Its a familiar story but this time I’m not sure what can actually be done to bring the prices down.  The root cause of the problem is actually very simple; the price of crude oil has spiked very quickly over the last few weeks.

Although there is a simple explanation, the next steps of how to tackle prices of around £1.40 for petrol are not so easy to decide upon.

The obvious answer is that the government could reduce the amount of tax that makes up the price of petrol.  The problem is that its not really that easy.  Yes, it would definitely reduce the price of petrol and diesel in the short term but there are a few problems.  Firstly, the UK government would miss out on valuable tax income which is desperately needed to offset some of the harsh cuts that have been made.  The second point is that this price rise will likely come back just as soon as the price of crude spikes again from its current position.

This second price rise would be a permanent part of the cost of fuel until the cost of a barrel of oil falls back below the $95 mark.  This is quite unlikely due to the state of the US economy so it looks like high petrol prices are here to stay.

With this in mind you need to make sure you take every opportunity to save money.  Get a car insurance quote  with Quotezone and save yourself an absolute fortune today.  Its quicker and cheaper than ringing around endless brokers and insurers and dealing with call centres.  See how much you could save today and offset the cost of the petrol rise for this year.

He was quoted up to £17,325.54 for cover for 1 year!

This seems a bit steep especially as the Vauxhall Corsa he bought only cost £2,000 meaning he would have to work flat out in a good job all year in order to afford to insure his car – and that doesn’t take into account any running costs…

Although it seems completely insane to charge these premiums, there are a number of factors here:

• 17 to 20 year old male drivers are 10 times more likely to have a serious injury or die while driving than older drivers
• 1 in 5 young drivers has a crash within 6 months of passing their test
• The insurance industry has been hit by rising numbers of claims and fraudulent claims which all increase the base cost of car insurance

So, how do young drivers get cheap car insurance?

In the current economic climate, there are things you can try in order to keep premiums down:

1. Visit comparison sites like Quotezone to get the best deal for your car insurance
2. Complete the pass plus course as there are insurers and brokers who have deals where pass plus acts like having a 1 year no claims bonus or no claims discount.  Again, these factors are taken into consideration by quote comparison sites like Quotezone but you can ring brokers directly if you really need to

So there you have it.  2 ways to reduce the premium paid for your car insurance – hopefully you will have more luck finding cheap car insurance than the poor guy in the story

Our partners have very cheap car insurance prices for drivers who have convictions such as SP30, SP50 and DR10.

In some circumstances, Quotezone is able to provide amazing rates for those with IN10, TT99, DD40 and CD10 convictions.

If you have a bad driving history then there are definitely UK insurance companies and insurers who want your business, you just have to know where to look.  Many companies have special schemes to allow them to cover a number of convictions so give Quotezone a try and see if you can benefit from cheap convicted driver insurance today.

There are a few cited reasons for the price rises such as increased cost of claims and injury settlements.  Drivers and passengers are now claiming for minor injuries such as mild whiplash and winning their cases, meaning insurers need to pay out a lot more than in the past.  This is being heavily encouraged by TV advertisements by lawyers and solicitors and people are using it as a way to generate extra cash during the current credit crisis.

The winter has been particularly bad and crashes and accidents are up by around 30%, another factor thats causing higher prices.   Years of high commission payments to the big price comparison sites (aggregators) have also taken their toll and caused a double whammy, high cost of aquisition of customers and a dwindling renewals book as drivers are encouraged to switch every year to gain the latest new customer discount.

Despite this, it still makes sense to compare your insurance prices online and use a service like Quotezone to get the best deal for you.  Remember, prices are up across the whole market and so you’ll probably need to pay more for the same cover or switch to a cheaper cover such as moving from Comprehensive to Third Party Fire & Theft (TPFT).

Good luck in finding your bargain out there!

Although used tyres can be picked up at bargain prices, recent research shows that these savings could be a false economy. 20 tyres were bought from an online auction house and tested for roadworthiness. The results are not good news for anyone looking for cheap car insurance.

