Cheap Car Insurance
Speedily compare 120 quotes + possible cashback

Whether you’re at renewal or not, you can sever the cost of your car insurance in ten minutes, possibly to under £100. The trick is to harness every web comparison service in the correct order, massively increasing the number of quotes, and then sneakily get cashback on top.

These savings can be had anytime. Provided you haven't claimed, most car insurers allow policies to be cancelled with a refund, and while a few charge penalties, you’re still likely to save more than their cost.

Step 1: Ensure you're getting the correct cover

Insurance premiums (the name for payments made to insurance companies) depend on the insurer, the level of cover and how risky you're perceived to be. Therefore start by defining your cover and ensuring you’re as low a risk as possible.

Full information on this, including whether to go for Third Party or Comprehensive insurance and picking an excess level, are in the special additional Car Insurance: picking your policy article.

Beware monthly payment plans

Whoever you insure with, if it gives an option to 'pay monthly’, be careful. What usually happens is the insurer actually loans you the annual cost and charges you interest for the privilege. While occasional promotions are interest free, usually the interest rates are hideous. So either pay it off in full, or if you can’t afford it in one go it's actually cheaper to pay with a 0% credit card for spending and make the same repayments to that.

Can tweaking your job description save you money?

Your job is important as all insurers keep a record of past claims made by each occupation, so they can see which are the most risky and more likely to claim. I have built a fun tool to help you find a suitable cheaper alternative job title, but without having to get a new job!

Step 2: Combine comparison sites for the best search

Enter your details in a screenscraping website and they’re zipped to hosts of insurers' and brokers' websites, literally 'scraping their data off the screens', to find the cheapest. Yet, due to their commercial relationships each site covers different insurers and brokers. However by using the correct combination of sites in the right order you can cover nearly 60 brokers and 60 insurers at speed; more than three times even the widest ranging single comparison service.

Below you’ll see the correct order, designed so that stop early and you’ve still had the best search available in that time. It’s assessed on the number of brokers and insurers added, the time taken, feedback on the service and ease-of-use. Do use as many as possible, after all you’ve got your paperwork out anyway; and if you’re a web-whizz simply do them consecutively in separate windows to speed it up.

Compare in the following order:

Do be aware comparison sites send your details to insurers to get quotes, so there's a slight chance you may get sales calls or emails later.

Once you’ve found the cheapest from the screenscrapers; there are two important checks to make:

First, click through to the insurance provider's own website to double check the quotes, as to speed up searches some comparison sites make a few assumptions. Next, double check the policy is suitable for you, so if you want “free car hire” if your car is being fixed, is it included? Plus while you’re there it's worth playing with the policy details to see if you can finesse the price down; look at the excess, and whether adding drivers cuts the cost (see hints and tips article).

What's the difference between screenscrapers and brokers?

Brokers and screenscrapers may seem like they’re doing a similar job, as each search a number of different insurers; yet they’re radically different beasts. My favourite analogy for this is to compare it to searching for the cheapest loaf of bread.

Each individual insurer is like a baker, so your choice is simply to buy the cheapest loaf it offers that fits your characteristics. Brokers are the equivalent to supermarkets; they stock a range of bakers' loaves and the price they charge depends on their relationship with the supplier. Yet screenscrapers are like sending someone to speed round all the supermarkets and bakers to find the cheapest loaf of all of them.

Further tricks to find a cheaper price

The first port of call is always using the comparison services above, yet for higher risk drivers (or other specific groups) a useful tool is Insurancewide's* MotorWizard. It sorts insurers into target groups, including the under 21's or rural drivers, so you can ensure you’ve checked which providers have a positive attitude to your category.

Consider Pay-As-You-Go

There are two pay-as-you-go insurers which both offer fully comprehensive cover. These can be extremely cheap for relatively low use or young drivers; and as the comparison services don't include them, it's worth checking them both out separately.

Yet these are only worth considering for those who don't often drive between 11pm and 6am, otherwise the cost is prohibitive. Norwich Union's Pay-as-you-drive scheme is designed for those driving under 6,000 miles a year, and More Than's Drive Time is only for 18-25 year olds. The price is based on a fixed charge which depends on where and how much you drive, calculated by a free GPS device that's fitted to you car.

