Shopping Services Guide

What did you pay for your car and home insurance policies last year? Most people can give a rough guesstimate thats within 100 of the precise premiums paid, but they’re aren’t many policyholders who could tell you the excat cost.

And this little oversight is the main reason so many car and home insurance companies profit at renewal time. Many people assume that because the premium was competitive, or there abouts, last year the same will apply if they renew with the same insurer this year.

Insurers rely on this lack of awareness and know that most of their customers are with them for life, and they act like it too. Most people, given the time involved in changing a policy over, will just pay the bill when it’s due and not bother to compare their current premium against other policies and providers on the market. But the reality is that just thirty minutes spent confirming the current cost of cover and comparing it online could save you hundreds of pounds over a years premiums. This is particularly true when comparing car insurance companies as premiums for motor insurance are usually higher than for buildings and contents cover.

Here are some tips to maximize your savings when it comes to renewal time…

• Dont just renew
  What are your current cover needs? Have they changed? Your insurer will, unless you do the prodding, determine that last year’s cover will be adequate for this year’s needs. Take the time to go through the policy and see what’s changed and what you’re being charged for. Be thorough; the devil (and your money) are in the details.
• Compare with what’s out there
  It used to be difficult to comparison shop for insurance. It isn’t any longer. Online quote comparison services such as Moneysupermarket and GoCompare let you compare premiums from dozens of insurers in minutes. Insurance companies tend to offer their best rates for new customers, as a hook to get you to buy from them.
• Consider combining policies where it makes sense
  The classic technique for saving money on insurance is to combine policies. Do this if it makes sense, and if the discount for the combined policy is truly less than the cost of individual insurance coverage. Don’t forget to factor in bonuses for loyalty and safe driving while you’re at it.
• Haggle - if you don’t ask you won’t get
  Haggle with your current insurer, particularly if you’ve got other policies with them and have been a loyal customer.

By just applying one of these tips and shopping around online you could cut your premiums for car and home insurance by hundreds this year and the next.

Tags: ar insurance, home insuranc | ar insurance, home insuranc

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 1:23 am and is filed under Making money. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.