Never Start Car Insurance On The Same Day

Starting your car insurance on the same day could cost you 20% more than starting it four days in the future.

This is a story that we were surprised to learn of. We heard about it from someone inside the car insurance industry. It's not exactly a secret, but it is something that not many of our staff were aware of. Not sure if it was real or not, we decided to test it out for ourselves and found that the story does hold up to scrutiny. It is genuine.

In the test, we asked our staff to get quotes for their car insurance. Out of the 45 quotes we received, they were on average 17% cheaper if the policy was activated four days in the future. One quote came out 22% cheaper.

We reached out to Direct Line for a comment on why insurance companies charge a higher premium for starting policies on the same day. Mike Wilkinson, a spokesman for DirectLine.com said "Statistically there is an increased level of risk in policies that begin on the same day. This is due to individuals who have already been involved in incidents. They may be attemtping to obtain cover for events that have already happened. Same day policies present a higher risk of fraud. Higher risk equals higher premiums, unfortunately."

If you do need to obtain car insurance for a vehicle on the same day. You may well find it cheaper to buy temporary car insurance for one day or two days. Then start your annual policy a few days later. Surprisingly, it does make financial sense.

The cost of 1-day car insurance through a leading provider such as Aviva can be as little as £18. Delaying the start of your car insurance by 1-4 days can save you over £200 on an average policy.

Try it and please let us know how you get on.