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Car Insurance

Factoring car insurance costs into your new car budget

If you’re thinking about buying a new car, it’s always an exciting time. Everyone has a budget when they’re looking for a new vehicle, but it’s important that you budget properly to ensure you get a car you can comfortably afford. Comprehensive car insurance is a non-negotiable expense when it comes to owning a car, so you need to factor this in before you buy.

Understanding car insurance costs

Many different factors can figure into the car insurance costs you’ll incur. For example, if you’re choosing a rare and powerful car, it will cost much more to insure than a mass-produced hatchback with a small engine. Similarly, if you’re buying a car that has a reputation for being popular among car thieves, or you drive a high number of miles a year, the costs grow. Similarly, if you’re planning on buying a car that is already modified, or you plan to modify it yourself, that too will affect your insurance costs.

How do you accurately budget insurance costs?

It’s important that you consider how much of your budget you can afford to spend on car insurance. It’s worth investigating what insurance bracket your car is in – every car is put into an insurance category, so a higher category means higher insurance costs.

As a ballpark figure, for cars costing in excess of 300,000 AED, the insurance is roughly 2.75% of the car’s value, rising to 3% for cars between 100,000 and 300,000 AED, and 3.25% for cars under 100,000 AED. These figures are only averages, however. For many, car insurance is the second-highest ongoing cost associated with running a car, second only to the cost of fuel.

Getting car insurance quotes the easy way

When you need to insure your new vehicle, consider using a specialist insurance comparison website like Compare Insurance. All you need to do is put in your details, the details of the car you want to buy, and some information about your driving habits, and you’ll get a broad range of quotes in seconds. This will help you find the most affordable quote for your budget.

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Car Insurance

Is your car insurance getting too expensive? Find a better deal in minutes

Car insurance is a necessity that we all have to invest in, but sometimes it can start getting a little too expensive to manage comfortably. It’s easy to think that you’re trapped with your car insurance supplier – but the truth is you can browse deals for motor insurance at any time. A better option may be available to you.

Use a comparison service to compare car insurance deals and save yourself money.

Creeping costs

It’s always the hope that the longer you spend with a certain insurance provider, the lower your insurance costs are going to be – but there’s a problem. Car insurance costs are going up, and the increases in general costs can easily begin to outweigh the discounts you earn through no claims bonuses and customer loyalty discounts.

So what are your options? You have two – either you keep paying and hope your premiums come down, or you find yourself a different deal with a brand new car insurance provider.

It’s easy to find new quotes. All you need is a few details about you, your circumstances, and your vehicle – the difference with a comparison tool is that you don’t need to put those details in again and again for each quote you get. You put your details in once, and the comparison tool will generate quotes for you based on what certain insurance providers offer.

This makes it easy for you to compare and contrast, and find the right deal for. You might be surprised just how much you can save.

You might not even have to switch

You don’t necessarily have to switch to a new provider. Sometimes, letting your current insurance provider know that you have found a cheaper car insurance quote is enough to encourage them to give you a better deal. If they can’t match it, you at least know you have a cheaper option available to you.

Don’t ever feel like you’re stuck paying too much money for your car insurance – with Compare Insurance, you have a comparison tool at your fingertips to find the perfect car insurance deal for you.

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Car Insurance

Important factors to consider when looking for car insurance as a new driver

So you’ve passed your test – congratulations! However, for some newly qualified drivers, the realisation of how much car insurance can cost comes as a shock to the system. If you’ve so far got by on temporary coverage, or been added as a provisional driver to a long-standing insurance policy on a parent or friend’s vehicle, you may now be facing the unexpected challenge of finding a online insurance that covers you on your own vehicle.

Size really does matter

One key factor in determining the cost of insurance premiums is the engine size of the vehicle. So if you haven’t yet bought a car, make sure you research the comprehensive insurance costs of all the options you are considering. Even cars that at first glance seem similar may have noticeably different insurance premiums due to just a small variation in engine size.

