We often see adverts saying that there are car insurers that will be able to save us money. It can be tempting to ignore them as it is unlikely they could save everyone money and they might be companies that we have not heard of anyway. However, there is a chance that by switching insurers we could save money. It might seem like too much bother to do this and then there is of course no guarantee that you will still be with a cheap insurer the following year as they always seem to put their prices up. So it could be hard to work out whether it really is worth switching.
Is it easy to switch
Firstly it is worth knowing that it is really easy to switch. There will be no continuity problems between the two providers, the insurance will continue. There will be very little that you will need to do except provide the new insurer with your car registration and personal details. They may want to see proof of your no claims bonus, which is usually on your renewal documents so you should be able to photograph or scan those in to send to your new insurer. It should not take very long at all and can be well worth the effort if you save a lot of money.
Benefits of switching
If you can save money then you will have an immediate benefit to switching insurers. It will mean that you will have more money available to spend on other things. If you are getting the same service then you will be getting better value for money if you switch to a different insurer. You may even find that you are getting better insurance cover even though you are paying less money. It is good to take a look and see what cover you are getting now so that you can compare this.
Customer service
If customer service is important to you, then you may want to check this out before switching. Once you have a potential candidate to switch to then you should see what their customer services is like. Contact them in the way that you would normally want to such as email, online chat or phone and ask them a few questions in order to find out how polite and helpful they are. This will allow you to see how easy it is to find their contact details, how easy it is to get through to them and whether you get a response quickly and whether it is useful or not.
Reputation of company
It may be important to you to think about the reputation of the company before you switch to them. There are many suppliers that are not that well known and so you may not have heard of them. Therefore you may want to do some research first. Just because you have not heard of them, does not necessarily mean that they are not very good, it may just be that they only have a small advertising budget which is why they can keep prices low. It is wise to check them out though. Take a look at their website and find some forums or message boards which have information that might help you to find out more about the companies.
What you get from your cover
It is also very important to check what you are getting form your insurance cover. You need to compare with what you had on your last policy. It might be that it is a lot cheaper because it gives you less cover. So take look carefully or talk to them and check whether you are covered for the things that you expect to be covered for. Items that are often missed out or charged extra for are legal cover, courtesy car, business cover, a lower excess and things like this. Make sure that you are aware of exactly what you are getting for your money.
Keep Checking Costs
It is worth checking the costs and comparing again when your insurance is due for renewal again. You may find that the company you are with is no longer the cheapest. It may be possible that they will want to keep your custom and you can negotiate the price down a bit so that you do not need to switch again or you may decide that you will switch as it is so easy to do so. Of course, the prospect of having to keep checking and potentially switching each year might put you off bothering at all. If this is the case with you, it can be worth finding out which companies are on average cheaper and which dearer as then you could see whether you should switch to one that is cheaper than yours and just stick with them.
