Check out Bestquote's advice guide on how to survive the insurance jungle - and get the best deal!  Whether you're insuring your first car, or your 'second' car, there are always savings to be made...
 

Introduction

You've collapsed into bed, and are happily dozing off. But suddenly you sit bolt upright. Your eyes are wide with terror. You need to insure your car! You manage to get back to sleep, but insurance won't leave your mind. It infests your dreams. Policies become tangled trees. Clauses sprout claws and prepare to attack. Salesmen hiss menacingly from the undergrowth. You're lost, confused, scared... You need Bestquote's guide to Surviving the Insurance Jungle. Simply click through the guide and we'll give you the equipment you need to escape every peril and emerge with the best insurance deal.

So you've decided you need some car insurance. But what sort of cover should you opt for?

You've got three levels to choose from, ranging from falling-leaf protection only to something that'll withstand a full-on tiger attack.

Third Party Only
This is the least you can get away with. It will cough up for any damage to a person, car or property involved in a ding with your motor, but that's it. Any damage to your own car has to be repaired out of your own pocket unless it's proved that the accident was someone else's fault. That's really hard to do these days, so even you skinflints out there should avoid this basic level of cover - you'll suffer in the long run. Crash repair costs these days make trying to save up enough to buy back your cherished mobility a nightmare.

Third Party, Fire and Theft
Much the same as above, except the policy will fork out (eventually) if your car is stolen or set on fire.

Comprehensive
The one to go for. Regardless of whose fault it is, it'll pay for accident damage to your own car as well as anyone else involved. Not that much more expensive 'cos most insurance companies would prefer you to pick up this level of cover. Why? Because, then, if blame is impossible to prove, they settle the claim on a 'knock for knock' basis with other insurers. That is, split the cost 50/50. Not always very fair, but saves them time, hassle and paperwork.

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Here are five things you definitely need to do:

Protect your No Claims Bonus
The No Claims Bonus is exactly that: don't make a claim, and your insurance will get cheaper year by year. After one year of biff-free motoring you can expect a 30% No Claims discount on the cost of your insurance. Play dodgems successfully for six years, and you can expect savings of up to 65%.

Now, any claim you make will register either as 'blithering idiot' or 'not your fault'. If you get involved in a 'blithering idiot' you will lose some or all of your No Claims Bonus. This, if you've just spent six years building up to a full No Claims Bonus, is a drag. Expensive too. And remember, if your insurance company can't prove your innocence, or even recover the full costs of a blatant 'not your fault' from someone else, the incident becomes a 'blithering idiot' regardless of real blame.

So in reality there's a good chance your No Claims Bonus may suffer even if you're in the right. This is why you must protect it. It doesn't cost much extra, and you will then be allowed a certain number of 'blithering idiots' per year, or years, without damage to your Bonus.

Watch that windscreen
Make sure your comprehensive cover gives you free windscreen replacement. It should do. Of course, free doesn't mean free at all - you'll have to pay an excess. This usually means about the first £50 of windscreen replacement cost.

Also remember to check that your stereo and/or telephone are included in your cover. They should be with most Comprehensive policies.

Check that excess
Even with all singing, all dancing cover, you'll have to pay something towards the cost of a claim. Insurance companies call this 'excess'. We call it a rip-off. Excesses are either voluntary or compulsory. Compulsory excesses can come your way because of your age (the young do suffer), or because your car is in a high insurance group (see What's it Gonna Cost?). The voluntary excess is the amount you agree to pay towards the cost of the repairs when you make a claim. The only good news is that the more you agree to pay in voluntary excess, the lower your annual insurance payment will be.

You'll always have to pay the combined voluntary and compulsory excess sums to any repairer before you can collect your car. But at least you can claim that amount back from the other person involved if they're proved responsible for the prang.

The dull bit
Check what overall interest you'll be stung for if you opt to pay your annual insurance by instalments. It might just be cheaper to borrow the money from your bank or building society to pay in one lump. We know this is dull, but do it anyway.

