Looking for the lowest car insurance quotes? Then buying your policy earlier may save you money. Many insurers try to work out how quickly you need to insure your car before deciding how much to charge you. The way they do this is to ask you when your next policy falls due and depending upon your answer the quote they give you can sometimes vary considerably; we have seen differences of several hundred pounds although more often any difference is a lot smaller than that. However a very worthwhile way of reducing premiums could be to start looking for quotations a month before you actually need to buy your policy (this is usually the maximum time that insurers will allow you to reserve one at a fixed price) and get two quotes; one on the basis of requiring it for the following day and one for a month hence. Compare the prices and if the company that you fancy buying from is offering a better price if you buy a month ahead then it may well be worth your while grabbing it right away rather than waiting until the last minute when prices could be higher.
Can they really do this? Yes they can!
Every insurer has a different way of working of course and when we ran our tests we even found that some companies were actually asking for more money for a forward purchased policy than one bought at the last minute, particularly for older and more experienced motorists driving larger and more expensive cars. This means that by booking ahead you could actually be paying more than if you had left it until a day or two before you actually needed the policy.
How that cheap price can suddenly increase...
This simple test therefore, of getting prices on the basis of buying a policy to commence the following day or a month ahead, could possibly save you money. Whilst it is impossible to state actual figures for individuals, since we all have different risk profiles which the insurance companies all look at in different ways, we did find that over the first 10 cheapest quotes for a fictitious young motorist driving an economy sized car with a clean driving record half of the quotes we obtained offered an average saving in excess of £50 to those who bought one month ahead, with elderly motorists saving a quarter of that and middle-range motorists actually being asked for slightly more. There is no guarantee whatsoever of course that your own results would be even vaguely similar to this; you will have to do your own tests and find out!