Thursday 14 July 2011

Insurance premiums, what can be done - £70 price difference

During the course of writing this blog I have looked at many aspects of personal finance.

An unsurprising, but all the same important, eureka moment for me has come at the point when I consider how much I pay for insurance. I have decided to try my hardest at obtaining the best price policies for the level of cover required, which in the past due to time constraints, was a very unscientific process.
By now, you'll know I need to visualise my search for and the costs of insurance this by writing it down:
Car insurance - £1500
House insurance - 250
Life insurance £30
Pet insurance - £12
Total £1792 p.a.
I think it is time for me to take a serious look a t how to buck the system and save money, without compromising on the levels of cover.

I have looked first at my wife's/my motor insurance policies.
In order to ensure that the data inputted is correct, I have checked through my last 5 years policies. I believe this is important to ensure that I get the right quotes, and that I have insurance cover that is legal.
The first variable I found when getting quotes is that all insurance comparison sites are not equal.. firstly from the ease of use point of view.. secondly from the data required and the actual outputs.
Some sites only need your three year, not five year driving history. Some are easier to log into than the others.It is very frustrating if a site cannot be logged into and you password cannot be retrieved....
The resultant quotes were quite surprising....(All U.K. comparison sites)

Go compare £350
Money supermarket £390
Compare the market £ 420
Direct line £1190

These figure were gleaned from inputting exactly the same data in a 2 hour period.

I will ring the insurance companies to check that the data is correct, but assuming I can save £70 on each of the 3 drivers policies in my household, then £210 is not to be scoffed at.

If I can realise the same saving on all insurance policies, then hopefully I can realise a grand total of £251p.a.
Arguably, If I save this money every year before I retire, it gives me £8041 on a 3% compound interest. More money for the pension pot...

Thanks for reading.



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