It has become very common for many people to go against the law and drive without vehicle insurance these days. This has been attributed to the increasing price of vehicle insurance as well as the injustice that many drivers feel when they have to pay for an unnecessary yearly policy when they only drive from time to time.
In an attempt to make this situation better and hence reduce the dangers of such illegal driving, many insurance companies now offer temporary or short term policies that is obviously cheaper as compared to the full policies for the period of time that the car will be in use.
A one month car insurance policy is a fair deal for those who drive infrequently, like those who work far away from their homes throughout the year or students who want to use their parents’ cars during school breaks where paying for a full expensive car policy does not make sense if driving is only for a short period of time.
Most insurance companies now offer the alternative of one month insurance policy, which involves coverage for a specific month of the year and not 30 days coverage randomly scattered throughout a year. This is thus ideal for those who drive sporadically and not infrequently.
Many people who have used this type of coverage strongly recommend it as it is very easy to set up, use and renew making it very convenient for those who use their cars from time to time and it is very flexible depending on the particular situation and if extension is needed.
Most companies now allow for online applications for one month policies much to the ease of clients. Still, if you feel the need to discuss about your appropriate needs and need more information, you can always do it over the phone.
Cheap policies can be easily obtained but still many factors like age, length of driving history, accidents, the type of car to be covered will be taken into consideration to determine your eligibility for the insurance and the premium to be paid.
Before going for this type of policy, one should make some research on the subject. Numerous insurance companies’ websites can be viewed online for comparing prices though these are not the only ones that exist.
Age is not in your favor if you are 17 years old and you are looking for a cheap car insurance. Car Insurance companies generally consider teens to be in the high-risk age bracket. If you are wondering why you have to pay a premium for cheap car insurance, here are the reasons:
- It is generally accepted that teenagers are not as careful or as responsible as people in the older age group. Probably they are excited about getting their first car and they cannot wait to show off to their friends and to impress others with their driving speed.
- Accident statistics show that a high percentage of drivers involved in accident are teenagers. That is why they belong to the high risk group.
- Teenagers are more concern about impressing their friends with the look and speed of the car. They will probably modify the car and its specification beyond what is permissible. These modification can render the car unsafe. What is upmost on their mind is to have a flashy car rather than a safe and secured car.
How then can you ensure a cheap quote when looking for 17 year olds car insurance? There are 5 ways to reduce your cheap car insurance and they are listed below:
- Use your Parent’s name – Ask your parent to include your name in their insurance policy. Your parents can get better discounts if they insure more than one car in the same policy. This will be cheaper compared to getting a single policy for yourself.
- Security and Safety – Focus on the security and safety aspect of the car. For example, install seatbelt, airbag, anti-locking system to make your car safe. Install early warning system and steer locks to make it safe from theft. The more secured your car, the lower the insurance.
- Be trained – Enrolled for driving and safety courses. This is to show that you know how to handle your car well.
- Less Mileage – The less you drive, the lower your risk, and hence you pay a lower premium. One way to drive less is car pool. You save on your fuel too.
- Keep a Clean Record – Maintain a clean driving record. Don’t get into trouble with the traffic laws such as fines for parking offences or drunk driving. A clean record gets you a lower premium.
Getting a cheap car insurance for an seventeen year old is not a major obstacle when you follow the five tips to reduce insurance cost.
To some people, it might come as a surprise to be quoted £1500 for a car which is worth only £500. However the car insurance industry seems to be getting more expensive every year. Blame it on the recession, the increased number of uninsured drivers or a rise in motor accidents but the fact remains that getting a car insured these days can cost you quite a lot. Therefore before even buying a car, it is worth looking at the cheap cars to insure as this will save you from beating your head against the wall afterwards.
Of course, this approach does not give you much choice in the first place. You could have set your eyes on the latest Audi out there but when you find out that it’s going to cost you several thousands of pounds to get it insured, you’re most likely to change your mind, unless you can afford that amount of money.
It is important to understand that cars which are cheapest to insure are also cars which are cheap to buy. This makes sense because if you buy a car for £3000 and it becomes a total write off after an accident, then the insurer will only have to pay out £3000 to get you a new one while a car costing £15,000 will be more expensive to insure. Things like easy availability of parts play an important role in the whole car insurance quoting process and that is why having a basic understanding of what goes on behind the quoting system is an intelligent way to reverse engineer the process and get you a cheap and decent premium.
Sure there are things like the amount of no claims discount that you own but this seems to be more geared towards people with more driving experience. So young drivers will definitely not benefit from it and are better off making the right choice in the first place. It isn’t a good feeling to have to do something against your own will but if you want a car that’s going to be cheap in terms of insurance purposes, then you’re going to have to swallow your pride and go for what’s going to benefit you financially.
You do not want to drive without insurance and risk getting banned. Believe me, you’ll get caught sooner than you think and regret it for a long time. So do your research well and stick with something that’s going to be economical and you’ll soon find out that it’s going to pay off afterwards. You need to be objective and buy the cheapest car to insure instead of feeding your ego and struggle with the finances of running a car.
Driver instructor insurance is not much different from personal car insurance cover. It covers all the different aspects, like theft, accidents, liability, etc., which are insured under any general car insurance. The only difference lies in the cover that driving instructor insurance provides to the students of insured instructor. It doesn’t matter if you are teaching your students full-time or part-time, you always need to possess this insurance for taking up the teaching job.
In fact, the need of this insurance is much greater than any other driving insurance due to higher possibility of claims associated with the students. While a personal insurance covers your personal liabilities only, driving instructor insurance covers entire liability of all of your students. You never know when your students will get into an accident and claim or something like that and you might get dragged into a lawsuit too. So, you always need to be prepared beforehand and for that you must possess this type of policy.
