Understanding car insurance quotes

Car insurance is boring at the best of times, and confusing at the worst. Sometimes it seems insurers ask you loads of irrelevant questions, and you can’t imagine what they have to do with your car insurance quote.

Then there’s the issue over the choices you have to make yourself when it comes to choosing a quote. Do you want fully comprehensive or third party cover? Are you going to have any additional drivers?

Perhaps that all feels very daunting, but let uSwitch.com help you understand the confusing world of car insurance quotes. And remember, with the uSwitch free comparison service you only have to answer the required questions once.

At uSwitch.com we ask you quite a few questions about things like your driving history. But, this means we can meet the requirements of as many insurers as possible – bringing you the best savings.

When you’ve been through the quote process we send your details to all the available insurers and their results will be shown in a table. If you choose a quote, you will be redirected to the insurers website and your details will go with you, so there’s no need to worry about filling in yet more forms.

So that’s all very simple. But when insurance companies ask all those questions, what are they trying to find out?

• age – they want to know how experienced you are. Statistically, younger drivers have more accidents, and so make more claims – which insurers really don’t like
• address – some areas are classed as being a higher risk for crime than others. If you live in the inner city and your car is more likely to be stolen then your premium will unfortunately be higher
• named drivers – if you have other drivers on your policy you have to expect to pay for it. It’s not just your driving history that companies look at, it’s your named drivers histories as well; for example, if one of them has a motoring conviction they are seen as a higher risk to insure
• job – insurance companies see certain occupations as warranting a higher quote for different reasons. Some jobs, such as restaurant owner, indicate that a person has a fast living lifestyle and so statistically will be more likely to drive fast and make more claims. Other jobs, such as oil rig worker, mean that a vehicle is left alone for long periods of time and so is more prone to being stolen or vandalised

Applying for a car insurance quote is not just about answering lifestyle questions, but also about indicating the kind of insurance you would like to have.

Before starting the online form, think about this - especially about the kind of cover you would like. For example, third party insurance is cheaper, but covers you against fewer kinds of incident than fully comprehensive. To help you decide read our guide 'What cover can I get?'

Also be sure about exactly how much annual mileage you do. The more accurate you are about this, the more accurate your quote will be.

For more tips on how to save on your car insurance, see our article on 'Reducing your car insurance'