Family Car Insurance Busts the Household Budget
Sunday, 01 February 2009
Family car drivers are paying hundreds of pounds over the odds for their car insurance, becoming a double wallet whammy if they own more than one vehicle, according to research by online insurer, swiftcover.com.
Insurance for family favourite, the Ford Mondeo, for example, would cost around £130 for a 30 year old male driver with swiftcover.com, but could cost more than £400 with other car insurance companies.
A 30 year old woman driving second car stalwart, the Ford Fiesta, would pay about £125 with swiftcover.com, whilst other insurers charge almost £350 for the same vehicle. So the average two car family could be paying £500 too much with more expensive insurers.
swiftcover.com says that even if families benefit from the 10% discount that some insurers offer for covering a second car, they could still be paying more than they would by getting separate policies from a cheaper insurance company.
For example, for bigger families a vehicle like the Volvo V70 estate might be the perfect choice, but whilst a 30 year old male driver would have a premium of around £320 with swiftcover.com, they could be shelling out over £1,000 with other providers.
And a 30 year old woman driving a Volkswagen Golf would pay £238 with swiftcover.com, but could face an insurance bill of up to £555 elsewhere. In fact, even insuring the same car through female driver specialist, Sheilas' Wheels, would cost £367.
But at an extra cost of £1,000 for the two cars, even applying a 10% second car discount would not bring significant savings to drivers.
Tina Shortle, marketing director of swiftcover.com, says: "Family cars make up a huge proportion of the vehicles on our roads, so if each one of those families is paying too much for their insurance cover, that makes a massive dent in already stretched household budgets.
"We are also seeing a growing number of people owning second cars, whether it's just for the school run or for driving to the station for a train commute to work. If it's a second car, the purchase price may well have been lower, so it's important that drivers get the best and cheapest insurance cover possible to keep running costs manageable."
Of the 38 million drivers* in the UK, the 30 to 39 age group is one of the biggest with over 80 per cent of people in that age group holding a license. This means that a significant chunk of the country's 28 million licensed cars are used by families.
In addition the number of households owning more than one car has doubled to 26 per cent since 1980-which means there are more two-car households than households without cars- so there are now more families than ever before facing double motor insurance bills.
swiftcover.com has prepared some examples of how much drivers could be saving on their car insurance:
Example one - Ford Mondeo:
30 year old man living in Dyfed driving a Ford Mondeo 1.8 Zetec petrol manual manufactured in 2005, works as a manager for an engineering company, has five years no claims discount, no convictions and uses the car for commuting/domestic purposes.
| Insurer |
Annual premium
(cheapest top) |
£difference in premium |
Voluntary excess |
| swiftcover.com |
£128.28 |
- |
£500 |
| Hastings Direct |
£245.85 |
£117.57 |
£500 |
| esure |
£286.90 |
£158.62 |
£500 |
| More Th |
£323.78 |
£195.50 |
£500 |
| Cornhill Direct |
£374 |
£245.72 |
£500 |
| Admiral |
£396.30 |
£268.02 |
£500 |
| Screen Trade |
£422.39 |
£294.11 |
£250 |
| Average saving |
|
£213.26 |
|
Example two - Ford Fiesta
30 year old woman also living in Dyfed, driving a Ford Fiesta Freedom 1.2 petrol manual manufactured in 2005, works in a managerial position, has ten years no claims, no convictions and uses the car for domestic/commuting purposes.
| Insurer |
Annual premium
(cheapest top) |
£difference in premium |
Voluntary excess |
| swiftcover.com |
£124.16 |
- |
£100 |
| Hastings Direct |
£168.97 |
£44.81 |
£100 |
| Barclays |
£200.99 |
£76.83 |
£150 |
| esure |
£224.06 |
£99.90 |
£100 |
| Zurich |
£253.66 |
£129.50 |
£100 |
| Cornhill Direct |
£272 |
£147.84 |
£100 |
| Diamond |
£348 |
£223.84 |
£100 |
| Average saving |
|
£120.45 |
|
Example three - Volvo v70
30 year old man living in Harrogate driving a Volvo V70 SE estate petrol manual, manufactured in 2005, works as a manager for an accountancy firm, has ten years no claims, no convictions and uses the car for domestic/work purposes.
| Insurer |
Annual premium
(cheapest top) |
£difference in premium |
Voluntary excess |
| swiftcover.com |
£319.08 |
- |
£200 |
| esure |
£432.80 |
£113.72 |
£200 |
| Zurich |
£528.59 |
£209.51 |
£300 |
| Direct Choice |
£673.19 |
£354.11 |
£200 |
| AIG Direct |
£798.11 |
£479.03 |
£200 |
| Screentrade |
£883.79 |
£564.71 |
£250 |
| Bullseye Insurance |
£1018.91 |
£699.83 |
£150 |
| Average saving |
|
£403.49 |
|
Example four - Volkswagen Golf:
30 year old woman living in Harrogate driving a Volkswagen Golf GL 1.8 petrol manual, manufactured in 2005, works as a manager for a communications firm, has five years no claims, no convictions and uses the car for domestic/work purposes.
| Insurer |
Annual premium
(cheapest top) |
£difference in premium |
Voluntary excess |
| swiftcover.com |
£238.28 |
- |
£200 |
| esure |
£327.75 |
£89.47 |
£200 |
| Sheila's Wheels |
£367.46 |
£129.18 |
£300 |
| AA |
£421.55 |
£183.27 |
£250 |
| Admiral |
£478.20 |
£239.92 |
£250 |
| AIGDirect |
£510.08 |
£271.80 |
£200 |
| Igo4Insurance |
£555.93 |
£317.65 |
£200 |
| Average saving |
|
£205.22 |
|
How the quotes were calculated
All quotes are based on the owners identified in each example, doing 8,000 miles a year, with the car parked on the street and fitted with the manufacturer's standard security items and having had no modifications. All the drivers are UK residents and have had a full licence for more than 5 years. Quotes generated through swiftcover.com's own research on 02/02/09.
Footnote:
*All data from the Department for Transport Transport Trends 2007 Report.
-ends-
For press enquiries please contact:
Joshua Van Raalte or Paul Beadle
Brazil (PR agency for swiftcover.com)
01865 556 000
swiftcover@agencybrazil.com
About swiftcover.com:
Based in Send, near Guildford and employing over 250 people,
www.swiftcover.com was born out of a desire to revolutionise the general insurance market. swiftcover.com started trading in June 2005, jointly owned by the founding management team and international insurer Primary Group.
swiftcover.com offers car, travel and pet insurance online, and is Britain's only insurance company without call centres, which means that the cost savings can be passed directly onto the customer and premiums are kept low. As a result, swiftcover.com was voted cheapest car insurance, on average, by moneysupermarket.com in 2007.
This powerful operating model combined with successful marketing and competitive pricing has proven to be a tremendous success. This year swiftcover.com has over half a million live policies and is considered to be the fastest growing insurer in the UK.
In 2007, AXA UK acquired swiftcover.com. It is now a wholly owned subsidiary of AXA Insurance UK PLC which forms part of AXA Group.
About AXA:
AXA UK is a part of the AXA Group. AXA is a world leader in financial protection. AXA's operations are diverse with major operations in Western Europe, North America and the Asia/Pacific area. AXA employs 120,000 staff and tied agents and, as of June 30 2006, had €1,091 billion in assets under management. AXA reported total IFRS revenues of €72 billion and IFRS underlying earnings of €3,258 million for the full year 2005. Our previous company performance is not a guide to how we may perform in the future.
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