Never Be Tempted To Lie To Your Insurer.

We can not express just how important it is that you are not tempted to tell a fibb when you are filling ouut your insurance quote online or even when your chatting to one of the call center staff on the phone. Insurance Companies will not xtend you any courtesy should they find out that you were not honest with them. This includes all aspects of your declarations.

There is no point in telling your future insurer that you park your car in a garage when you don't have one. Should your vehicle be broken in to or even worse stolen one night and your car was parked in the street outside your house, you wont be paid for that incident by your insurer! Your insurance policy states parked overnight in a garage and when the insurance assessor pays you a visit at home your going to find it hard expalining how you have no garage.

Parents should also not try to claim they are the main driver of a teenagers cars to keep their insurance policy down. One, you may find it hard to explain how your teenager does more miles in the car every year than you do. Secondly, when they decide to get their own insurance policy one day, they will not have build up any no claims discounts. On the other side of the fence those, at least if they are listed as a named driver on a parents car insurance policy, then the young driver is building up driving experiance, which does help them with insurance costs after a while.

The worst thing that could happen ahould you lie o your insurance company is if you were to be involved in a car accident and someone was to be hurt, seriously injured or even killed. This included pedestrians too, a factor most drivers tend to forget about while speeding in residential areas! Without valid insurance cover, you could be personaly liable for all costs, including the other parties costs and legal fees.

Car Insurance Band Groups & Ratings.

Insurers rate cars on a scale depending on several factors such as purchase price, ease of repair, likelihood of being stolen, engine size, cost of parts etc.

Younger and new drivers are often hit hardest by Car Insurance Groups which can also be referred to as Motor Groupings or Ratings. New drivers with little or no experience behind the wheel should buy cars which are considered less likely to be stolen, have small cubic inch engine capacities and are not capably of great speeds.

Also very important is to remember to consider things like fuel efficiency and whether you really want a petrol or diesel car! Diesels are greener and use less fuel as they create more power from like for like amounts of fuel in a petrol engine. This could save you as much money in a year as a smaller car brings you. So look at the Cars Insurance Group Rating, The Tax Group and The Petrol vs Diesel Choices before you buy your car or car insurance.

A Fiat Panda; Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo would be your typical insurance group 1 rated cars, whilst a Porsche 911 Turbo, Nissan Skyline GT-r and Porsche Cyanne will be at the other end of the scale coming in at or around the Group 20 mark! That will equate to a few thousand pounds for most drivers under 30 with only relatively small discounts for 1, 2 and 3 years no claims bonus. A 3 liter Toyota Supra that is around 15 years old will still cost most drivers under 25 years old anything up to One thousand pounds if they do not have no claims bonus.

The differences in premium between bands are large and are worth considering when changing your car.

Now that we have discussed the basics around how the car ratings model is formulated it is even more important than ever that the public understand that how this will all be put in to practice by the underwriters. Firstly, all that glitters is not gold, likewise just because a car is small in size does not make it a slow, low performance mini! For example : the mini cooper s have a 1.6 liter engine producing 175 bhp, my 2L Fiat Stilo with a Turbo only produces 120 bhp and is twice the size and weight of the Mini! The Mini also has a top speed of 140 MPH compared to a measly 125 mpg in my Stilo JTD! Further information on official Fuel consumption and on the specific emission of CO2 for new passenger car models is available from www.vcacarfueldata.org.uk, but my Stilo once again produces less power and less CO2! So I save far more money on insurance and tax than I would if I actually owned the smaller mini! Never assume a smaller car would fall into a lower insurance group, many smaller cars on the market today and that includes the Suzuki Swift are easily able to match the acceleration and performance of 90% of the larger cars for sale. Next the underwriters take the mod cons into account too. This is because they may need to match you old level of accessories if your car is replaced or major repairs are undertaken. Electric windows, tip tronic gearboxes, sophisticated computer systems and fancy ICE or in car sound systems are every bit as expensive to repair as those found in a luxury Jaguar!

