How to get the cheapest car insurance: Ten tips for cheaper car cover

The mistake most drivers make is failing to shop around for the best premium and simply accepting an insurer's renewal quote, which is likely to be much higher.

Thanks to recent reforms to compensation payouts, motorists face a 10 per cent - around £50 - hike in their car insurance premiums.

Piling on more pain, from June, bill payers will also see an extra £10 added to bills thanks to a rise in insurance premium tax to 12 per cent. 

1. Shop around for the best deals
Savings of hundreds of pounds can be found if you shop around when you renew your cover.
Be careful though. When shopping around for car insurance, it's important to make sure that you are comparing like-for-like cover. Some policies may seem cheaper, but you may find you don't have the same level of cover when you have to make a claim.
Use an online comparison service to do the hard work for you. Put in your details and check the prices that come up. You can alter the excess that you are willing to pay and the mileage you will drive and get new quotes.
Also check the insurers that don't feature in comparison sites, the big two are Direct Line and Aviva. This is Money's car insurance search is powered by MoneySupermarket and will search more than 130 insurers for you. Try it out here.
Also check the insurers that don't feature in comparison sites, the big two are Direct Line and Aviva. It is also worth checking Admiral separately for its Multicar offers if you are looking to insure more than one vehicle.
If you've been happy with the cover your existing provider has given until now but are unhappy with their renewal quote, let them know the best offer you have received from a rival insurer and ask them to at least match it.

2. Don't put everyone on your policy
Ensure that only regular drivers are named on the policy. You can always add someone for a few days when they really need to drive the car.

3. Protect that no-claims bonus
A long no-claims bonus is the single best way of cutting car insurance costs, so protect it.
This may increase the premium by a few pounds, but this fades into insignificance against the potential loss of a 90 per cent discount on a premium of several hundred pounds.
But the definition of a protected no-claims bonus can vary widely between insurers.
Though accidents caused by another driver will normally have no impact on such a bonus, those caused by the insured could. The key is to always check the policy carefully.