Everyone knows vehicle insurance is expensive, especially for young drivers. There are many good articles out there advising on how to cut your Comprehensive Insurance Premium such as:
http://http://www.driving.co.uk/car-clinic/advice-insurance-for-beginners
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-insurance/
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/jun/16/carinsurance
http://www.confused.com/on-the-road/cost-of-motoring/driving-down-the-cost-of-car-insurance
They all have one thing in common; increase your excess = lower premium.Ai??You feel great having discovered this helpful advice and got a cheaper quote on your renewal but think about it for a minute. You are paying hundreds of pounds to insure the vehicle yet now you have to pay even more to make a claim is this really comprehensive cover?
What the articles don’t tell you is that you can protect this excess meaning when you do need to claim it wont cost you!
What is excess insurance?
Excess Insurance means that even if you have a high excess you wonai??i??t suddenly have to find a suitcase full of money to pay for repairs. Instead of paying the excess yourself the excess insurance policy pays it for you so you wonai??i??t be out of pocket, face a huge credit card bill or borrow from the bank of mum and dad.
How much does it cost?
The price of cover varies depending on the size of the excess covered and the length of the policy, premiums start from as little as A?20 for a years cover. However you can purchase up to 4 years cover which is even cheaper.
Do I really need more insurance?
You may never have needed to make a insurance claim but even careful claim-free drivers can run afoul of an uninsured driver, theft or something else. In 2006 I lent my car to a friend who had a brain aneurysm just a couple of hundred yards down the road from picking it up! Ai??IAi??would have saved A?2,000 if we had excess insurance then.
Even if you dont claim protecting your excess could still save you money because if you know your excess will be covered, you can afford to opt for a higher excess, reducing your motor insurance premium. The cost of the excess insurance will often be less than the amount saved by having a higher excess on your car insurance.
Is it Comprehensive?
When looking for motor insurance its easy to think that when it says comprehensive it covers everything. That’s just not true.Ai??All insurance has terms & conditions and one type of policy may be exactly what you need but wouldn’t always be the right one for somebody else, it all comes down to personal circumstances. For example one insurer may offer a courtesy car as standard for 14Ai??days but only a small (Class A) car like a Fiat 500 or Ford Ka but another may offer a replacement vehicle comparable in size to your own for 4 days.
One thing we think everyone will agree on is that given the choice you would choose not to have to pay towards a claim (excess).
