There are more cars on the roads in the UK than vans. Therefore, cars insurance should be more complicated than van insurance, right? Wrong! The world of van insurance is split into a number of factions depending on the type of van and how you use it. Let’s run you through the various routes and highlight where you might want to look out for specific cover in the policy you decide to buy.

The basic structure of van insurance is the same as car and motorbike insurance – fully comprehensive, third party fire & theft (TPFT) and third party only (TPO). But within this, the various faction branch out and can effect which policy is most suited to you.
What do you use your van for?

The most common uses of vans in the UK is for business. Sometimes referred to as commercial vehicle insurance, this form of van insurance is probably the most important to get right as it’ll can affect the successful running of your company. Some business will use their vehicles (minibuses and taxis) to transport people. Others to transport their own equipment or goods for clients. These may sometime include hazardous materials. There may be secure company premises or your employees may take the vehicle home and park it on the street.

Each seemingly small detail here will determine the cover you should be including in your van insurance policy. Simply buying the cheapest policy serves the purpose of saving a few pounds. But when it comes to making a claim and you find you’re not covered for the theft, damage or personal injury costs, it’ll cost your company a whole lot more.
Fleet van insurance

Businesses obviously vary in size, and each will have a slightly different requirement for vans. If you’re operating more than one or two vans, it may be that a fleet van insurance policy is a more cost effective solution for you. You’re essentially buying in bulk and can make some savings on your premiums as a result.
Camper van insurance and personal use

If you’re not a business and simply drive a van as your chosen form of transport (camper vans being one of the more popular options), you can do without a lot of the cover which is included in a commercial van insurance policy. You’re more likely to treat the van better and drive is better, resulting in lower premiums more in line with a car insurance policy.
Short term van insurance

If you’re simply borrowing a van for a short period – to move house for example – you don’t want to go to the fuss of arranging van insurance in the traditional way. You’ve basically got two options. Firstly, you could be added as a named driver to the owners existing insurance policy (for a small administration fee). Or secondly, you could take out a temporary van insurance policy (for a small premium reflecting the short term).

Whatever your insurance needs, it’s important to get to your best van insurer as quickly as possible. Using one of the online van insurance comparison websites is your best bet. They can save you tons of phone calls and hours of form filling and you can compare companies in one place.

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Auto insurers seriously consider the make and model of your vehicle when calculating your premiums. If your car is highly attractive (eye-catching) and has a high chance of being stolen, it’s likely to attract higher premiums. This is especially true if your car model has track records of being stolen frequently.

Generally a vehicle with larger engine capacity will command a higher price tag and larger auto insurance premiums as well. If the vehicle happens to be a high performance sports car, its insurance will increase astronomically.

Other than those obvious factors, there are more subtle features that can put your car in a better light. Getting a four-door sedan as compared to a two-door model helps. Installing anti-theft and safety devices in your car is certainly important to some insurers. And even the cost of repair and the safety rating of your car affects how the auto insurance companies are going to charge you.

If you’re buying a second hand car, make sure you check the odometer reading too. Lower readings indicate less wear and tear (generally) and also saves you some auto insurance cash. On top of this, your car commands a higher price (and will be in better demand) if you need to get rid of this car later.

The value of your vehicle will also influence the price of your car insurance. Generally, the less your car costs, the less you will pay in premiums.

In order to protect yourself and your family from financial burdens, you owe it to yourself to choose a suitable car that is affordable to maintain. While doing so, don’t forget that your auto insurance bills must also fit into your budget.

If you want to have maximum savings on your car insurance premiums, get a functional car with normal, unexciting (or dull) look. Cars that can rev and burn rubber on the road, or roar down the street at lightning speeds attract the highest car insurance premiums. Needless to say, those ultra-luxurious brands like Rolls Royce leaves you equally broke.

But don’t take my word for it – get a few quotations online to see if what I say is true. Compare premiums for different car models. Then and only then can you know how much more cash you’ll be burning on the flashy darling automobile that’s sitting at car showroom.

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Currently we car owners have to pay for our vehicle insurance coverage even though some of us seldom use our cars at all. Essentially, we are paying for what we don’t use – yet we still have to bear the same burden of paying the full auto insurance bills, month after month.

All along, car insurers have rewarded drivers who keep their overall mileage low. However, mileage is just one of the many factors that they use to calculate our vehicle insurance premium. It’s true that we actually pay less, yet we’re still paying for days that our vehicles are kept in the garage. How nice would it be if your insurance bills only start when you start driving, and stop whenever your car stops moving?