None of the tyres (0 out of 20) passed all the required safety measurements! Two even had less tread than the minimum level by law. This is particularly distressing as getting stopped by the police with such tyres will leave you with a fine,
points on your license and probably a driving conviction. All convictions must be disclosed when purchasing
insurance and they definitely cause an increase in your renewal premium.

Worse still, bald tyres will reduce the grip your car has on the road and increase the likelyhood of you having or
causing and accident. Not only costly but potentially fatal.

It seems that although its tempting to make a good saving on tyres bought on the Internet, be very careful what you
are buying and where possible use authorised stockists and dealers. The savings made on second rate tyres could be
completely wasted through higher insurance premiums.

Speaking of car insurance, if you want a fast cheap quote online, use Quotezone.  They have a fast and easy to use site that gets you prices you want.

Most UK car insurance providers  now compete on much more than price.  With the ascent of insurance price comparison sites, or “aggregators” as they are known in the industry, many car insurance brokers now feel that it is not enough to simply be the cheapest.  Policy benefits are now a big part of the decision when choosing to buy your car insurance policy.

The following is an extract from the Norwich Union site which details this particular policy benefit:

• Did you know that if your car has been in an accident – even if there is no visible damage – it is possible that your child car seat could be weakened so that it will not provide the same level of protection in a further accident?
• The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) recommends that all child car seats should be replaced following an accident. That’s why we’ll [Norwich Union] provide child car seat cover as standard with our fully comprehensive motor insurance polices. We’ll [Norwich Union] replace your child car seat up to the value of £100 following an accident or theft – even if it looks undamaged.

Many other top UK insurers and brokers now have similar terms in there fully comprehensive car insurance policies.  The £100 limit is enough to cover most baby car seats on the market. In fact, prices on My Baby Supermarket range from £34.95 to just under £80 so the level of cover is right as well.

During the global credit crunch we are all used to prices going up so its nice to have some good news from the New York Insurance Regulators. The New York State Insurance Department has issued a document ordering insurers to explain any request to raise rates as they feel that auto insurance price increases are not currently justified. Super insurer Geico has already withdrawn two requests to increase rates on 2 of its key products and “significantly reduced” its proposed increase to its 3rd product which deals with high risk drivers.

The New York State Insurance Department has acted because driver behaviour has changed due to record gas prices. Drivers are making less non-essential trips and car pooling on grocery and shopping trips. This means there are less cars on the road therefore accidents are less likely to occur. Insurance companies seem to agree with this view as they have seen big decreases in their losses. In fact, in May 2008 Americans drove 9.6 billion miles less than in May 2007, the third largest drop in 66 years!

If this continues then motorists in other states can look forward to a reduced auto insurance quote from your insurer.

As there are less new car sales it follows that there are less cars on the roads. This will naturally make our roads safer and next year we could see reductions in car insurance rates offered. If the trading pattern continues throughout the year then its possible you could see discounts of upto £100 when its time to renew.

If you need cheap car insurance this year, try Quotezone for your online price comparisons.

Land Rover officials stated that they expected the downturn based on the problems in the economy and a growing number of customers opting for greener cars as consumers turn their back on “gas guzzlers.” Another statement released by the manufacturer said that trading in May 2007 had been “a very strong month” and this worsened the 2008 Q2 figures.

The Bank of England base rate remained unchanged today at 5.0% which will not ease the pressure on the automotive market. Its likely that some of the smaller car insurers will disappear or be taken over by larger rivals.

Get your cheap car insurance deals while you still can!

It appears that the current problems are causing people to be creative when it comes to cutting costs. Many families are now getting rid of extra cars which means that there are less drivers needing car insurance.

There is also extra pressure on home insurance providers. Its much harder for first time buyers to get mortgages to buy their first property which has slowed down the entire chain. In fact, would-be first time buyers are making a conscious decision to stay in rented accomodation until the money markets improve and borrowing becomes easier. Renters only need contents insurance so the insurers are missing out on the extra revenue from buildings insurance which will cause losses later this year.

One way to control your personal insurance costs is to use a price comparison service offered by sites like Quotezone. You could save up to £200 on your annual car insurance renewal.