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First thing make a note of when your car insurance renewal is due,
as car insurance companies are leaving it longer and longer before they send you your renewal notice because they want to give you as little time to find an alternative, so they hope that you will just continue with them and not bother with looking for another quote,
This is the worst thing you can do, you should change your insurance company every year, as the first year they do not make any money on your policy, only by getting you to stay for longer than the first year do they actually start to make any profit, so if you move to a new provider every year you are guarantying that you are getting the most competitive quote.
To prove my system actually works here is a brief list of things you need to do to get the best qoute,
1. Check the online comparison sites, this will instantly give you an idea, if you are paying too much.
2. Go directly to Insurers website, and re do the cheapest quotes again, this is because price comparison sites don't ask enough questions to get your quote accurate.
3. Check cashback sites, some insurance companies and becoming really competitive and offering upto £100 cashback on top of an already cheap quote, this worked for me.
4. Go back to your existing insurer and tell them the best quote including cashback, as some companies may have the power to crush there own quote to keep your business.
I used this system and this is the result with my quote,
My original quote £391.42 for fully comprehensive,
they dropped the price to £363.88 for Third Party Fire & Theft,
I did stage 1, and my quote price dropped to £223.65 with Churchill.
I did stage 2, my quote went up slightly to £248.85 (£115.03 cheaper), for TPFT, no claims bonus protect, and legal cover, this was with Churchill,
there was also a quote from Lloyds TSB, for £243.60 (£120.20 cheaper), Lloyds TSB is actually under written by Churchill insurance, and they both have the same car insurance search engine on their website, Lloyds TSB is a lot better for me as the compulsory excess on Lloyds TSB is only £100 for fire & theft, where as Churchill is £150 but there is another bigger reason.
I did stage 3, I checked cashback sites, only to find that Churchill, were not offering any cashback, but Lloyds TSB are offering £60 cashback for a new policy, so that makes my yearly renewal quote to
£183.60 saving a staggering £207.82
See cashback sites
Unfortunately the system has recently been overhauled so I haven't tried this new order of comparison sites, as it changed just after I did my insurance, but I have been told it is quicker, get quotes for your car insurance in the order they are in and you will get quotes from 100% of the market with the least hassle,
Don't forget when you put the start date for your insurance policy, that is probably better if you start your new insurance a day before your old insurance expires, as it is difficult to find out when your new insurance starts, this will stop any problems you may have with being uninsured for up to 24 hrs.
The first comparison site is,
Moneysupermarket.com
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/motor/
This site searches 36 brokers & 27 insurers
you have covered 48% of the total market
The second is,
Gocompare.com
http://www.gocompare.com/car-insurance/
This site searches 45 brokers & 24 insurers
this site covers 5% more, so you have covered 53% of the total market
The third is,
Confused.com
http://www.confused.com/
This site searches 29 brokers & 27 insurers
This site covers 15% more, so you have covered 68% of the total market
The 4th one is,
Onlyfinance.com
http://www.onlyfinance.com/Insurance/Car-Insurance/
This site searches 13 brokers & 37 insurers
This is a new site so you may get follow up calls from insurers like Swinton,
This site covers 18% more, so you have covered 86% of the total market
The best of the rest,
this will add a further 14% and this will be the whole of the market 100%
Directline.com
Directline refuses to be included in any comparison site, so they should be competitive, so it is worth trying this one.
http://www.directline.com/motor/
Uswitch.com
http://www.uswitch.com/Car-Insurance/
Comparethemarket.com
http://www.comparethemarket.com/
Tescocompare.com
http://www.tescocompare.com/
Insurance.co.uk
http://www.insurance.co.uk/car_insurance.aspx
Insurancewide.com
https://www.insurancewide.com/
beatthatquote
https://www.beatthatquote.com/capture/motor_insurance/
Now you have checked all comparison sites, collect together the most competitive quotes, it's a very good idea to go directly to the insurers website, as comparison sites make a few assumptions, then you will know exactly what is covered,
be it no claims bonus protect, legal cover, or just crush your voluntary excess to £0, and you can re-calculate the quotes as many times as you like, if it is a good quote don't forget to save it, as it may go up the next time you do it, you should be able to save the quote for up to 30 days.
There is no reason to pay any more than £50 for breakdown insurance, my breakdown cover is with Insurance Choice breakdown, and includes home start, anywhere UK recovery to my home address, and roadside assist, also there is no limit to the age of the vehicle and no limit to the amount of claims you can make in anyone year, all for £44.00 (reduced from £49.00 as my Father has a policy with them as well), but if you join through TopCashBack you can get £5 off the £49 price.
If you go for breakdown insurance through your car insurance provider there is good chance they will try and recoup some extra profit from the breakdown policy, they normally have deals with Green Flag, AA, RAC, unfortunately if you go with these companies you could be paying as much as £150, this is because they have a huge fleet of recovery vehicles, and full time staff that have to all be paid a wage,
where as companies like IC breakdown & One call breakdown use local recovery agents so this dramatically reduces the cost of recovery, but it doesn't affect recovery times as they will use the closest recovery agent to your location, personally I have claimed 3 times in 3 years and have had nothing but praise for these companies, it may still be worth double checking your car insurance quotes by adding breakdown cover, some of these quotes will be quite shocking, so be warned.
Try this comparison site for most of the different policies available, the prices and what they do & don't cover, be careful though there are some really cheap policies for around £29, with these policies you will have to pay the recovery agent before he will recover your vehicle, and then you have to send them the receipt, to claim your money back, it is well worth paying an extra £10 or so not to have to do this.
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/RoadsideRescue/CarDetails.asp