Occupation has been mentioned previously as something that can affect insurance premiums.

Whilst it is extremely important to ensure you accurately describe your occupation in order to secure the best car insurance premium quote when it comes to renewal, there are many other factors or changes, some more significant than others, that can affect premiums.

If you are looking to help reduce insurance premiums costs, it is worth remembering the following when it comes to discussing renewal or reporting changes to your insurer.

In short, pretty much everything except your name can affect the premiums charged.

You may think that having access to other cars may increase your premium but if you are also on your parent’s or partner’s car insurance as a named driver with occasional use, with some insurers, it can actually reduce your premium.

When asked about previous accidents, ensure you disclose everything, including who was at fault. Remember, if it wasn’t your fault but your insurer was unable to recover costs from the other person, then it is likely that you will have lost your no claims bonus which many insurers will therefore record as a fault accident.

Its worth bearing in mind that if the out of pocket costs by your insurer was less than the increase in your insurance premum as a result of your no claims bonus being affected, it may be worth having a chat with them to see if they will let you reimburse them their costs so that they will give you your no claims bonus back.

British motorists continue to make more and more insurance claims and this is in turn, now absorbing up to £150 per person of their car insurance premiums.

For those that have not made a claim, this means that they are now subsidising claimants to the tune of £150 every year.

According to the recent studies, it is suggested that the main reason for the increased number of claims is simply fraud.

Factors such as damage caused by drivers who do not have valid insurance isn’t helping and causing some concern.

Up to £66 of this £150 is said to come from claims submitted by drivers claiming to have suffered whiplash injuries following an accident.

The important thing here is to ensure that if you are involved in an accident, fault or non-fault, ensure you document as much as you can remember about the accident and particularly any injuries sustained by you or the other people involved. Take photos, use your mobile if it has capability and most have nowadays.

Whilst accepting that injuries such as whiplash may not manifest themselves immediately, you will have a better indication of things and whether such claims are genuine if you have taken notes etc. that you can refer to later. Remember, if anyone sustains an injury, you are obliged to contact the police before leaving the scene.

Notify your insurer as soon as you can if there are injuries involved and if you suspect some potential fraudulent claim winging its way, tell them.

Swinton Car Insurance have revealed that some drivers are finding themselves having to submit insurance claims because of damage to their vehicles which could have been avoided.

According to their recent research findings, 36% of drivers do not know their vehicle.

Furthermore, 29% of these people did not know one of the most basic tasks; namely how to change a tyre.

Tyre conditions form part of the Road Traffic Act and if you drive around with your tyre treads which are less than the legal minimum, you could face prosecution, endorsements on your licence, and an increase in your next renewal premium.

Of even greater consequence is the risk of your car not stopping and sticking to the road as effectively thereby increasing the chances of you having an accident.

Tyre pressures are equally important, and Swintons research identified that 20% of people questioned didn’t know the correct tyre pressures for their vehicle or indeed, how to check them.

Drivers with a better understanding of their vehicles that regularly conduct routine maintenance checks are less likely to need to make unnecessary claims on their insurance.

If you are a parent, take the trouble to either show your kinsfolk how to undertake the checks or enrol them on a basic car maintenance course at your local school or college.

You will be doing them a big favour and helping them to keep their insurance premiums down.

How long have you had car insurance with the same company?

If the answer is years then you could be paying more than you need to. Start shopping around. There is a wealth of aggregator internet sites offering comparisons between literally hundreds of insurance providers.

Even if you are not IT literate, or have a phobia of computers, don’t simply pick up that phone wasting your time and money by randomly phoning insurance companies.

You really should do some research because without it, you will have no idea how competitive the companies you contact are or whether they are offering the best deal for you.

Yes, many people still prefer to speak to a person rather than do things on-line but you may be doing yourself a dis-service and greatly reduce your chances of getting a really good deal.

If you can’t face doing it yourself, get your kids to do it, they love anything to do with computers and will be more than happy to do it for you. Just give them the information and send them on their way.

Get them to look at the various comparison sites such as confused.com and gocompare.com to see who are going to be among the cheapest companies for YOU. No two individuals are the same so don’t just assume that if your twin brother gets a good quote from one company that they will be best for you. They might be, but you will never know unless you do the comparison. Who is to say that his deal is still the best on the market now? Insurance companies are constantly reviewing their premiums and it may have changed.

Don’t play into your insurance companies hands and just pay your renewal premium.

Shop around, and don’t be afraid to go back to your current insurer and offer them the opportunity to match, or even beat the best quote you have obtained.

It’s drifting towards those summer months and the optimistic people, hoping for a hot, dry summer will soon start to bring out those cabriolet motors or start searching for such a car in preparation for soaking up the sun whilst out on the open road.

It’s the recent all too brief glimpse of the sun that manufacturers and garages are hoping will help boost the sales in new and second hand soft tops, cabriolets and T Bar design motors during the next few months.

Just like other motors however, the ladies are able to secure better insurance premiums than the men.

A 24 year old young lady with 4 years no claims bonus can expect to pay between £334 and £800 for comprehensive cover on a 1600cc, Vauxhall Astra Cabriolet built in 2002.

The poor 24 year old male can expect to pay between £360 up to as much as £1,100 for the same vehicle and cover.

Unfortunately gentlemen, until such time as you can clean up your act and bring the insurance claims costs etc. down to the same level as the female drivers, our lady friends are going to continue enjoying lower insurance premiums.