Step 3: Grab Cashback and Haggle

By now you’ll know the cheapest available provider, yet you may be able to save on this price.

Check for special offers

Some special deals might not be mentioned by comparison services. So once you’ve used the comparisons above, check them out; currently they include:

• First Direct. First Direct promises to beat your renewal quote by £30 or £50 if you're insuring two cars, providing your annual premium is over £200 for comprehensive or £120 for non-comprehensive. So if your comparison hasn’t shaved over £30 off your renewal, grab this.



• Norwich Union. Norwich Union is offering between £15 and £75 cashback, depending on your premium cost, if you have three or more years no claims.



• Post Office. The Post Office* is offering new customers £50 cashback for taking out its car insurance before the 30 June 08.



• RAC. The RAC* is giving new customers free RAC Roadside Cover or £20 discount and £35 cashback if you already have it's breakdown.



• Tesco. Tesco* is offering a voucher for a free Karcher Pressure Washer from Tesco Direct for new customers who buy its car insurance by phone or online before 25 June 08 and quote code 'pressure' and their clubcard number. You'll also get 1 clubcard point for every £2 of your car insurance premium and 500 clubcard points if you buy Level 4 Tesco Car Breakdown Assistance at the same time as the car insurance. All require the policyholder to be the clubcard holder.



• Tesco Compare. Tesco Compare has special offers from a few different insurers, including morethan, Zurich, LloydsTSB, Yes and Swinton if you buy your insurance through its site before 25 Jun 08.



• Zurich. If you own a Tom Tom and take out Zurich insurance before 29 Aug 08 quoting code 'ZTOM5' its giving a £50 M&S voucher. If you don't own a Tom Tom you can get £50 off but there are cheaper ways to buy if you want one.

Any new top deals will be in the weekly MoneySaving Email

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Get cashback on top

Once you’ve found the cheapest insurer, there’s a sneaky way to get possibly £30 to £50 cashback on top… simply sign via a cashback website.

These are special sites carrying paid links from retailers and financial services providers; in other words if you click through them and get a product they get paid. However importantly, they then give you some of this cash which means you get the same product, but a cut of the advertising revenue.

Not all insurers are included, and you should never choose an insurer just for the cashback, but if your cheapest does pay out, why not grab it. Full details including what sites to use are in the Top Cashback Sites article.

Haggle

The car insurance market is very competitive and companies are desperate to retain business. Therefore the next step is to get on the phone and try to haggle (unless cashback’s available as that has to be via the net). There's often massive price flexibility, but be fully armed with the screenscraper’s cheapest quotes first.

The first port of call should be your existing insurer, after all if it can beat or even match the best quote it saves the hassle of switching policy. If that doesn’t work and you’re still in the mood, take it to a broker.

Step 4: Remember next year

Apply for cover from your existing insurer as a new customer and it’s likely you’ll be given a cheaper price. This is because car insurers like any company will happily profit from apathy if they can. It’s for this reason renewal notifications are sent as near to renewal as possible; as then you’re pressured for time and less likely to try and find a cheaper price.

To avoid being forced to decide quickly, diarise a warning six weeks before your renewal date, so there’s plenty of time to sort out a new provider. Alternatively use the free Tart Alert which sends a reminder text or email (it's designed for 0% credit card end dates, but works just as well for insurance).

Using this system should save you time and money. For a married 31-year-old man and 29-year-old woman based in Essex, with a mid-range car looking for comprehensive cover, one insurer was charging over £700. Using a broker the price was reduced to £483.

However, using the combined screenscraper system the best price found was £233, and that's without haggling. Using the complete system above can result in serious discounts; do please feedback if you end up with car insurance under £100; currently the record is £23.

Sample Car Insurance Quotes Married couple, 3 years' no-claims, Manchester-based, comprehensive cover for mid-range car
Company	Quote	Saving
Direct	£702	-
Broker	£483	£219
MoneySavingExpert.com System	£233	£469
Car: Kia Shuma 4 door Auto, manufactured in 2000, value £6,000, kept on drive, both drivers accident and points free, excess £150.

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