Security Ratings - the New Car Security Ratings (NCSR) scheme started 01' by Thatcham, the Association of British Insurers and Lloyd's. The security ratings are derived from the New Vehicle Security Assessments undertaken by Thatch am for insurance group rating purposes. Most new cars also have a security rating, based on features like alarms and immobilizes, which can affect a car's insurance group.

The ratings are:

E = Exceeds the security requirements

A = Acceptable security for the car's group

P = Provisional rating, or incomplete data available at the time ratings were made

D = Failed to meet the security requirements for a car of this type

U = Unacceptable Cars with this rating have security below the standard expected.

The answer here is simple, why buy a car which does not meet the required levels? Buying a used car in a low group may still financially make sense, but newer cars should all be spec' ed to acceptable industry standards. You should insist on it! If your adamant about buying a vehicle which falls short of the expected security standards, the think about contacting a professional, well established car security firm about installing some new security features before you can approach the insurance company for a quote.

Put all this information into the pot and a little more yet and you are starting to understand how the insurers rate a vehicles group ratings!

The No Claims Discount - How Long It Lasts - What Your NCD Means.

No claims discounts are determined on a sliding scale and although the no claims discount you could qualify will and ofen does vary greatly between any two car insurance companies, there is a bsic table which cn help demonstarte the level of No Claims Discount that you could recieve if all things were equal:
Zero No Claims Bonus - The best you can expect here is a form of introductory discount that the insurer would grant you against your premiums
1 year no claims - 15% - 20% discount applied against your premium price
2 years no claims - 20% - 30 % discount applied against your premium price
3 years no claims bonus - 30% - 45% discount applied against your premium price
4 years no claims bonus - 50% discount applied against your premium price
5 years or more no claims bonus - Maximum of 75% discount applied against your premium price

Once you have 3 or more years No Claims Bonus against your name you will start to see that it really does pay for you to make an effort and shop around online. This is why we recommend that you use an aggregator web site like ComparetheMarket to get your quotes. Then go to a direct insurer and get them to give you a quote too. The whole process will take less than 20 minutes and will most likely save you any where from £80 to a few hundred pounds!

Making a claim will generally cost you a few years of NCB or No Claims Discount. The insurer will strip around 2 years as a standard practice off your current allowance that you have build up. That means if you had seven at the beginning of the year and you make a claim in that same year, you will end up with 5 being awarded you come the end of the year. Now many insurers offer to Protect your NCD which is great, but many times this is only valid if you stay with that insurer! If you happen to move insurance companies the new insurer will still penalise you. Ask before you assume.

How Do You Know What Level Of Car Insurance Is Right For You?

Before you start, make sure you know what cover you are looking for. It is important to remember that in the UK it is an offence to drive your car or allow others to drive it without the appropriate level of insurance.

There are different levels of insurance cover are available, from third party cover which protects individuals against liability should they injure a third party or cause damage to a third party’s property. Third Party does not provide any cover for your own vehicle or property. At the other end of the scale there is comprehensive cover ( Fully Comp ), which protects you for accidental damage, fire damage and theft, as well as any liability towards third parties.

Norwich Union and Zurich, for example, offer their customers additional discounts if you insure your second car with them, providing it is parked at the same home address of course

Admiral Car Insurance also offers 'multi-car' insurance. How is how that works.
Admiral's Multi Car insurance policy combines all your household cars on to one single policy, giving you a bigger discount! It does not matter whether you are single or married. You could even be sharing a house with a life partner. The condition here is that the cars are all registered at that same house address. This is in our minds here at the Car Insurance Warehouse a great opportunity for British motor enthusiasts with two or more cars to save money by being eligible for great discounts with Admiral Multi Car.

If a policyholder within the Multi Car policy makes a claim or a claim is made against the claimant, the other policyholder's No Claims Bonus will not be affected. Since only the individual policyholder’s No Claims Bonus of the car involved, will be affected, this is a great way to maximise savings when two or more cars are registered to one address.