Finding the cheapest possible car insurance seems to be a national obsession. Fortunes are being spent by car insurers advertising the fact that they are, they claim, cheaper than all the rest but this is not true. Some insurance companies are amongst the cheapest ones for, say, sports car drivers or other high-risk motorists; some offer lower quotes overall for young drivers; and there are those who are amongst the cheapest for safe mature drivers, but who will not touch more risky potential customers, or offer them exorbitantly high premiums. There is no such thing as a cheapest car insurer for everyone.
You have to show the insurer that there is little likelihood of you making a claim in the future. However not everyone has a long accident free record, lives in a postcode that does not suffer from a higher than average number of accidents, car thefts or vandalism, or drives a car which does not figure high in the accident statistics and which is cheap and easy to repair if it is involved in an accident. There are however other ways of showing that you are likely to be safer than most other drivers.
The common advice about comparing quotes on price comparison sites is still valid and most motorists can save a great deal of money by visiting cheap car insurance websites such as Prudent Plus Car Insurance. If you want to make sure that you have exhausted every possibility then you may wish to get quotes from insurers that do not advertise their policies on price comparison sites, such as Aviva.
Again, insurers are interested in what the possibilities are of you being involved in a claim in the future. They have found by experience that people who buy third party only insurance have a higher likelihood of making a claim than those who have comprehensive policies. This means that third-party policies often offer poor value for money, and since a lot of insurance companies no longer offer them they occasionally cost even more than comprehensive ones, even though they provide lower benefits. If you really want to seriously consider third-party or third party fire and theft cover then gets a comprehensive quote first; you may be shocked by the difference in premiums.
It was always a myth that all females automatically paid less for their insurance than males. Certainly younger ones used to; young women tend to have far fewer accidents than young men and they don't tend to drive as quickly either, which means that when they do have a bump the damage is usually far less. However by the time they were middle-aged most women were paying the same for their insurance as males, and for those over the age of 60 they often paid more. Insurers are now barred by EC regulations by taking sex into consideration but they are still allowed to take into consideration the occupation of an applicant. It may be a coincidence but jobs which are more female oriented, such as nursing, human resources, teaching, and public relations often attract the lowest car insurance premiums since it is a fact that people who work in these professions are safer drivers on average than disc jockeys, building workers, mechanics and vehicle technicians; all occupations dominated by males.
When you compare quotes do it early. Research has shown that insurers offer the lowest prices to people who are looking for their insurance about a month before they actually need to buy it. This is probably because people who are well organised like this are often more careful in other ways too, and therefore less likely to have accidents. If you are a young driver see if you can also include a more experience relative on your policy; insurers like to see someone else taking an interest in the car as well as yourself. Consider offering a high voluntary excess; it shows confidence that you are going to drive carefully and safely, although it is important to make sure that you would be able to afford to pay out this sum if necessary. Forget about that powerful old banger that you fancy buying; get a fairly new, small engined modern car in a low insurance group. You can check this at Thatcham Research. Never automatically accept a renewal premium without looking for a cheaper price; often just by picking up the telephone and telling your existing insurer that they are too expensive can result in a lower premium. You should then drive carefully and avoid breaking any motoring laws and eventually you should find premiums coming down to a reasonable level.