Ask about:
The price difference between Third Party and Comprehensive Cover
Protecting your No Claims Bonus
All the possible hidden excesses you can think of
Interest rates on payment by instalments
How badly you'll suffer if they can't get proof of your innocence in a prang

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Your car
Until 1991, insurance companies classed cars in nine groups depending on price, performance and costs of parts. This has now been fine tuned to 20 groups. It's quite simple: Fiat Seicento = Group 1; Ferrari 360 = Group 20. Take a look through the car search and you’ll see everything’s listed…

Where you live
Call it prejudice or statistics - insurance companies use your postcode to decide how much of an accident or theft risk your car is. So, Central London = expensive, Cornwall = cheap.

Your age
If you're young it'll cost more. Simple as that. Especially if you haven't been driving long enough to build up a healthy No Claims Bonus. Many insurance companies don't get generous 'til you're over 35, so, if you can't wait that long to hit the road in an Aston, shop around (see Getting it Cheaper).

Your sex
Not how much you have, we mean the boy or girl bit. Like it or not, many insurance companies have decided that younger women are a safer bet than blokes. So either put up with that or, if you find yourself in the wrong trousers, have a sex change.

Your occupation
This is all to do with how risky the insurers think your job is. If you work long hours and spend most of them in the car you'll get clobbered far harder than if you ink 'Couch Potato' into the occupation box. Moreover, if you're in a profession which sees you regularly laden down with valuable passengers from the world of sport, showbiz, movies or music, this will probably cost you.

Your driving record
Not the fastest you've ever gone or the farthest you've travelled in a day, we're talking convictions and previous claims here. It stands to reason that if your record shows the police have pulled you over for helming your car down the motorway via two long bits of string whilst sitting on the roof, and you've had 12 accidents in the last three months, you might expect things to get a tad costly. Think about doing Pass Plus or taking extra driving tuition – it could knock a few quid off.

Your mileage
Well, your car's to be exact. The more miles you clock up, the more likely the insurance companies think you are to have a coming together. Now, some insurers offer big discounts for very low mileage drivers (like the Sunday-walk-in-the-car-with-the-windows-wound-tight-shut-brigade). We suspect this is cobblers and that the more you drive the better you're likely to be at it. But what do we know?

Where you park your car at night
All linked to where you live, really. But many insurers give a discount if the car is locked away in a garage at night. Indeed, if you've got a posh car in a well-dodgy area, some companies won't quote you at all unless you promise to lock it up each night and buy a brace of Dobermans.

What anti-theft devices are fitted to your car
Alarms and immobilisers are almost guaranteed to get you some sort of discount on your annual premium. Make sure you fit an approved anti-theft system. Flashing lights and curious noises are all very impressive but, if the insurers don't like it, you've wasted your dosh. And don’t forget all new cars have to come with a factory fitted immobiliser.

Modifications
If you've fitted skirts, spoilers, bulging wheel arches, Chunnel-sized exhausts, flash alloys and furry dice to your innocent little Fiesta, what on earth were you thinking of? No. Sorry... What we mean is, that which makes the end result more attractive to you also turns on the car thief. So be prepared to pay a premium for turning your car into a real 'bird puller'. If that's what you really think you've achieved... An 'M' body-kit on a bog standard Beemer is about the most expensive tomfoolery you can get up to.

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Try these to bring down the annual cost of your insurance.

Name Drivers
Ask for a quote for your car with yourself listed as the only driver. It'll always be cheaper than allowing your whole family to drive the car. Don't specify, and the premium will invariably reflect the insurance company's views on the risk involved in insuring the least qualified or able member of the family.

Restricted mileage
If you can guarantee to do a limited number of miles every year, some insurance companies may reduce your premium. This is particularly relevant to...

Classic car insurance
If you've got something old and deliciously unreliable hidden away that you only potter about in on high days and holidays, you can get a vastly reduced quote on the basis that you won't cover more than, say, 5000 miles a year.

Locking it up
We've already mentioned that depending on where you live, some insurance companies will penalise for not having access to lockable, under-cover, off-street parking. By the same token, if you can padlock your motor out of sight at night it should save you a pretty penny in insurance.

Anti-theft devices
Guaranteed to help with premium costs. But may also be a pre-requisite with certain makes of car in certain circumstances before you'll even be offered insurance at all.

