Insurance may well be everyone’s least favourite thing about driving. You’ve just passed your test and text your mum and dad the good news. Your friends are ready to hit the road and so are you.

But wait, are you? Have you insured your car? Well now is the time to realise you’re in the real world – driving is expensive. But don’t feel disheartened; there are ways to help reduce the price of that first premium.

First though, always make sure that you answer your insurance company’s questions accurately and completely, otherwise it may affect any claim you might make in the future and potentially leave you uninsured, which is likely to actually end up costing much more than the cost of insuring the vehicle on the correct basis. Also, if false or incorrect information is provided and fraud is identified, details will be passed to fraud prevention agencies to prevent fraud and money laundering.

What can affect the price of insurance premiums?

Your car

The cost of insurance varies. It depends on numerous factors, one of which is the type of vehicle you are looking to have insured.

For example, if the car you want to insure an old car with a low safety rating, your insurance quote might be higher than what it would be if you were insuring a newer car with a very high safety rating. To check a car’s safety rating take a look at http://www.euroncap.com/home.aspx which gives Euro NCAP rating results for both current and older vehicles.

Where you live

There are many other factors contributing to the final cost of your car insurance. One you must take into consideration is the area you live in. If your area has high crime and road traffic accident rates your insurance could be higher than for someone who lives in a safer area. Unfortunately, this is something you can’t really do much about.

Where you park

Do you own a garage, or driveway? Or will your car be left parked on the road? You must also think about where the vehicle will be kept during the day when you’re at work. Do you have a secure, private car park? Or do you park in a public car park? These are all things that can affect the cost of your car insurance.

So, how do I save money on my car insurance?

There are various ways to save money on car insurance. One of which is black box insurance. Besides testing various comparison websites, a black box may be your best bet to saving money on car insurance, especially if you’re a young driver.

The black box gives you the chance to save money at renewal too. The telematics technology will record data, such as how fast you drive on different sorts of road, the time of day or night you drive and whether you brake or accelerate sharply. With this data, you can prove to your insurer that you’re a good driver and they can reward you with cheaper car insurance in the future.

Other things to consider

Here are a few other things you could consider when getting a quote for car insurance:

    • Add a more experienced driver to your policy

For example, you could add one of your parents. If they’re experienced, and have a clean record, they could help lower the cost of your premium. However, this is entirely different from driver “fronting”, which is when you are the main driver of the car, but you take out a car insurance policy with a more experienced driver as the main driver and you as the named driver in order to lower your premium. This is against the law and can leave the car uninsured in the event of an accident. This would expose the policyholder to the possibility of having to meet the costs of a claim themselves, as well as resulting in a motoring conviction.

    • Don’t lie about where you live

Your address has an effect on your insurance premium. “Address fronting” is when the address listed on the policy is not where the car is usually kept. For example, a student policyholder might provide their parents’ address rather than their university address when they buy the policy to try and cut costs. This is also illegal and could invalidate the policy. And don’t forget – with drive like a girl, our black box can identify location so we can easily check that the address you’ve provided is correct.

    • Steer away from the thought of ‘pimping out your ride’

To make sure your car is properly covered, you need to tell your insurer about any modifications your car has. This can put the price of your policy up, and some insurers, like drive like a girl, won’t actually insure your car if it’s modified.

    • Be very specific about your occupation

Make sure this is accurate. It must describe what you do for a living, so if you don’t work at NASA, don’t say you work at NASA.

Hopefully this has helped you get a better understanding of what affects your insurance quote, and what you can do to lower it. If you have any tips for other keen new drivers out there, feel free to share this page on Facebook or Twitter and help each other out.