MARTIN Lewis has issued an urgent warning to motorists about their car insurance.
The consumer champion warned of ways insurers can get you to pay more for your premium without you even noticing.
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Speaking on The Martin Lewis Podcast on BBC Radio 5 Live he warned against being tempted by the auto-renew emails that insurers send when your insurance premium is due.
As convenient as it seems you could end up spending more than you need to.
He said that auto-renew is “never the right thing to do” and urged customers to shop around to see if there is a cheaper deal out there.
Martin also advised people to check multiple price comparison sites when looking for their next car insurance policy.
He added: “Comparison sites are actually marketplaces in their own rights these days under the regulations.”
He then went on to explain that comparison sites don’t all list the same car insurers on them and they don’t have to charge the same price.
As long as they are not more expensive than going direct with the insurer, different car insurance comparison sites can list the same insurer at different pricing as it depends on what agreement they have with the individual insurer.
He advises checking at least two or three comparison sites to find the cheapest deal.
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Four major comparison sites that could be worth checking are Compare the Market, Confused.com, Go Compare and MoneySupermarket.
But always do your own research to find one that best suits your needs.
How to get a good deal on your car insurance
Consumer experts at Which? have given their top tips for making sure you get the best deal on your car insurance.
Be smart when comparing
Different routes to an insurer can yield different results in your premium, so try to find the cheapest one before committing.
This involves trying multiple comparison sites, if you can – or at the very least seeing if you get a different price by going directly.
Check the fine detail
If you’re coming from a comparison site, the insurer should provide you the opportunity to check assumptions – some of which you may not have been asked about on the comparison site itself.
These can include details around claims or even particular extras you might own, such as a dash cam. Make sure you’re not being sold short.
Act quickly
The longer you put off buying insurance, the more expensive it gets. When we ran quotes for four different drivers, we found that varying the nearness of the policy’s start date from three weeks to the following day could add up to a fifth to the quote.
Less may be more costly
For a south London-based driver, we looked at the cost of different levels of cover via a comparison site – comprehensive; third party, fire and theft; and third party only.
The most pricey of these, on average, (by 20%) was third-party-only. If most customers who own a particular type of policy are high risk, this will affect the prices insurers can offer.
Improve your credit score
Insurers take a keen interest in your credit history, so if there are elements of it you can improve, or that need correcting, be sure to do so.
