It’s really nice to be able to get your car repaired after an accident without incurring any further expense but it will not always be in your interest to submit that claim to your insurer and ask them to meet the repair costs.

That is not to say that you shouldn’t inform them of the accident, irrespective of fault.

In short, you need to consider the future financial implications of actually claiming from your insurer.

Unless you have protected your no claims bonus, your insurer will knock at least 20% off your no claims bonus when your policy next comes up for renewal. They may even load your premium or increase your excess for any future claims when it comes to renewal. You just never know as insurers change their underwriting strategies all the time.

Take a 25 year old male with an Astra Convertible. He is employed in an administrative job, enjoys maximum no claims bonus (not protected) and has no medical conditions. He has had a minor incident and damaged one of the headlights.

He has a policy with no excess or even £50 excess. The cost of the part may be say less than £100, and with fitting the total repair costs will be in the region of £150-£200.

The best insurance premium he managed to obtain at last renewal was £369 but if he claims via his insurers, that premium at next renewal would increase to £575, some £206 more than the previous year and that’s before taking account of any annual premium increases imposed by the insurer or possible premium loading for the incident.

The premium differential will increase further for younger drivers, particularly if they only had 2 years no claims bonus at the time of the incident. They risk losing up to 40% no claims bonus.

The recommendation therefore is to check with your insurer when you inform them of a very minor accident to establish how much your premium will increase by before instructing them to meet the costs.

Travel and car insurance customers will, in all likelihood have to endure higher insurance premiums if the Equality Bill affects the way insurers can use age to help them assess insurance risks.
This is the recent warning issued by the Association of British Insurers (ABI).

The bill, introduced in the Queen’s speech last last year is intended to prevent age discrimination but may have a negative impact for some, particularly the elderly.

It is highly possible that by restricting the use of age as an underwriting and risk aid for insurers, could lead to some deciding to pull out of the older customer insurance market, thereby restricting their choice.

Insurers remaining in the market, could well find themselves having no alternative but to increase their premiums accordingly, which completely contradicts that which was intended, namely ensuring that fair prices are available to all, including the elderly.

It is feared that restricting the use of age for underwiriting assessment would result in insurers being unable to take account of differences in risk among older customers.

Given we are an aging nation, insurers may need to change their approach, such as requiring individual medical assessments, the costs of which would ineveitably be passed onto the customer resulting in higher premiums in all probability.

It is possible that the reading of the Equality Bill could start shortly, but any regulations relating to financial services could be delayed for a little while yet.

Always check the small print, make sure you are comparing like with like!

Make sure you get the same benefits under each quote. It’s worth remembering that some insurers don’t offer a courtesy car under their comprehensive policies and this is quite a valuable add-on nowadays.

Think about increasing your policy excess in the event of a claim. £100 buys very little nowadays and mst people can absorb this amount of excess without any problem ata all. Think about increasing it to £150/£250 and see how much it saves you on your insurance premium,.

All these can help reduce premiums but what about premiums when you purchase a modfied car or even do the modifications after you have purchased the car.

Modifications to a car can prove costsly for insurance purposes. Even just fitting alloy wheels!

If you were a potential car thief, which car would you attempt to steal if there were 2 identical makes of car next to each other?

The first car being just a standard model but the second has been modified with alloy wheels, side skirts and a nice fancy paint job.

The chances are that the modified version would be the one you would have a crack at stealing.

The risk is increased, the cost of that risk is passed on to the policyholder.

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.

Ever wondered whether insurance premiums are affected by the state of the roads around where you live?

Well, the answer is probably no, but we will never be able to confirm that.

Generally, whether we think it or not, UK roads are an awful lot better and safer than some of those roads around the globe.

Take the road to Hana in Hawaii - whilst not overly dangerous in itself, the bridges on which it runs in places are in serious need of repair. Hawaii is subject to earthquakes which have affected these bridges over the years.

In the Australian Outback such as the road to Adelaide, it can be lethal. Not because of the state of the road but because drivers don’t prepare properly. It is so, so hot.

The road to Nepal, leading from Katmandu to Everest Base Camp, is extremely rocky and scattered with loose boulders from the unsecured cliffs flanking a lot of the way and at 4000 feet above sea level, conditions can be tough.

Moving back to the UK, we have the A682 in Lancashire where a 15 mile stretch is now considered one of the most dangerous roads in the UK having seen nearly 100 deaths in the past 10 years.
This nasty notorious stretch of road that has seen so much tragedy is located between junction 13 of the M65 and Long Preston.

It is sometimes inevitable to avoid riskier stretches of road and you will probably know exactly which ones in your area are more dangerous than others.

You can help avoid risking your no claims bonus by simply taking that extra bit if care when driving on them.

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.

Insurance companies use people’s occupation as one of their underwriting criterions when calculating an insurance premium.

Did you know that some insurers will view what is pretty much the same job in different ways? Would you consider the job of a reporter to be different to that of a journalist? Some insurers do!

How would you describe your occupation?

Whilst we are not in a position to question the technicalities of such insurance providers underwriting decisions, you can be sure that if they charge journalists higher insurance premiums than those working in a job described as a journalist, then they have, at some time, had their fingers burned and had to pay out more money and probably more often to policyholders that have declared their occupation as a journalist than they have for those declaring their occupation as a reporter.

Therefore, ensure you give as much information as possible about your occupation and you may even realise a saving on your insurance premium.

That is not to say you should lie, you simply need to honest and ensure you describe your job accurately.

There are always several ways to describe the same job but ensure you don’t mislead your insurer otherwise you could find you invalidate your cover.

Play around on those aggregator websites and you will see for yourself.

It’s a common theme and thought at the moment for many people in the current economic climate.

Downgrading to save money on fuel, insurance premiums and road fund licence fees makes sense. Cars are luxuries that few of us can afford to be without nowadays, but luxury they remain.

With this in mind, rather than do away with the car completely many are turning to downgrading their car for smaller, less expensive models, albeit a short term decision for the lovers of the big SUV’s and hot hatches etc. hopefully.

Here are a few that aren’t quite as hot but still offer performance of note that you might like to consider:-

The Mitsubishi Colt Ralliart is a good smaller, hot hatch offering 147bhp from its 1.5 litre engine. With it coming from the same stable as the Evo, there is some real pedigree. It’s quite a lot cheaper than the Golf GTI and Focus ST, lower insurance grouping and turns in 40.9mpg.

The Ford Fiesta Econetic is arguably the best supermini on the road and is now more eco-friendly. It turns in a staggering 76.3mpg enabling you to travel some 755 miles on a tank of fuel. Even greater news is the fact that it is only group 4 rated for insurance and with only 98g/km of CO2, you pay absolutely no road tax.

Driving around in town and needing a small car to park in those oh so tight spaces and you could be a lot worse than the Toyota iQ. It may be small and only around one foot longer than the Smartcar but you can still fit 3 adults in it.

Again, with CO2 emissions of only 99g/km means no road tax to pay.

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.