More mods mean more money

Although it might be tempting to raise or lower the car or add alloys or larger wheels, this may not be a great idea. Insurers do not tend to look favourably on modifications. They can noticeably increase the cost of insurance, and failure to declare modifications that you have made can render your insurance invalid, so take great care when making changes!

Mind the gap

A final factor to consider is whether the full value of your car would be protected if you were to have an accident that wrote the vehicle off. New vehicles lose a lot of their value in the first year. This depreciation means that if a car is damaged in an accident, and the insurance will only payout on the current value, you could stand to lose a significant amount of your initial investment. This can be particularly problematic if you have bought your car on finance – you could end up with a big bill, which would not be entirely covered by the insurance payout.

This is where a relatively new insurance product, gap insurance, comes in. Designed primarily for new drivers and nearly new cars, this insurance will cover the difference between any outstanding finance payments you owe on the car, and the payment from your main insurance policy. For new drivers with new cars, this is definitely a factor worth considering.

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Health Insurance

Key factors that influence your health insurance costs

Seeking out a health plan can be a lengthy and confusing process. You could pore over hundreds of different plans from dozens of providers and not really know what you’re looking for, and especially why some plans cost so much more. In this article, we expose a few things that can change your private health insurance costs, and discover why they’re so important.

What your health insurance covers

Of course, what your health insurance allows you to do is an incredibly important part of sorting a plan. One which only covers life-threatening situations, for example, is not going to be quite as useful as one that has you covered for routine check-ups and more general appointments. More comprehensive plans will always be expensive, so if you see a cheaper plan it’s always risky to assume that you’ll get a much better deal with that option.

Any previous health conditions

If you’ve got pre-existing conditions or any other health issues, you might find health plans more expensive to find. For example, someone with a history of smoking, or that has previously suffered from a heart attack, will find themselves with a much more expensive bill because they are more likely to return to the hospital in the future. Although this doesn’t explain the difference from provider to provider, understanding this will inform you on why you may have cheaper or more costly plans than a family member.

Dependents

Some plans will allow your family members or loved ones to visit a doctor or a hospital under your insurance plan, and these are known as dependents. Of course, a plan with dependents will be more expensive than one without, simply because it has to cover more people, but with a good amount of research you may find that this is cheaper than getting a different plan for each family member.

If you need a new health plan, you need to compare medical insurance quotes to make sure that you get the best deal. To do so, visit CompareInsurance.ae for a wide variety of options accessible to different budgets to find the perfect plan for you.

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Car Insurance

How to get cheap car insurance online

Anyone who uses a car will need car insurance. This is a regular payment which can be a major expense for many people, as well as being time-consuming for owners to set up. There are many different policies out there, often with wide-ranging costs, so how do you ensure you get the best deal for your money? Our experts at CompareInsurance.ae know all the tips and tricks and want to share them with you!

1. Choose a cheap car to insure

If you are looking to buy a new car but are worried about the insurance costs, then take a look at the average insurance costs of cars before you buy. Cars that may be at the same sale price point may have hugely different insurance costs, so always check with an insurance broker before buying.

2. Pay in one go

You will often get a choice of whether to pay your insurance in one lump sum or in monthly instalments. Paying the whole cost in a single go will often reduce the total amount you need to pay, as your insurance company won’t charge any interest on monthly instalments. If you have the funds, then paying upfront is always best.

3. Reduce annual mileage

If you limit the amount that you are on the road, it stands to reason that your insurance premiums will be reduced. Insurance companies analyse your time on the road through annual mileage, so a lower annual mileage will lead to a lower insurance cost. Make sure you are realistic with your mileage claims, though, as if your provider finds out that you weren’t accurate then there could be problems further down the line.

4. Check the extras you get

Different insurance premiums will have different benefits, including windscreen cover, breakdown cover and the use of a courtesy car. All of these will increase the costs of your insurance premium, so it’s well worth thinking about whether you really need to be paying for these benefits.

To compare car insurance, speak to our motor insurance specialists via our online chat or Whatsapp. Our staff are always ready to help you save money, so take a look today!

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