Four years ago, when I bought my first car (a 2004 Nissan Micra), which I paid £4500 for, I took a look at insurance and I was getting quotes of £2500+. My husband and I both opted for a high excess to bring down our insurance cost. We managed to trim off £1300 and got the cheapest quote at £1200. We went for fully comprehensive insurance that included a courtesy car but minus breakdown cover and legal fees. There are many third party companies out there that will fight your case for free and recover their costs from the other side if you are involved in an accident. Also by purchasing a new car, the chances of breaking down are slimmer so we also didn’t take out any breakdown cover and so far (touch wood) we have been fine. My husband also learnt that by adding me on a named driver his premium went down as it’s a known fact that women are less likely to be involved in an accident.

Within two years of having my licence, I was involved in an accident fortunately. I was fine but the front bumper needed to be replaced. Since I was the named driver and not the main driver, my husband was the one who lost his no claims. This was in November 2007 and the insurance was up for renewal in March 2008. Nearer to the time that our insurance was up for renewal, my husband was very angry that the insurance premium went up by £200. There wasn’t anything we could do to bring it down as it was still a disputed claim. We did manage to bring the premiums down by £100 but overall we should’ve saved at least £300 on our renewal quote.

It has been two years since the accident and we have received half of the money back from the claim and have two years no claims bonus which means lower premiums. It was such a drag having a blemished record but we have recovered and are pleased with our current insurance policy.