When you take out car insurance, amongst other things, you are asked about your claims history in the last five years and how many years no claims bonus you have. These two factors have an impact on the premium you will pay along with the other information you have provided.

Some car insurance companies say that premiums will be reduced by as much as 90% if you have not made a claim in the last five years. They then give you the opportunity to protect that no-claims bonus should you unfortunately have an accident and charge you an additional amount for including this option.

According to Gocompare, a third of drivers take up this option which can increase your premium by as much as £100 per annum.

So, is it worth protecting your no-claims bonus?

Unfortunately there is no definitive no or yes answer. This is due to the fact that insurance companies provide different levels of discount for those who protect their no-claims bonus or have not claimed in the last five years.

The majority of car insurance companies use a sliding scale for no-claims bonuses. Graeme Trudgill from the British Insurance Brokers Association made reference to the fact that, generally speaking, if you have not claimed in your first year of driving you could get a discount of about 30%, in the region of 40% in year two rising to about 60% after the 5^th year.

However a number of insurance companies go further. For example, Sheilas’ Wheels and Esure will provide a discount of up to 75% if you have not claimed in ten years and Axa 90%.  As a guide, a motorist with only two years no-claims bonus may pay about 33% more per annum than another driver with five years discount. Therefore, it is not surprising that drivers are tempted to protect such discounts.

Direct Line allow you to commence protecting your no-claims bonus after you have made no claims for four years but at Aviva it is only three years.

According to Graeme Trudgill, by protecting your no-claims bonus, will add around 5%-10% to your premium. Some insurance companies charge a higher percentage with Esure charging 12.5% but there are some that will charge a lower percentage such as More Than at around 3%.

Some insurers restrict the number of times you can protect your no- claims discount. For example, Aviva will allow a driver who has built up four years no claims discount to make two “at-fault” claims in a three year period without any adverse impact on your protected no claims discount. If you do exceed the number of claims in a given period then generally speaking the number of years no-claims discount is reduced by two years for every subsequent claim. Some insurers protect your no-claims discount no matter how many claims you make over any period.

Of course, to compound matters, if you do make a claim it is quite possible that when your insurance comes up for renewal that your premium may increase as you will be perceived to be a greater risk.

So, as you can see, it is just about impossible to work out if protecting your no-claims bonus is financially viable. You could obtain car insurance quotes both with and without the option, then take into account your current no-claims history, and then deduct two years from it. By doing so you will have an indication just how much the reduction/loss of your present discount could have.

The survey polled 2000 drivers and around 25% of the drivers admitted to having driven around in their pyjamas. 10% of the drivers said they had taken their cars on the road while wearing slippers while 40% of the female drivers had said they had driven their cars in high heels.

Men aged 25-34 and females between 18-24 years were found most likely to take their car out while wearing slippers. Also, 22% of males also admitted to the questionable practice of driving with bare feet. When the same question was posed to women, an estimated 24% replied with an affirmative.

Aside from the matter of footwear, the site picked up various other dubious habits of drivers, which included the frustrating habit of women to apply make-up while driving. Around 10% women admitted to this practice. Men fared no better, with 15% having shaved behind the wheel.

Hilariously, in the battle to stay focussed on the road, women trumped their male counterparts with only 18% saying that they regularly looked around to check out attractive drivers in the vehicles around them, as opposed to 47% of male drivers.

Fun surveys aside, many experts have claimed that car insurance comparison websites may not always provide you with the best of car insurance quotes. Even those who do compare car insurance on such sites sometimes end up faring no better than the rest of the policy-seekers.

While using such sites, always check pre-selected answers while filling online forms since incorrect filling or incomplete forms may result in spiking up your premium price, which would mean you may not receive the insurance cover you wanted either.

Also, ensure that you have the option of multiple quotes so that you get the best of deals in the market. Using several car insurance comparison sites and getting car insurance quotes directly from insurers is one way to do so.

Also keep in mind that there are no unfavourable side-notes or conditions you’re not aware of that require you to pay additional amounts or stick with the same insurer after the policy period expires.

However, most importantly, don’t always fall for the cheapest of premiums. You should never be underinsured, even if this means buying more expensive policies. Also, fully comprehensive car insurance cover sure does look nice, but do you really need all that fire, theft and third-party protection? Bear in mind that fully comprehensive car insurance policies are also the most expensive.

This comes despite the steadily declining rate of car crashes on an annual basis. Industry experts point at unnecessary and fraudulent practices on the part of some customers, which lead to higher premiums to the detriment of the general citizens.

This month, calls for a solitary enforcement unit to eliminate fraudulent insurance practices were finally answered with the introduction of police insurance fraud body. This comes as another step in the series of measures employed by the Government to stem the flow of insurance fraud that seems to have enveloped the nation. Last year, the Government introduced the Continuous Insurance Enforcement unit. It also gave increased authority to insurers by granting them access to DVLA data. All these measures have been taken to curb insurance fraud and allow the availability of lower premiums to applicants.

From July till December, 2011, customers suffered hefty premium raises and blamed insurance providers for what they thought was usury. However, the insurance companies had little other choice, since they had to bridge the gulf between cost of personal claims and the income generated from premiums. However, as things stand at present, the insurance providers are still reeling under the loss from fraudulent claims. Industry experts foresee another premium price rise in the middle of this year, although not as severe a hike as the one before.

However, the real humdinger is the news about the end of the gender based exemption enjoyed in the European insurance industry. Last year, Europe’s Court of Justice ruled that insurance providers cannot use gender as a tool for rating premiums. The ruling will come into effect on December, 2012.

The most likely affected from this development will be young women, who until now, have enjoyed rate of premiums up to 40% lesser than their male counterparts. With the new ruling into effect, women’s premiums will start taking a slow rise in the months towards December, and see a further increase of another 25 percent afterwards.

However, with the development of the ‘black box’ insurance, there’s still hope for drivers. The telematic system, which gauges driving quality including measuring speed, braking and cornering, will pass the collected data real time to the insurer.  The insurance company will then award low premiums to safe drivers, regardless of gender. This system, complemented with no-claims bonuses, could go a long way in reducing premium prices for UK drivers.

Aggressive drivers who are characterised by edgy cornering, disregard for speed limits and heavy braking will have to pay the price in the form of high-cost premiums. Basically, the black box insurance system has a two-fold purpose: to reduce premiums by awarding low-risk drivers and to promote the practice of safe driving by punishing offenders with higher premiums.

With such systems in place, it seems likely that people who compare car insurance quotes and engage in safe driving will come off for the better.

Comparing a huge 90 plus insurance companies from leading high street names to smaller, lesser known brokers – all in a bid to compete for your car insurance business. So whatever you drive, you could save money with Car Insurance Quoter and with our easy, fast quote engine – saving money has never been more efficient!

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The Car Insurance Quoter Team