Realistically, this is unlikely to happen so unfortunately, premiums for men will remain higher than for the ladies for the foreseeable future so we may as well get used to it.

Car insurance is becoming a major in factor in determining what car to buy, according to Swinton, the UK’s leading high street car insurance retailer.
New cars valued at more than £1 billion are sitting idle in parking lots around the country as sales slump. Sales are so bad in fact that next years motor show in London’s Docklands has been cancelled.
As sales of those expensive sports cars and 4 x 4 gas guzzlers drop due to the current financial climate, motorists are searching for more economical cars, and this includes those cars attracting lower insurance premiums.
A recent survey of 1,000 Swinton customers found car insurance premiums was their second highest consideration when looking at buying a new car.
There are many things to consider before buying any motor, and being able to find cheap car insurance which meets your requirements and offers the benefits you are looking for is not always easy.
It’s always wise therefore to ensure you obtain a quote before entering into any agreement to buy.
Don’t simply accept the premium your current insurer quotes. Have a little shop around, make sure you know what your current insurer would charge you if you cancelled your existing policy before the next renewal date and take this into consideration when deciding whether it is worth your while to switch immediately, or wait until your policy is next due for renewal.

With everything else going on in our lives it is very easy to forget the MOTs for our cars.
Whilst it may not be considered much of an issue for most, driving a car without a valid MOT certificate in force is an offence under the Road Traffic Act and attracts prosecution, fines and points on licences if caught.
It is said that as many as one in five motorists renew their MOT more than 1 month after it last expired and with as many as six million drivers having admitted to driving their car without a valid MOT certificate because they simply forgot their MOT renewal date, the problem is significant.
A car with an expired MOT is fine if it is laid up and kept off the public highways/roads but use it and you face the possibility of invalidating your insurance. Have an accident and be found to be at fault and your problems really start to mount and have some serious consequences.
You will find yourself having to settle the other person’s costs personally, face the fine, have your licence endorsed with penalty points and expect to see an increase in your next insurance renewal premium.
In an effort to help people remember, Kwik-Fit has announced the launch of a new service that could help drivers in the UK their renewal date by sending their customers email reminders when their test are due.

Tesco is hunting for an insurance expert to help expand its financial services division.

Tesco Personal Finance (TPF) is already well established in the insurance field, offering personal lines insurance products as well as it’s credit card and other financial services.

The majority of their marketing for their personal lines products has so far been through the leaflets found at their sales points near check out counters, but following a pilot in Glasgow, it now plans to open 30 “walk-in” branches of Tesco Personal Finance in some of it’s stores around the UK by the end of 2009.

The first stores to introduce the service are due to those in Coventry, Blackpool and Bristol.
Tesco also plans to extend it’s finacial services further by launching a current account within the next couple of years as soon as they have the relevant technology in place. 200 new jobs are expected to be created in Edinburgh to support the roll out.

A Tesco spokesman denies that the creation of these walk-in financial centres has any connection to the current turmoil in retail banking sector.

Tesco Personal Finance secured authorisation from the Financial Services Authority in 2001 and has since developed successful insurance products protecting the home, pets, travel, dental, life and health insurance as well as their well known competitively priced motor insurance policies.

The car insurance market is tough, and whilst motor insurance premiums may be rising, insurers still have to maintain their market position.

As a customer, you may well be asking how on earth these insurance companies continue to need to increase their premiums.

Well, there could be a number of reasons for this, one of which is extremely likely to be the heightened awareness of consumer price comparison sites.

With so many households now having access to the internet and TV’s being literally saturated by aggregators promoting their comparison websites, the previous onerous task of shopping around by making numerous telephone calls to insurance companies and brokers is pretty much obsolete. A few clicks on your PC or laptop and in a few minutes, you have access to quotes from up to 100 insurance providers.

The internet has in fact been deemed to be a major contributory cause for a lot of the insurance industry’s difficulties. The web’s impact has been such that some underwriters are even reviewing how they price and underwrite policies purchased over the internet.

Those providers keeping pace with technological advancements and listening to what their customers want, have a good chance of maintaining their market profile and continuing to prosper.

For the others, there is a good chance they will either fall by the wayside or be absorbed by the bigger companies at some stage.

Patrick Smith is stepping down from the post of Chief Executive at Swinton in order to become chairman.

Peter Halpin, the current deputy chief executive is taking over the reins.

From humble beginnings back in the late 50s, when Swinton opened its first branch in Salford, introducing a new way to buy insurance, the company grew rapidly throughout the 1960s.
They were also the first insurance broker to advertise on TV.

Profits were up 4% over 2007’s performance with profits for 2008 coming in at £50 million and premium income rising 15% to £763.9m.

Even though Swinton are now the largest high street insurer, they continue to grow from strength to strength.

Peter Halpin, Swinton’s new chief executive, says:

“The company as a whole has an ethos which sets us apart from others in the financial services sector. That ethos is one centred around a strongly-held belief that consumers appreciate having a clear and fair choice with regard to how and where they purchase their insurance. Customers will always be able to pick up the phone and discuss their insurance matters with our advisers”.

Swinton continue to look to build on their success of being named “Personal Lines Broker of the Year in 2008” receiving praise for it’s personal approach to customer service and their strategy of integrating online growth and call centres supporting it’s extensive network of high street branches.