Insurance Excesses

What is an ‘excess’ and how can it save you money?

Insurance excesses can at first sound like something to avoid, but understanding these can save you a great deal of money.  If you’re looking for cheaper car insurance then read on.

Put simply, an insurance excess is the amount of money you agree to pay by yourself in the event of any accident, before the insurance company will pay out any more.

At Premium Choice we do everything we can to get you the cheapest possible car or bike insurance.  This includes talking to you about the use of excesses to reduce the cost of your policy.  Below we explain this in more detail but why not just call us on 0800 954 2873 or ask us to call you back?  We’re specialists in getting the cheapest quotes for young drivers and could get you on the road faster than you think, at a price which is much lower than most of our competitors.


Okay, back to insurance excesses.  Here’s an example:  

You’re backing out of a car park and accidentally hit a tree.  There’s damage to your rear bumper and your smashed tail-lights won’t be advertising your presence to following motorists anytime soon.  It will however make your car or bike a target for every traffic cop in your area.

That means you have to get the damage fixed.  The local garage quotes you £275.  That’s not an expense you were expecting and it probably comes at the worst possible time.  These kinds of things always do….

So you look at your insurance policy.  After all, this is why you have insurance, isn’t it?

On your policy you see that you agreed to an excess of £500.  Your costs are only £275 and you can’t claim for any costs unless they’re over £500.  Easy to get angry with insurance companies at this point….

But let’s just take a step back for a moment.   Imagine you had collided with another car, not a tree.  Imagine that the person in the other car was injured and was in a Merc 450SL with damage to that vehicle running into four figures.  Your costs would be a great deal higher than £275.   The overall bill would run into many thousands.  THAT’S why you have insurance.

Okay, so in the tree scenario you’re thinking that forking out £275 to repair your vehicle is hardly ideal, but you have to bear in mind a few things :-

• You don’t plan to back in to any trees
• Your £500 excess will get you a significant reduction in your insurance premium
• You will still be covered for anything over £500 in damage
  

In short, we’ll discuss what excess you think you can afford before you take out your policy.  Clearly some insurance policies have minimum excesses, based on your age and experience, but we will do whatever is possible to give you the best advice, the maximum choice, and the cheapest premium.

Cheaper Insurance for young drivers and riders - 0800 954 2873