Types of Car Insurance

There are various different types of car insurance product that are available in the UK.

The minimum level of cover that is available to meet legal requirements is a product called third party only insurance. This therefore will also be the cheapest level of cover. It is basic and covers liability to third parties.

The next level of cover that is more commonly bought by those taking out a car insurance product is known as third party, fire and theft. As the name suggests, this covers more than just third party liability, and also includes the owner against the vehicle being destroyed by fire or theft. Note that fire can typically be malicious or due to some fault with the vehicle. Areas such as vandalism may or may not be covered by the policy so this would need to be checked with each particular insurance policy on offer.

The other type of car insurance is known as comprehensive insurance, and this covers the most and is therefore more expensive again. As well as the things above being covered, this will also cover damage to the vehicle caused by the driver themselves, and therefore many choose to buy this type of insurance for the peace of mind that if affords despite the higher premium (cost) compared to the other types of insurance.

Various factors will impact on the premium that you need to pay, in addition of course to the individual provider. The biggest one of these is typically age: the younger you are the higher the premium, because research has shown that those who are younger (and therefore generally within their first few years of driving) are more likely to be involved in accidents than those who are older. Typically from age 25 onwards insurance premiums become lower, but there are cheaper products available for younger drivers though there may be conditions in place such as driving after dark being banned and so forth to reduce the risk to the insurer. Other factors include obvious things such as the particular vehicle you are driving: it's capability in terms of performance and also the cost of the vehicle. Get a really expensive, high-performance car and you can expect to pay a lot more than a small town car, and if you plan to do a lot of miles over the course of a year then again this can impact on your premiums quite significantly.

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