But, as the number of people being insured under this coverage, it is much more than a single person in case of personal insurance, you also need to pay comparatively a large sum for purchasing the insurance and for paying the premiums. If you are finding this insurance cover to be a little more expensive for your pocket, more so if you have just started out your teaching endeavour, then you can go with the insurance carriers that offer month-by-month insurance plan. However, it is wise to opt for a yearly plan instead of a monthly plan if you are already an established instructor. This will cost you less.
Although this insurance policy includes each and every student under its cover, it doesn’t require you to name any of them in your policy. This insurance will cover any accident, occurred during the period of driving lessons, along with any hospital bill and legal fees thereof. But there are certain rules of this insurance that an insured must adhere to, like not to bring any item or people that are not directly related to the driving lessons. This is because such items or people will not be covered under driving instructor insurance. If you violate this rule, you could end up losing your claim even if your claim is completely genuine. Besides, you could also end up losing your insurance cover and your instructor license once and for all.
There is one more important thing that you must know about and that is to know the limitations of your policy. If you are an independent individual instructor, then you can make do with single person driving instructor insurance. But when you grow into a driving instruction company, your insurance protection should also change accordingly. This new insurance policy should not only cover you and your students but also your employees.
It is known to many that car insurance for 18 year old drivers are very high since they are associated with the 17-21 group which has a very high risk profile. It is quite common for a person within that age group to receive quotes in excess of £2,500 and when you think that the young driver has only spent £1,200 to buy a car, the premiums are quite significant compared to what the car is really worth. So the question is whether the young drivers should go ahead and purchase the insurance cover at this extortionate price or find an alternative.
Driving without insurance is not an option because it is illegal and if you’re caught, you can face a prison sentence and lose your licence. It’s not worth the trouble and what drivers who are only 18 years old should be focussing on is how to make their insurance affordable. Many of these young drivers under-estimate the importance of doing the pass plus course which can potentially reduce their premiums by upto 40%. The reason for not doing the course is probably because they no longer want to be learning again and just want to go ahead and drive. If that’s possible, then by all means, do so but if you’re struggling for a reasonable car insurance quote, then don’ t forget that the pass plus course can be really beneficial.
There are other things which you can do to help lowering your quote like adding extra security devices to help prevent your car from being stolen or make it easier to track if stolen. You can also increase your voluntary excess in an attempt to bring your quote further down.
As with everything else, patience is a virtue and by driving safely over a period of time, 18 year olds can get cheap car insurance quotes when they’ve accummulated enough no claims bonus to reward them.
Despite the many government attemps to reduce drink driving, many are still doing it. If you know you have to drive, then you shouldn’t even have one drink because the temptation is always there and although you might think that you will be able to control yourself and stop at a pint, chances are that you will be so overwhelmed that you will have drank more than you’re supposed to.
The bad thing about this is that from a complete stranger’s point of view, you shouldn’t be driving back home now because you’re not in a proper state but alcohol will make you think that you’re alright and will be able to get home safely. The over-confidence is a real killer and it’s just so sad that many people are too weak to resist the temptation of driving while drunk.
While many people realise that insurance for drink drivers comes at very high premiums, what people do not understand is that there’s a very fine line between becoming a completely drunk driver and one who’s just under the limit. When you go out socialising, it’s usually hard to refuse drinks or drink something that’s going to make you feel less macho. This is why it’s important that you decide beforehand whether you’re going to see and meet people and will have a nice time and eventually have a few drinks and then decide how you’re going to get back home. You can ask friends or other people to drop you home or get a cab. The point that I’m trying to make is that it’s fine to drink and socialise but you should avoid driving whilst drunk.
Usually if a car is shared among a couple of people, only one car insurance policy needs to be purchased rather than having a policy for each person who wants to drive the car. For instance, if there’s mum, dad, son and daughter, dad can be the main driver on the policy and mum, son and daughter can become named drivers on the same policy.
This is all good except for one very important clause – named drivers shouldn’t be using the car more than the main driver. If the son is going to take the car to work rather than dad, then he should be the policyholder (main driver) and not dad. Putting the father as the main driver will undoubtedly reduce the car insurance quote because of the driving experience he has combined with the no claims bonus accumulated over the years but this is an illegal practice nowadays and if get caught, then the insurance policy is automatically invalidated.
It is worth noting that named driver insurance is very popular because many people share a single car among themselves but there’s a major drawback to it nevertheless. Only the main driver accumulates no claims bonus for each year which has been passed without any claims to the insurer. Additional drivers or named drivers do not get any of this and should they decide to start a car insurance policy in their own names, they would unfortunately do so without any No Claims Discount (NCD) even if they haven’t made any claims whilst being on somebody’s else policy. Quite unfair but this is the reality that most named drivers come across when they look for their own car insurance.
Some companies nowadays are offering a discount to named drivers though, similar to NCD that main drivers get but different in the sense that this named driver no claims discount is not transferrable. This means that named drivers cannot use this discount with another car insurance company except the one which has given it to them. One other thing about this No Claims Bonus (NCB) being issued to named drivers is that it is not equivalent to the NCB given to policyholders; it is usually a lot less than that.
Many people have it on their top priority to have valid insurance cover for their cars throughout the year. A small minority however do not even bother to get the minimum third party cover at all. The importance of car insurance cannot be stressed enough and even if you will be driving for just one day and do not have adequate insurance in place, then you need to purchase short term car insurance cover to be on the safe side. Otherwise you may be putting a lot at risk.
Not only does car insurance give you peace of mind in case anything bad happen whilst you are driving but it also gives you reassurance that you will not go bankrupt if you have an accident. You may not be at fault but if you do not have a policy to cover you, then you may have to fork out a lot of money to get things sorted.