I halved my car insurance bill with a few simple tricks, and here they are...

Have you ever been outraged by a car-insurance renewal quote? I know I have. When it happened to me recently, instead of remortgaging the house or selling a kidney to cover the cost, I thought I’d shop around to find out if I could get a more competitive package.

Instead of simply accepting my current insurer’s quote, I started searching for a lower price almost a month in advance of my renewal being due. Insurers see this as proactive, and if the policy doesn’t need to start immediately, can often offer a better price. By doing this, I found I could reduce my £1,100 renewal quote down to £990 for the same level of cover.

That was a start, but I felt I could do better. Updating my details and working out what I did and didn’t need was next on my to-do list. I was after a multi-car quote, to cover a number of vehicles in my household. One of these was SORN and parked off the road; it isn’t a valuable classic, so I removed it from the policy entirely, lowering the cost significantly.

Next was breakdown cover. I normally buy this with my insurance policy, but realising I can’t drive two cars at once, there didn’t seem any point paying for it multiple times to cover all my vehicles individually. Instead, I bought one policy to cover me in whatever car I’m in. 

I also decided I wouldn’t need a courtesy car; if one was laid up or unusable, I could just take out my other car instead. I also adjusted the annual mileage because my driving would be shared between more than one model; making all these changes helped reduce the cost of the insurance quote to around £525 – a significant saving over that £1,000-plus initial figure. But there was one more trick to try…

Running a car-insurance quote through websites such as TopCashback and Quidco can also potentially reap big rewards for motorists. The former was offering a £45 cashback deal when purchasing a policy through its site and this reduced the cost I was quoted to £490, which represented a further useful saving. 

The only downside was that I’d need to wait for the rebate to come through, and I might need to chase it up later if it failed to track my referral. However, if that isn’t an issue for you, then using a cashback site is a useful way of lowering your bills. Overall, my experience proves that doing a bit of legwork come insurance renewal time can pay big dividends.

Did you know you can sell your car through Auto Express? We’ll help you get a great price and find a great deal on a new car, too.