By The Acclaim Team on 28th December 2020 in News
Car insurance can be extremely costly in your first year of driving, along with the cost of buying your first car, paying for road tax and your driving lessons. Expensive car insurance is impossible to avoid in your first year as you’re new to the roads and are more at risk than other drivers.
While there’s no way to avoid costly insurance premiums in your first year, there are ways to reduce this in order to keep costs low during your first year of driving.
From choosing your first car carefully to using price comparison websites and even installing a dashcam to your car, here are a few of our top tips to setting up your car insurance.
Choosing Your First Car
Whether you’re awaiting your driving test and are looking for a car to learn in between your lessons, or you have recently passed your driving test, choosing your first car is an exciting experience!
While you may be tempted to search for a car out of your budget with top-of-the-range features, it’s worthwhile choosing a car that is comfortable to drive and also sits within a low insurance group to reduce your insurance premium. Car insurance companies will charge more for vehicles that have a higher value and are therefore expensive to repair, so it can help to opt for a smaller engine too.
Use Car Insurance Comparison Websites
Wondering which comparison site is best for car insurance? We strongly advise using GoCompare, MoneySuperMarket, Confused.com and Compare The Market.
As well as this, we do recommend calling the providers offering the cheapest premiums as you are likely to get a better deal by phoning up directly and talking to an advisor.
Designed for young drivers, Marmalade offers a range of different insurance options to cover your car. Whether you’re a student, learner, looking to pay as you go, learn with a black box or even a regular policy, you’ll be able to find the cover to suit your budget.
Planning Car Insurance in Advance
As frustrating as it may be, car insurance quotes are likely to soar in price if you’re looking at commencing your policy immediately. For this reason, it may be well worth arranging your insurance at least a week in advance to reduce your premium.
While we understand the excitement after passing your test to get on the roads, being patient and waiting a few days for your insurance to commence can save you a large chunk of money.
Consider a Black Box
A black box is a device fitted to your car to monitor your actions behind the wheel and therefore your driving behaviours. It can monitor things like speeding, braking, acceleration and the hours you decide to drive.
Some insurance providers will offer a “pay-as-you-drive” feature with a black box, meaning that the better your driving habits, the less you’ll pay in the long-run. A telematics policy is a great idea if you’re setting up insurance as a first-time driver as your driving data is fed back to your insurer who can offer you rewards for driving safely.
Purchase a Dashcam
A dashcam can reduce your insurance premium and is a small price to pay for a first-time driver! Dashcams are ideal for recording speed, acceleration and geolocation which is, therefore, an important factor in your insurance premium.
As well as reducing your premium, a dashcam is also a vital piece of equipment, particularly for first-time drivers who are more at risk of accidents or minor collisions.
Choosing Your Level of Cover
When setting up your car insurance, you’ll need to understand the types of insurance cover to choose from, which include third-party cover or comprehensive cover.
‘Comprehensive cover’ is the top-level of insurance you can take out for your vehicle which covers you for damage that's not the result of a collision, such as theft, vandalism, natural disasters, fire and some damage done to your car. ‘Third-party-only’ covers damage to other people and their cars, however, any damage to your own car is your responsibility to repair and fund.
You also have the option to take out insurance for ‘third-party fire and theft’ which works in the same way as third-party-only insurance, but your car will also be covered if it catches fire or is stolen.
Paying Annually
When paying for your insurance premium, you’ll have the option to pay monthly or to pay annually. While you may opt for paying monthly in order to manage the costs better, one annual payment will be more cost-effective as there are no interest charges involved. Of course, we recommend going for the option that works best for you, whether that be paying monthly or paying annually.
Never Auto-Renew
After every year, your insurance will either automatically renew or will come to an end. It’s important to find out from your insurance provider what will happen after the first year to avoid having no insurance in the unlikely event of your insurance not renewing automatically.
We recommend looking around for deals each year to avoid paying extra, as insurance premiums really can differ depending on the provider. Rather than staying with the same provider every year, shop around for deals elsewhere and you may save yourself a lot of pennies!
Safe Driving With Acclaim Driving
Gaining your driver’s licence after passing the DVSA test can give an incredible sense of freedom after all of the hard work and days and nights of research has finally paid off!
If you have recently passed your driving test, you may be interested in having advanced driving lessons to help you become a safer driver on the road by improving your driving skills.
Give us a call to discuss any questions you have or if you want to check availability on a date that suits you.