Enter Pay-As-You-Drive policy. This new idea is also called “usage-based” insurance. The premium for this type of insurance is based on the number of miles that you drive. Finally, you can pay to insure the exactly number of miles you drive. But how will the insurance companies know how many miles each vehicle covers?

A device that’s installed in your vehicle records the mileage covered by your car and this information allows your rate to be calculated – purely based on the mileage your car covers. The less you use your automobile, the lower your premiums or payments will be.

Insurers estimate that drivers who utilize their cars below 15,000 miles would experience the greatest benefit. This will encourage drivers to change the way they commute – by taking public transport or by car-pooling. Environmentalists also love this idea since there’s a potential that emission levels may go down.

Unfortunately this new idea is not as popular as it ought to be. The technology used to implement this concept needs to be reliable and tamper-proof. Drivers who adopt this policy must also be willing to allow their driving behavior to be observed (and possibly recorded) by their insurance companies. So far it seems many drivers are not willing to give up their privacy in exchange for some savings.

Obviously, the ones who really benefit from this policy are drivers who live in the city, because they do not have great distances to cover in order to commute to work. On top of that, these urban dwellers would likely be living near train stations or along public transportation routes so can utilize these avenues to get to their work place while they use their vehicles for other purposes.

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You can get quotes by calling different agents, or simply punch in your basic vehicle, personal and current car insurance details into an online quote site. These sites provide you with free quotes from five or more insurers per request and you’re not obliged to purchase from them. You will save a cart-load of cash if you take time to visit more than two or three quotes sites.

The two important things you have to take note as you compare those online quotes are as follows:

1. Premiums and Benefits. Make sure that the premium stated in the quotations corresponds to the benefit that you require. Human errors do occur from time to time. Although it may sometimes be difficult to get quotes for (exact) similar benefits from different companies, the coverage limits and deductibles, as well as exclusions clause and conditions should not differ much. Otherwise we’ll not be evaluating these quotes fairly. This takes a little more time than the next point.

2. Ease of Claim. What good is it if you can get the cheapest auto insurance yet when you need to make any claims, the insurance company takes days to respond to your requests… And when you finally get through their hot line again, the answering machine puts you on hold for endless minutes before you can speak to an actual person who’s outright rude?

Once you’ve identified a suitable low-cost insurer to purchase from, do yourself a favor by dialing in to their customer service hot line and their claims services hot line. Speak to their service officers and see if you’re comfortable with how they treat their customers.

Before you finally sign up for any auto insurance, do a quick (final) check to see if there are discounts you qualify for and what the eligibility requirements are. After you have done your due diligence by going through the two points above, you will very likely get an auto insurance that can serve you for many months to come – regardless whether you need to make claims or not.

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One of the most popular expenses to compare is car insurance with advertisements in the media all over the place, but it’s also one of the easiest expenses to be able to make savings on. The reason for this is that there are plenty of factors that are considered when judging how much your car insurance is going to cost that you can do something about as well as some details which you may feel mean nothing actually having a great effect on bringing your premiums down.

One of the most obvious tips is to drive safely, the biggest savings on car insurance costs are reserved for those who present the least risk to insure, so having no driving convictions or prior insurance claims like being at fault for an accident are going to push your insurance premium higher than average. As well as this you will not be eligible for any no-claims discounts as people who have multiple years without needing to make a claim get an extra discount for being careful.

Another option is to increase the amount you will pay should you have to claim, this is called an excess and is usually a small percentage of the total cost of your claim. Typically people have their excesses set at around £100 -150 but if you are confident that you are a safe driver and can afford to pay a higher amount in the event of a claim then raising the excess to £300 or even £500 can significantly drag your premiums down. Plus, again, if you drive safe then you won’t have anything to worry about.

Being accurate with details like your annual mileage can help improve your costs as this is a key factor when car insurance companies are weighing up how risky you are to insure, if you drive less then there’s less chance of your being involved in an accident and so your premiums shouldn’t cost as much. If you are able to use your car less or even better not need to use it for work then you can make significant savings as you are less likely to be driving during busy high-traffic times like commuting hours and again, less likely to be involved in an accident.

The main advice being offered is to make sure you compare car insurance quotes from as many providers as possible as you’ll be able to get a better deal and with much less effort than the old days of phoning up the insurance companies personally and getting quotes that way.

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