If, like many households in the UK, you have more than one car to insure the obvious answer is to opt for a multi-car policy.
One would think that lumping together all the policy might give you economies of scale and would therefore be cheaper overall. However, our experience says that this is not necessarily the case. See our case study below.
For many families the situation looks like this. The main policy holder will have one main car for the household, a second car that is perhaps used for shorter trips on the odd occasion and even a third car that might belong to a younger member of the family that’s learning to drive or has already passed their test.
However, while a multi-car insurance policy might seem like the easiest way to cover everyone and their car and does come with plenty of advantages, it might not always be the cheapest option and you will need to compare car insurance first.
To help you decide which option is best for you, read our guide on multi-car policies:
What to look out for
No claims discount – It should be the case that if one of the drivers on the cover has a claim against them, then it should only affect their no claims discount. This is something that should be checked before applying.
Who is covered for what? – The purpose of a multi-car policy is, obviously, to cover a number of cars, but not every person under the cover can drive every car. You’ll need to make sure people are covered for the correct car as changing it at a later date could affect the cost.
Renewal dates – You’ll find that a number of insurers will link all renewal dates together, which can then become costly if you’re paying annually. You could pay monthly to drop costs, but you will end up having to pay more overall.
Vehicles changes – It’s important to check the small print carefully in case you ever need to change any vehicles on the policy. You should be able to change it with the insurer, but it’s always best to double check.
How old? – Like any normal insurance cover, the age of the drivers could play a big part in how much you have to pay. If you’re looking to insure someone under 25, then you could end up having to pay a hefty premium.
Parkers’ case study
To see which cover was cheaper, individual or multi-car policies, we took what might be a typical range selection of customers. We had a 45-year-old male with a six-year-old Ford Mondeo 2.0 TDCi Zetec worth £3,125, five years no claims bonus, 10,000 miles a year, married, accountant, passed his driving test at 18, car parked on drive in Peterborough.
The female was a 47-years-old teaching assistant and also had five years no claims bonus and passed here test at 18. The car was a two-year-old BMW X3 2.0d xDrive SE worth £17,405, parked on the drive of same address and also covering up to 10,000 miles.
The final customer was a 23-year-old female with an X-reg Vauxhall Corsa 1.2 Club 3dr worth £900. Again, the cars parked on the drive of the same address, but covering 5,000 miles with zero no claims bonus, working as a shop assistant with third party fire and theft rather than fully comp cover.
Now for the costs. For the individual quotes we used Parkers compare. The male driver’s best quite was £360.39 from Hastings. The older female was quoted a price of £415.38 also from Hastings. Finally the younger female quote came in at £872.83 from Admiral. So altogether this came to £1,648.60.
For the multi-car policy we decided to use Admiral as one of the most prominent companies to offer the cover. All the details were the same as the individual quotes, however, the best price we were given was £2,057.33 – an extra £408.73.
So before you decide to insure more than one car, it’s worth checking all the different options rather than going straight for a multi-car policy as you might find that opting for separate policies actually works out much cheaper.
