Is it coming round to the time to renew your car insurance? Do you just accept the quote and stay with your insurer, just as 23% of car owners do? Does it matter that the premium is 5 or 10 per cent more expensive than last years? Maybe it’s just not worth the hassle of all those phone calls to goodness knows where, thumbing through the yellow pages or wearing out your shoe-leather down town. In addition to this, Insurance companies offer the best rates to new customers, in order to gain their custom. Existing clients generally stay with them anyway.
What about the internet? It really is worth giving it a try. Do you know that, if you shop around you could, on average, save around £55, plus the extra online discount? It is estimated that more than 2.25 million car owners purchase their car insurance on line now. The internet is fast and simple to use and sales on the internet are generally growing at a surprising rate.
Car insurers really want your business; they are ready to be extremely competitive with pricing in order to win you over. There are around 100 of them in the UK and due to the strong competition in the industry; prices have held level for the past year or so. You can go to the individual insurers websites, comparison websites or use one that recommends specific insurers for different types of driver, whether they be the in the young, higher risk category or the experienced old driver with years of proven safe driving behind them. You will receive instant results while the amount of advice and information that you get to have is simply unbelievable. You’ll be asked to fill in your relevant details, for example the number of years you’ve been driving, whether there are any convictions, number of years of “no claims” for your discount. All easily answered and your no claims details should be on your renewal notice.
Besides the straightforward individual car insurance, many new categories of insurance are now becoming available in the market. There are pay as you go options and multi-car policies. Unless you were in the car-trade, these used to be difficult to obtain. It certainly seems to be time to re-assess what’s available in the car insurance line and get yourself up to date on what’s on offer. A short time spent browsing the internet is what is required to get you thinking along the right lines.
A word of warning though; The AA’s Ian Crowder says “If we don’t start to see modest price increases, then there could well be an unpleasant and sudden price hike. This will not be good for the industry’s reputation or out customers.Insurers have already started to indicate that they may not be able to keep a cap on price rise for a very long time. Claims are accelerating. There has been an increase in the average cost of accidental damage repair at the rate of about 5% per year, despite the fact that the number of accidents has come down. Claims for personal injury are rising fast and the cost of settling these is rising at around 12% per annum.
Get on line and get sorted, instead of giving your insurer the chance to utilise this as an excuse for a rising premium!
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