This is I hope the start of many useful bits of information I'll post on this lens to help you get the most out of your car insurance :)

So to start with let's look at how you can bring the price of your car insurance premium down:

Consider your mileage - if you think you'll only travel 8000 miles in the year tell the insurer this. Over estimating can increase the price of your premium as you present yourself as a higher risk if you will be on the road more.

Do you have a parent or more experienced driver you can add? - if so this can help bring the price of the premium down (if you are a younger driver) you must be careful to add them only as an additional driver if they will only rarely be using the car. Taking out a policy with someone as the main driver who is in reality an additional driver can cause your policy to be voided.

Where is your car stored overnight? - if you can store you car on your drive or even better in a locked garage this will bring the price of your policy down as opposed to parking the vehicle in the street.

Improve the security of your vehicle - If you do not already have an immobiliser or alarm consider installing one or both to get a saving on your policy.

Increase your voluntary excess - Consider increasing the voluntary excess you will pay on your policy should you suffer an accident. If you can afford to pay out an extra £1-200 at the time of a claim this could save you a varying amount of your intial premium.

Shop around - I cannot emphasise more strongly the importance of shopping around. Many of us accept the renewal we get from our current insurer depsite the fact they are more expensive than the previous year nine times out of ten. If you make use of comparison sites such as moneysupermarket you can find cheap car insurance. Remember to check the features you are getting when looking at cheap policies to ensure you're not missing out on anything. Sometimes it can be worth paying a few pounds extra in order to receive a bit of extra coverage.

• Points on licence
• Driving record (i.e. accidents and claims)
• Location of car overnight
• Age of driver
• No claims amount
• Number of years licence held
• Type of car (insurance group in particular)
• Annual estimated mileage
• voluntary excess
• Where you live (postcode based)

I thought I'd add a little piece on here to talk about the ANPR cameras now being widely used across the country.

ANPR or automatic number plate recognition cameras are now to be found on many roadsides and the chances

are you will drive past at least one on every reasonably lengthy journey.

The camera takes a snapshot of each car as it passes and instantly checks it against the insurance database.

If your car is found to be uninsured your registration will be flagged up and you will be stopped at the next available opportunity.

Your car can be seized and held until you pay a fine in the region of £105 plus £12 for every day the car is impounded.

You could also face a £200 fine for driving without insurance and 6 points on your licence.

If you do not claim your car within 14 days it can be crushed or sold at auction.

Whilst researching the topic I came across a useful tool at www.askmid.com which checks your registration number to see if you are on the database.

This could be especially useful when you have just switched insurers to make sure you are still listed.

The insurers apparently now have a period of 2 weeks within which time they need to have added you to the list.

Let's face it, most of us utilise sattelite navigation on one form or another.

We're used to the familar sight of Tom-tom's adourning the windscreen of passing cars.

The question is; just how safe is yours? Car crime in relation to sat nav units has risen dramitically at an almost exponetial rate to that of sat nav ownership.

Here are some basic rules to help you protect your Tom-Tom, Jim-Jim ;) or whatever brand of sat nav you use.

• Always wipe suction marks off windscreen after removing cradle
• do not leave your sat nav in the vehicle

• do not leave your sat nav on display even if you are only stopping for a few minutes - it only takes 30 seconds for an oppotunistic thief to perform a smash and grab
• do not leave the bluetooth feature switched on (if you have it) even if your sat nav if safely stowed in the glove box. A thief on the know can search using their mobile phone and find your device.

Follow the above rules and you should hopefully ensure your sat nav is well protected from theft :)

I just found an interesting news article whilst looking at Google news. I;ve never thought about car insurance abroad as I've never taken my car out of the country. I've arranged hire cars before now in France for example but they come with at least a basic level of cover (extra is usually pushed..) It appears that many policies will cover you for at least third party when you drive abroad and this should be standard across most UK policies. However you will most probably not receive comprehensive cover and as you may be used to this level in the UK it is easy to forget and travel abroad, safe in the false knowledge that your car is covered for any eventuality.

The moral of the story it seems is to check with your insurer before you leave and take out extra cover if neccessary. A lot of companies seem to offer bolt on packages to give you temporary cover when you need it most (at an extra cost of course....).

Well it's renewal time again and I've used my tried and trusted methodsite, moneysupermarket.com. I also thought I'd check out confused.com as I've heard they;ve got a million pound give away. I filled out a quote and later that day I received 3 phonecalls trying to sell me insurance. I think they say on their site they don't sell details so I'm not sure if it was they who passed my details on..... I did however just get a good quote with moneysupermarket although I've not used the company before (bell cover) Some investigation needed me thinks.........

Well I've done some research into Bell and they seem to be ok. They offer a standard insurance package or you can build your own policy and add just the cover you need which is cheaper. They offer a 10 month bonus accelerator which rewards you with 1 years no claims after this amount of time if you have of course been a careful driver. I think I may go with them they seem to be about £20 cheaper than the nearest quote :)

It look like march is going to be a heavy month for new cars, insurance and finance. I was reading an article earlier stating that the amount of finance being taken out this month for the new 08 registration is higher than ever before and this comes amid all the hype about the credit crunch and news that banks and loan providers were tightening up their lending criteria.

Apparently a fifth of all car sales take place during the month of March so it seems to spell big business for car manufacturers and I'd imagine you'd be less likely to get a good deal as they know the business will come without this.

Motorists are estimated to be spending £174 million to buy new new March registration cars (the majority of which will be taken on finance).

Some dealers offer 0% finance deals and although this means you will have to pay back the loan after a shorter period of time it could save you thousands in interest.

Do you really need that 08 registration car straight away? Why not wait until later in the year when you are more likely to get yourself a good deal>