When I was 19 (back in 2010), my Grandad past away and left me his Peugeot 106 in his will. I had passed my driving test a year prior and was really pleased to own my first car! Imagine my disappointment therefore when I entered my local insurance brokerage (insurance comparison sites were not so big back then) and got told it would cost £3,000 to insure my £500 car for the year. I simply couldn’t afford that! So I opted instead to insure my Peugeot for a month, used it as much as I could that summer and, sadly, had to sell my wheels after that. I haven’t checked but I hope that insurance companies have found cheaper ways to insure teenage drivers these days.
A decade would pass before I became a car owner once again (last year). I purchased the car insurance on my mobile whilst still at the dealership so I could drive my new motor home. This time around, the car to insurance cost ratio seemed more reasonable (£590 for a £7k car)- that’s one benefit of growing older I guess!
Fast forward to the present day and my car insurance is coming up for renewal at the end of this month. Yesterday, I called up to confirm how much that would be. £525 was the answer. “That’s not that much cheaper than what I paid last year, and last year I had 0 years no claims bonus” was my rebuttal. “It’s the best we can do, that price already includes our loyalty discount” was what I got told. So shortly after that phone call, I ran a search via Compare the Market (my details were conveniently already saved from last year). The only variable that had changed was that I now had a year’s no claims bonus. I was pretty surprised to see that the cheapest deals were all more expensive than what my current provider had quoted (all over £600).
Contented that the easiest thing (doing nothing, just stick with my current provider) was going to make the most financial sense, I lit a proverbial cigar and was ready to move on. Something in the back of my mind was telling me that something wasn’t right though. And so, today, I ran another comparison site search, this time giving Confused.com a go. Surprisingly, the cheapest offers were coming out more than £200 cheaper than my current provider!
Are established insurance brands better?
Insurance is not fun, not even remotely- it’s just a necessary evil. Few of us have the time and energy to read through the small print of lengthy policies. For this reason, I assume there to be some sort of correlation between the robustness of an insurance policy and how well-established the insurance provider is. That’s why I prefer to opt for insurance brands that I’ve at least heard of before. Confused also has a 5-star “defaqto” provider rating system which is helpful to this end.
I was delighted to see the second cheapest offer displayed on Confused.com was from Aviva, one of the UK’s biggest insurance companies (with 5 star defaqto rating). At £317 / year this offer was so affordable that I decided to purchase an add-on: RAC comprehensive breakdown coverage for £75.
Oh, and Confused.com Rewards is a great added bonus too. I chose a £20 Domino’s Pizza voucher!