Reducing your car insurance premiums

When you apply for car insurance, the premium that you have to pay on a monthly basis for that cover is based on a number of factors. To save money, there are several ways that you can bring down this monthly premium by becoming less of a risk to your insurance company:

• Increase your excess: The excess is the amount of money you have to pay in towards a loss, caused by an accident or theft, before your insurance company will pay out your claim. If you are willing to pay more towards your excess, you will usually pay a lower monthly premium.
• Combining your insurance: Most insurance companies will give you a discount if you combine your car insurance with your home and home contents insurance.
• Optional extras: Non-standard or non-factory fitted accessories such as mags or bull-bars may add to the aesthetic appeal of your vehicle and its resale value, but it will also increase your premium as the cost of replacing or repairing these items is costly.
• Security: The more security features for your car such as gear locks, immobilisers, vehicle tracking devices, will bring down your monthly premium.
• Insure for market value: Should your car be written-off or stolen, your insurer will only pay out its market value at the time. Insuring your car at the market value is cheaper as your car depreciates on a yearly basis and this will make your insurance premiums lower too.

The next time you are in the market for a new car, consider these other factors before making your purchase to ensure a lower insurance premium from the outset:

• Vehicle colour: The colour car you choose plays a big role. Cars with metallic paint are more expensive to insure versus a standard white car, as white paint is cheaper and thus repairing that scratch on a white car will be cheaper.
• Make and model of your car: The particular make and model of your car is also important. If your car is considered a hijack risk or is in demand by car theft syndicates, your insurance premium will be higher. Another factor is how fast your car is. The faster your car, your insurer is likely to believe that you will have a speed-related accident, which will increase your monthly premium. Faster cars, such as sport cars, are also more expensive to repair. Also, the cheaper your car is, the higher the probability that it will have cheaper parts, thus lowering your premiums further.
• Fuel: Although diesel cars are considered to use less fuel than petrol cars, diesel parts are more expensive to replace. For this reason, diesel cars are more expensive to insure. 

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