How Can I Reduce My Car Insurance?
Caeva O'Callaghan | July 11th, 2023
An Insurance Insider’s Guide To Cutting Down Your Car Insurance Premium
Want to pay less for your monthly car insurance premium? Here’s some tips and tricks to help you do it.
No one likes paying more than they ought, especially for car insurance. It’s something you never use until you’re in a sticky situation. So, you want to be paying as little as possible while still retaining full coverage.
In this article, we’ll be covering questions like:
- How can I pay less for car insurance?
- Does my address mean I pay more for my car insurance?
- Will my license plate affect my car insurance?
You may be surprised to learn what tricks you can leverage to lower your car insurance. Read on to find out all about them.
You and your car
When filling out a form for a car insurance quote, it’s essential you enter your information as accurately as possible… in some areas. In others, the answer that springs to mind first might not be the one that gets you the best price.
It’s necessary to remind ourselves here that lying to your insurance company never does anyone any good. When you make a claim and your details aren’t right, you may have scuppered your chances of getting everything you’re owed.
However, there are a few chances to lower your car insurance when filling out personal details.
1. If you’re not working at the moment, don’t say you’re ‘unemployed’
Many insurance companies won’t even give you a quote if you have no income. Instead, choose the option for “housewife”, “househusband” or similar if available. This prevents you from being automatically excluded from consideration, and will get you over the first hurdle.
2. Enter the registration number of your car.
Instead of just using the website’s search function or getting the person on the other end of the phone to look up the make and model, enter your registration number. Your vehicle, its features and engine size are major rating factors when it comes to calculating insurance, and it’s always better and usually cheaper to find the exact same make and model.
Some versions of the same car will be more powerful, more valuable, or have limited edition features. For example, saying you have a Volkswagen Golf is not specific enough. There are currently eight generations of this car, as well as electric versions. Within those generations, there are different options such as diesel or petrol, custom features, and more.
Entering your registration number lets your insurance company know exactly what you have.
Other named drivers
In many cases, having someone else eligible to drive your car can drive down the cost of your premium. This is because anyone in a high-risk category can usually pay less if someone considered a lower risk may be driving at the time.
Generally speaking, younger drivers (under 25) are less experienced and considered a higher risk. For a long time, it was standard practice in the car insurance industry to charge men and women differently. Statistics showed that females, on average, had fewer car accidents and therefore were lower risk. This meant women often paid less on their car insurance, and men paid more.
But as of 2012, car insurance companies in Ireland are no longer able to discriminate based on gender. Thanks to the new guidelines, it no longer matters to your insurance company if you’re a man or a woman when calculating premiums.
You might find that once you hit 25, your insurance premiums go down. But if you can’t wait, you can still take advantage of the age factor when calculating a premium.
3. Add an older named driver.
Apart from it being handy to have someone else in the household who can drive your car, adding an older parent or relative can bring your premium down. If they’re just as likely to be driving your car when an accident occurs, you’ll be able to take advantage of their lower risk status.
Alternatively, consider jumping on your household’s other car insurance policies as a way to drive down your premium.
4. Multi-car policies are often cheaper.
So if you can get an older relative to add your car and add you as a named driver to their policy, you could save money compared to getting your own policy.
Where you live
It’s no secret that your house, street, county and living arrangements impact your car insurance. From where you keep your car at night to crime statistics in your area, it all makes a difference. However, moving house may not be the cheapest option when trying to lower your insurance premium. Instead, consider these options.
5. Exact match your address.
Just like your car’s registration number, entering your exact address could drive down your premium. It sounds unbelievable, but one end of your street could be a higher risk than the other. It usually pays to be accurate.
Also, if you’re considering taking out a policy with Allianz, adding your eircode sometimes reduces the premium.
Other insurance products
Before you shop around, consider other insurance policies you own. Are you able to take advantage of a promotional offer?
6. Tell your broker who your home insurance provider is.
Many insurance providers give you discounts for buying their other products. If they offer home insurance they may also offer car insurance, and while it might not seem the cheapest at first you may be able to get a customer loyalty deal.
And finally, if you want to lower the cost of your monthly premium, and you consider yourself a safe driver, there’s a great option just for you:
7. Increase your excess.
Your excess is the amount you pay in the event of making a claim. You can think of it as the “cost” of making a claim. Typically this is to cover insurance companies’ operating costs, as well as deterring people from making small, frivolous claims. A general rule is that if the excess is going to be more than the repairs you need to make, you’re better off paying out of pocket than getting insurance involved.
But raising your excess can lower your monthly premium, as insurance companies assume they’ll get that money in the event you make a claim.
Talk to us today about increasing your car insurance excess, as we may be able to get you savings as high as €3K.
If you have any questions about how you might reduce your car insurance premium, pick up the phone and talk to us today!
If your car insurance is up for renewal and you are looking to see how you can reduce your car insurance premiums, talk to our insurance experts, they know all the angles when it comes to getting motor insurance. You can talk to us any weekday between 8.30am and 5.30pm on 0818 224433 or 042 9359051. All our agents are trained experts and can help you with all your Car insurance questions.
If you would like an instant car insurance quote online, our quote engine searches the market to help you find the right car insurance for your specific needs. We look forward to hearing from you!