Car insurance is a legal requirement in the UK so driving without the required levels of cover is actually a criminal offence that can result in imprisonment for serious cases. So with car insurance being compulsory, what factors should you be looking at when you are trying to find the best value policy?

Insurers treat age as one of the major factors when pricing their policies. Males between 17 na d25 have proved to be the most likely to make claims and so are charged the most by their insurance companies. On the other hand, a lady in her 50’s is seen as a much lower risk and would therefore find car insurance is cheaper for her.

The amount of cover that you receive under the terms of your policy also determines the cost of your car insurance. Comprehensive insurance is the most expensive but does provide cover for you car and all third parties involved in a claim, minus any excess payments due. Third party cover is generally the cheapest but does not pay out for damage that your vehicle, but only to third parties, as the name suggests.

When you get a car insurance quote, the premium or the cost of the insurance will vary from company to company. This is because each company will base their quote on a set of risk factors and increase or decrease the premium depending on how your rate against these factors.

This might sound complex but actually insurance is all about balancing risk with profit so when you apply for a policy with an insurer, they are looking at the chances of you making a claim and then pricing their policies against that risk.

Common risk factors used by car insurance companies include details about the vehicle type such as the number of doors and seats. The engine size is also important as more powerful engines are more costly to insure due to their faster acceleration and top speeds. More powerful engines also generally contain more expensive parts should any repairs have to be made under insurance cover.

The annual mileage that you travel in the car is also important to declare when buying insurance as the more miles that you travel, the greater the risk of an accident. You may have a collectors car that you only use on Sundays and therefore travel less than 2,000 miles a year in it so arranging a low annual mileage policy is likely to save you money.

Click this link to find out more about motor insurance and the information insurance companies want.