For the past few years we have moved from owning a car to leasing a car, one of the car financing solutions. This means that our car costs us a fixed amount of money every month, and we don’t need to cover unexpected hefty repairs, an annual MOT or car tax. This year we have upgraded from a Ford Focus to a BMW X1, and one cost we have been keen to reduce is our car insurance and PAI. We found this great insurance hack to help people to save money on their car insurance, and I can’t wait to share it with you.
Why we chose a BMW
The plan was never to get a BMW. Like most non-BMW drivers, we sometimes have a few words to say about flashy car drivers and it never entered our heads to even look at one.
We were actually looking at getting a Ford Kuga, which is an SUV in the Ford range. We pretty much always hire an SUV when we go to Orlando, and we decided that we would actually love to drive one at home.
We started getting quotes for the Ford Kuga, and they were really expensive. Like £480 per month. Bear in mind that you don’t own a car after a lease – you and it back to the car owners. To put it into perspective, our current Ford Focus is £203 per month.
We were adamant that we wanted the Ford Kuga. I’m not really sure why. I just really liked Fords and wanted an SUV. We were determined.
Until someone sent a quote to us at £460 per month, pointing out that for just a few pounds more per month, we could get a BMW X1.
Nah.
We were not going to be paying over £400 a month for our car. Nope, not happening. Back to the drawing board.
And then The Email arrived. Letting us know that the BMW X1 had been dramatically reduced.
Dramatically.
After lots of discussion we decided to go for it, and I have to say that we are really excited for our new car to arrive soon!
Getting insurance for our BMW
Car insurance is one of those annual costs that can be a real annoyance. When I first passed my driving test, back when I was 17 years old, my insurance premiums were astronomical. Now that I am 30 they are much less, but I still try to get the best deal I can.
We were pleasantly surprised to find that our car insurance on the BMW X1 would only cost around £10 more per year than our current Ford Focus’ insurance by using a discount code and playing around with the excess.
What really annoys me is the excess you have to pay if you are unfortunate enough to have to make a claim on your car insurance. Typically the higher excess you choose, the cheaper your car insurance is.
Did you know that you can also get Motor Excess Insurance? When you have a claim that is greater than the excess on your car insurance policy then you can claim this excess back. There are 4 level of cover available:
- £350
- £750
- £1,000
- £2,000
Even better, prices start from just £30!
If you are looking to save money on your car insurance but you are worried about paying out an excess if you need to make a claim then you might want to consider motor excess insurance.
This is also really useful for people who have higher insurance premiums, like young drivers, or someone choosing a more expensive car. By choosing a higher excess and motor excess insurance, you can still save lots of money.
Here is a real example, with a car insurance premium quote from Insurethebox.
Driver aged 35, with a £250 excess is quoted £1366.01, if an excess amount is increased to £1,000, the insurance premium reduces to £1,015.84.
This equates to a 25% saving (£350.17).
The cost of an excess insurance policy to ‘cover’ the £1,000 excess limit is £45.21
This is a total saving of £304.96
As you can see, it is definitely something to explore because the savings can be huge!
Get 10% off
Questor Insurance have teamed up with me to offer you 10% off their products by entering code EMD2281. Simply click here to get a quote for your excess insurance needs.
Get your free 1% at a time printable
This simple trick helped us to clear £15,000 worth of credit card debt. Simply take your savings goal and divide it by 100 to get your 1% at a time. Once you have saved or earned 1%, cross it off. Download this free printable to keep you on track.
This is a collaborative post.
