For most of us the hassle of managing our finances gets more difficult every year; food bills, petrol prices, council tax, utility bills and mortgages repayments are set to rise in 2008.
Add to that credit cards, loans, holidays, Christmas (yes I mentioned the “C” word in January) and 2008 is already shaping up to be an expensive and stressful year.
Insurance makes matters worse too; house, car, life, travel, pet the list goes on and on.
With all this to handle a little friendly advice can go along way so when it comes to car insurance we’re happy to start 2008 with an overview of what you can expect from your car insurance provider and how to get the best deal.
Lets start with the bottom line, money…
Cost
Car insurance in 2008 can be summed up in two words: HIGHER PREMIUMS
Nobody wants to pay them but this is what many of us will face in 2008 unless positive action is taken.
Insurance companies should exist to provide protection at a reasonable price. But many exist to make profit. All have expenses to cover and many have shareholders to please.
As a result they need to make more money. And where do they get this from? Us of course!!
Many insurance renewals this year will be sent out not with lower quotes to reward loyalty but with premium increases to take advantage of customer lethargy and improve revenue figures.
It’s not just existing drivers that will be targeted either; those who pass their tests in 2008 will face high motor insurance costs as companies use “high risk” drivers with no NCB to boost profits – young drivers, especially young make drivers (read “boy racer” in insurer’s eyes) will be ruthlessly targeted.
So how do we combat rising insurance costs in 2008? We start by confronting the insurance companies themselves…
Insurance Companies
As we’ve already said insurance companies exist to make profit BUT they also need to compete with each other to win our custom.
This is where we can push the advantage of “you need me more than I need you”.
When that renewal letter arrives odds are you will be looking at a rise in the cost of you car insurance premium.
Should this be the case call your insurer immediately and challenge the increase.
If you’ve made no claims during the year and built up more NCB then a rise in price is unfair and unacceptable. Insurers are banking on the chance you won’t fight back and in the majority of cases confronting your insurer will result in your premium being lowered in order for them to retain your business.
If you are getting insurance for the first time then shop around for quotes and play the insurers against each other, challenging them to beat the price offered by their competitors in order to win you as a valuable customer can lead to huge savings.
Remember insurance agents are under pressure to meet targets so use this to drive down the price.
Now that we’ve taken the first steps to avoiding higher car insurance costs we shouldn’t rest on our laurels. There are savings to be had if you’re prepared to spend a little time on the research.
Whether you want to switch from your current insurance company or you’re buying car insurance for the first time using price comparison sites can help…
Price Comparison Sites
Millions of people in the UK use price comparison sites every year to buy their car insurance online.
Using these sites you can search once and get quotes from around 50-60 insurance companies.
This is an excellent tool in helping to compare prices and unearth good deals, but how will they work in 2008?
Firstly there will be more of them, over the last few years the two main names were confused.com and moneysupermarket.com – in 2007 many others including gocompare.com, comparethemarket.com and tescocompare.com emerged.
In 2008 we can expect to see even more variations start up, trying to cash in by referring us to insurance providers
With more competition in the price comparison market our best bet is to use several of them to search for car insurance quotes, some will have better technology or exclusive offers so results will differ from site to site.
Nevertheless price comparison sites do take a lot of the hard work aware from getting quotes and if they can help us save money on our car insurance then they are certainly worth a few minutes of our time.
Armed with the knowledge that we can challenge our insurers over the cost of our policy and with a vast array of free comparison services at our disposal what is there to stop us making a saving on our car insurance in 2008?
Well in a word…
…us
One of the main factors in a customer paying high insurance premiums is the customer themselves…
Customers
Lets not mince words, we all hate insurance; it costs to much, takes time out of our lives to arrange and deep down we all think insurance companies are out to rob us.
The result of all these negative thoughts is we don’t link having to deal with insurance, we’d rather just push it to the back of our minds and forget about it.
But this is exactly what the insurance companies rely on when they send out your annual renewal (accompanied with a vicious price increase)
The onus is on you, me and all other customers to fight back and obtain a fair and competitive policy. Any remnants of being rewarding for your loyalty is fast evaporating from the insurance market.
Summary
There is no hiding away from it; 2008 is going to be hard on our finances and when it comes to car insurance we face the prospect of higher premiums
But all is not lost; we know we can use the competitive nature of the market against the insurance companies and that we can use price comparison tools to quickly compare a large number of quotes.
Once you find the best deal for you it’s time to be ruthless and switch.
Let battle commence!
