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Archive for January, 2010
If you’ve ever bought any kind of insurance policy before then you may already know that it’s worth comparing quotes before you buy. No two insurance policies may cost exactly the same, even if they offer exactly the same cover options. Spending some time looking at quotes and making caravan insurance comparisons may, therefore, be a good way of saving money.
Nowadays many of us go online to compare costs on virtually anything we buy. A shopping comparison site might help you find the lowest cost deals when you want to buy a new TV and an insurance comparison site may do the same job when you want to take out insurance for your caravan.
These sites may well prove to be great time-savers. The fact that they bring together quotes and policy details from a lot of different insurance companies means that you don’t have to do the research leg-work yourself. This may save a lot of time. If you find an online caravan insurance comparisons site then you may potentially be able to see a lot of different policies from a number of insurers in one place.
This may also be an easy way of saving money on premium costs. If you look at multiple policies in one place then you may find it easier to compare the costs and quotes of the policies that suit your needs. This may just take a couple of minutes of your time but it might save you money as well.
The companies that run these sites are often industry specialists. Unlike a lot of consumers, they know exactly where to go for caravan insurance quotes and may be able to put together a snapshot of what is on offer in the market on one easy to read screen.
This may be hard to do yourself unless you also know all these insurers. It may well also be time consuming to go out and find the quotes in the first place. So, many caravan owners may simply go to specialist broker sites to make things easier, saving time and money on their caravan insurance comparisons by doing so.
Whilst many caravan and motor caravan owners spend time thinking about their options when it comes to their general insurance, some spend less time on considering their options with breakdown insurance. This may well just be based on the fact that they already have some form of policy in place for their towing car and forget about their caravan. But, getting cover for both of the vehicles may be worth thinking about.
Covering your towing car is important. This may even be the most important element of breakdown cover. But, caravan owners may also want to consider how they might cope if something mechanical went wrong with their caravan. If it wasn’t roadworthy because of mechanical failure or was not fit to be towed then their car breakdown insurance may not be able to help them.
Being stuck somewhere on the road with a caravan that needs work may be a hassle and, without some form of breakdown cover, it may also prove to be expensive. If you have car problems when you are towing a caravan then you may also experience problems even if you have breakdown assistance on the car itself.
You may, for example, need to check if your breakdown provider is willing to help with your caravan in this instance and some may not. It may be good that they agree to tow your car away to have it fixed but this may not be a great help to you if it leaves your caravan stranded on a lay-by and you have to arrange to deal with it.
Buying breakdown insurance for a car and a caravan works in much the same way as standard breakdown solutions except both vehicles get cover. It is, for example, common for insurance companies that offer these policies to offer a range of graded benefits from the basic to the fully comprehensive. It may be worth looking at these options in detail to work out which may be the most suitable for you and your vehicles.
If you own a touring caravan or a motor caravan and look at the various insurance options on offer to you, you may have noticed that many talk about European cover. This may be especially the case with motor caravans which are often commonly used by their owners to take trips abroad. But, European benefits may be different to the UK cover you’re offered as part of your motor caravan insurance policy. Why is this?
If you compare any policies that offer European cover then you may notice that they don’t always offer exactly the same kinds of coverage. It’s common for this kind of feature to be built into policy options on a number of days basis, for example. So, one policy may give you so many days coverage on an annual basis whilst another may offer you fewer or even more days.
This may often be based on the typical travelling habits of caravanners. Some may take their annual summer holiday in Europe but may then only use their motor caravans in the UK. So, whilst European cover may be important to them, it may not be essential to have this cover in place all of the time. It may work out cheaper to have just enough cover for the days they may be travelling abroad.
If you are thinking about travelling in Europe then you may need to seriously think about getting localised cover. Bear in mind that your standard policy features may well be mostly based on your caravanning use in the UK and, without European motor caravan insurance, you may not actually have any cover at all.
It may also be important to think about how many days you may need European cover for. There is little point arranging short cover and then finding out halfway through a holiday that you have no rights to make a claim because you have exceeded your allowance. This might be an expensive mistake to make.
As the days offered in standard policies may vary, you may want to compare motor caravan insurance policies to see which come with the limits that suit you best. These benefits may come as part of your regular policy or you may need to buy them as additional features. In some cases, insurers may allow you to extend your cover to add on more days or even annual allowances if that may suit you better.
Nobody likes paying more for insurance than they have to. This kind of protection may be nice to have if something goes wrong and you need to make a claim but, most of the time, you may never see a return on your premiums. It may make sense, therefore, to try and get the ideal balance of having enough cover for your needs at the lowest possible cost. One way to cut premium quotes in this sector is to use caravan club discounts.
It’s quite common for caravan owners to join caravan clubs. Some may opt to join a general club such as The Caravan Club or The Camping and Caravanning Club whilst others may join a club for owners of specific types of vans. Some may even join both types. In any of these cases you may find that your membership brings with it some benefits. This may well include discounted insurance costs.
Insurers may offer caravan club discounts for a few different reasons. Firstly, like many car club deals, insurers may ‘trust’ club members more. Membership of a caravan club may imply that you take your caravanning seriously and you may therefore be seen as less of an insurance risk.
Some deals are offered by general insurance policies to club members when they apply for policies direct. Others may need to be taken out via your caravan club as they may have negotiated a special member’s only discount. In either case, this kind of discount may well be worth looking for, even if you have to join a club to get it, as it may save on your policy costs.
Bear in mind that caravan club discounts may also be picked up for other things as well as general club membership. Some insurance companies and club schemes may also offer an additional percentage discount if you have taken any caravanning courses or if you have set up specific security systems on your van so this may also be worth looking out for as it may lower your costs even more.
Putting suitable caravan insurance in place may cost you money to start with but it may also save you money in the long run. Some caravan owners underestimate the importance of insuring their van or may underestimate the costs they may need to cover. Not having cover to protect you or not having it in the correct amounts might lead to caravan insurance risks. Why is getting suitable cover so important?
Some owners opt not to insure their caravans at all. They may well insure their homes and their cars but may assume that they don’t have to do the same for their van. The risks of not doing this may hit them hard financially if something goes wrong. For example, how much might it cost you if:
- Your caravan was stolen or damaged?
- It got damaged on a site in a storm or a flood?
- Someone broke into your van and stole some of your possessions?
- Someone renting your van for a holiday got injured inside it and decided to sue you for compensation?
Some of these incidents may be extremely expensive to put right but, with an insurance policy in place, you may well minimise your caravan insurance risks. Another risk area worth thinking about may happen if you under insure your van. So, what might happen there?
In this instance, if you do not have adequate cover in place then you may get some financial help from your insurer but this may not be as much as you need. If you don’t, for example, insure your caravan for its full value and it gets stolen or is irreparably damaged in a storm then you may have to meet a lot of the costs of replacement.
Those looking to avoid caravan insurance risks may opt to take out enough cover for their needs to give them some protection. This doesn’t have to be hard to arrange or overly expensive. A specialist broker, for example, may be able to find you quotes and policy options from many different insurance companies so you are able to compare your costs to find low price options.