How to get the best price for your Car or Home Insurance Renewal
66When it comes to car and home insurance, the prices vary significantly from insurance provider to provider. So, spending sometime investigating car and home insurance quotes are worthwhile.
With the development of the internet, comparing car and home insurance has become straightforward. However, still some pitfalls exist. The below provides some points to consider to avoid such pitfalls.
Never Accept Your Renewal Quote from the Current Insurer without Investigation
You would hope that the current insurer will want to look after you and therefore is likely to always provide you with a competitive quote for your car and home insurance. However, the reality is far from this. Businesses thrive on gaining new customers. One way of doing this is offering generous discounts to new customers.
This is just how economics work. So, you should always check insurance prices for your car and home from other providers. Chances are you will find cheaper quotes. However, you may feel a loyalty towards your current insurer or you may find the service has been so good that you wish to remain with the current insurer. If so, always call your insurer and explain your circumstances. Depending on the differences in the quotations, it may not be unusual for the insurer to match the cheaper quote. After all who wants to lose a customer?
Never Assume Price Comparison Sites Provide the Best Quote
Price comparison sites make comparing insurance quotes straightforward. You just enter you details once and out pop the prices. However, there are some important points to consider.
You may find that not all insurance companies subscribe to price comparison sites. Direct Line is one large insurer in the UK who does not subscribe to comparison sites. It is also likely that not all insurers may have quoted. A comparison site relies on a minimum amount of information that can be used by all insurers. However, lack of a certain bit of information may stop a certain insurer quoting on a comparison site.
It is also possible that you maybe a loyal customer of a provider. Therefore a quotation from that provider may be cheaper if applied directly with the provider. Tesco Bank, part of the supermarket giants Tesco offers generous discounts to its loyalty Clubcard holders. However, this discount is not available through comparison sites. Not even through Tesco’s own comparison site.
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Never assume all Comparison Sites are the same
This point justifies the existence of many comparison sites. Various comparison sites have various agreements with various insurers. So, it is completely normal for an insurer to quote different prices through different comparison sites for the same car or home policy.
Not All Insurance Products are the same
Car and Home insurance policies vary in the level of cover they offer. Some policies may offer everything and other policies maybe minimal. This maybe represented in the quote. Consider items such as whether a courtesy car is included? Is cover for travel abroad included? Does the policy provide free breakdown cover? Do you need legal cover and is it included? Is your no claims bonus protected? It may help to make a comparison matrix for your requirement and compare your quotes against this.
Pay annually and not monthly
This is dependent on personal circumstances. Not everybody has the luxury of being able to pay for your car or home insurance in a lump sum. However, you should take note that a lump sum payment carries no interest.
A monthly payment most of the time does. So, check what the interest rate your insurer is offering is. If the rate is too high, you should consider other options. It maybe possible to make a lump sum payment with an interest free credit card or even take a personal loan out at a better rate.