Specialists
Even if you have the most abysmal 'blithering idiot' record in the world, or are only 18 and want to insure a Diablo, someone out there will give you cover. We're not saying it won't cost you, mind... These days, some companies specialise in performance cars, insurance for the young, etc. Check out the specialised motoring press, Exchange and Mart, Loot et al.

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Don’t even think about it!:
Insuring your car through your dad or mum, unless they accept that if you're a 'blithering idiot' their No Claims Bonus will suffer.

Lying about any of the questions asked in What's It Gonna Cost? If you make a claim and the insurance company finds out you told porkies to ease the load in your wallet, you could very well invalidate your insurance altogether on the spot. This will be expensive. Very expensive. Oh, and that includes the oldest trick in the book: giving your parents' out-of-town address as the car's permanent location 'cos you live in an inner city.

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Doesn't matter how good a driver you think you are. Remember, there are still an awful lot of Austin Metros out there...

What's covered?
With Third Party insurance, only your passengers are covered. So you can stop worrying about them, and worry about the dents and scrapes to yourself and your motor. As we've said, it's hard to prove you're blameless in a ding, and that's the only way you'll get any dosh for repairs.

Even with Comprehensive cover it's important to know that, while your car and passengers receive tip-top treatment, your own personal injury cover isn't likely to be worth more than about £5,000 - about enough to sort out an ingrown toenail these days. So check and, if you think you're worth rather more, ask about...

Personal injury plans
Most insurers will offer personal injury cover to a respectable figure for a relatively modest extra sum. Should be enough to get that arm sewn back on.

Personal effects
Insurance companies are pretty hacked off with us folks making claims for endless sets of golf bats and non-existent teddy bears in diamond tiaras. So you'll only get very limited personal effects cover out of them - £100-£250 - these days. Don't despair, though. This is what your home contents cover is for. Oh dear, that's another phone call you'll need to make then...

If you're involved in an accident:
In the immortal words of Corporal Jones: DON'T PANIC.

By law, you must stop. If there's an injury, you must inform the police within 4 hours. But our advice is to go ahead and inform the police in the event of any crunch. They'll give you an incident number and record it. Could be useful if the claim gets tricky...

DON'T:

lose your temper

waste time arguing about whose fault it was

admit liability even if you suspect you were to blame

just drive off

move the vehicles involved until an independent person has noted their position. Unless, that is, you're causing a 30 mile tailback on the M1, in which case get that bloody car out of the way right now

punch anybody, even if they're a 'blithering idiot'.

DO:

exchange names, addresses and insurance details with anyone else involved

take the names and addresses of any witnesses willing to help

take down the registration numbers of all the vehicles involved, too - this helps track 'em down later, especially if they've given you duff information to hide the fact that they're driving without insurance

make a record of exactly what happened

contact your insurance company as soon as possible to let them know what's happened.

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Make sure you know exactly what cover you're getting for your money. Remember, an instant saving on Third Party only cover could cost you big time in the long run, particularly if you're a 'blithering idiot'. Do anything to afford the small extra cost of insuring your No Claims Bonus.

Check through the What's It Gonna Cost section to make sure you can answer all the questions that help insurers decide how much to charge you. You can't do much about your age, and changing your sex will cost a bomb (and probably hurt a bit) but you might find you can lock your wheels away at night (thanks Gran), or afford an immobiliser. That alone will save you a bomb.

Use our panel of insurers section to help you pay as little as possible for your insurance. Limited mileage, secure overnight parking, owner only driving, anti-theft devices can all bring down the cost. Take the time to shop around. And ASK.

Insuring powerful cars can be expensive. Check out the specialist motoring press and mags like Exchange and Mart and Loot - you'll find dozens of adverts for specialist insurers who are prepared to sell you cover.

Likewise, if you're young, or have had shed loads of convictions or a veritable smorgasbord of shunts and you think, after talking to the major players, that no insurer will touch you with a barge pole, you're wrong. There's always someone out there prepared to take you on as a calculated risk. But beware - it will cost you...

Car insurance is dull but unavoidable. Don't be a 'blithering idiot', don't leave home without it. Plod will not look favourably upon you if you do. And nor will we.

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