10 Ways to Reduce your Insurance Costs

By guest blogger insure.ie

All we seem to hear these days is about increased insurance rates and prices. The reality is yes, the rates have gone up however they have spent the last 10 years going down.

So the rates have gone up but not as alarmingly as you may be lead to believe. Understanding how insurance works is the first step to saving money.

Insurance is there to protect you in the event of an uncertain event that could cost you money that you don't have already saved. For example if you have an accident and your car is written off, you may not have the cash saved to replace your car there and then. By having insurance it means that you don't have to save up your hard earned cash for un-expected events.

All the money that people pay for insurance is then put into a pool of money that insurers use to pay claims. So if the percentage of people claiming increases the rates generally increase and thus everyone has to pay higher premiums.

At insure.ie we encourage people to buy their own insurance online so they can see for them selves what the best rates are available to suit their needs. We have come up with 10 Tips on saving costs.

• Buy your policy online. insure.ie apply significant discounts for those who complete the process online.
• Insuring your spouse/partner as well as yourself on your car may reduce the premium by as much as 12.5%.
• Declaring that your spouse/partner currently has a car insured in their own name or that they have the full time use of a company car can qualify you for a discount of approximately 20%.
• If you're short of a full 5 years no-claims bonus in your own name, previous claims free experience as a named driver on another policy (e.g. spouse's car, family car or company car) can help you make up the shortfall. This could save you 10% for each additional qualifying year up to the maximum of 5 years.
• Security Features such as an alarm or an immobilizer can reduce the premium.
• Discounts of up to 17.5% are available to Irish license holders with no penalty points. A lower annual mileage can reduce the premium with some insurers.
• While Comprehensive Cover is preferred by most drivers - for very low value cars in might make sense to choose Third Party Fire & Theft.
• Compare prices and reduce your car insurance bill.
• Online motor insurance quotation systems will automatically apply many of the discounts which are appropriate, but if you think you may be entitled to further discounts, then request a call back.