As official government websites may remind you, arranging insurance is something you are unable to avoid if you want to drive your car on the roads or in other public places – unless, of course, you are prepared to face the especially severe penalties for breaking the law.

A necessity it may be, but that does not mean ignoring a number of important considerations to ensure that you get the particular cover you need – at a competitive market price.

The following are suggested as a selection of those important considerations:

Where to Look

• With the benefit of the internet, it is not so difficult to read all the information you may need or to shop around for the particular insurance you need.
• However carefully you conduct your own searches, there remains the possibility of you overlooking some aspect of cover you may need or a particular product which may be on offer.
• For reasons such as this, you might want to employ the services of your local motor insurance broker.
• As the government-backed, Money Advice Service points out, it costs nothing to take advantage of a broker’s advice – and you pay no more for the cover provided this way.
• Indeed, if you are looking for motor insurance in Southend for example, you may find at least one broker prepared to match the price of a comparable policy you are able to find anywhere else – even online.

Der Jetzt Nicht Unbekannte Auto by Tom, on Flickr.  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License.

Risk

• Cover for your car – just as with any other kind of insurance – is all about the insurer’s assessment of the risks involved.
• Although you are unable to do much about some of those indicators of risk – such as your age or where you live – there are many others over which you may exercise a considerable degree of choice.
• Perhaps the first of these is the make, model and age of the car you choose to drive.
• In addition to the market value of your vehicle, for example, your insurer is also likely to consider its power, top speed and the relative costs of making repairs in the event of your claim for damage – imported or customised vehicles, for example, are likely to be more expensive to repair than popular standard models.
• You may also reduce the risk of theft or damage to your car by parking it off-road and by fitting an immobiliser and intruder alarm – both of which may help you secure a lower insurance premium.
• Insurers typically use your past history of claims and any convictions on your driving record as indicators of your current risk – the more careful a driver you may appear to be, therefore, the lower the premium you might expect to pay.
• If you have had a claim free period of five years or so, you are likely to have built up a no claims discount of some 60% – a valuable feature which you need to remember to carry over with you if changing insurers and which you may want to protect through add-on no claims insurance.

Although you might be tempted simply to insure your car year after year with the same insurer and the same level of cover, there are a number of considerations which you might want to take into account in order to make the cover more appropriate or to enjoy a more competitive price.