it must be borne in mind that if you end up paying a voluntary excess of say £250 then how does that compare with the saving that you have made as a result of your car insurance premium reducing. For instance, if your premium reduced by let’s say £5 per month for paying such an excess then you would have to wait circa 50 months before you saved any money should you have had to claim on your policy in say the first month and ended up paying the £250 voluntary excess.
Of course, you are never going to know if and when you are going to end up claiming on your car insurance policy. Therefore, it is impossible to establish if it is financially viable to have a voluntary excess on your policy. Ultimately, it is a decision that you will have to make as it is in deciding the level of cover that you require i.e. fully comprehensive, third party or third party fire and theft.
