Posts Tagged ‘save money’

Security and Insurance for Touring Caravans

Thursday, January 26th, 2012

Owning a touring caravan is a very enjoyable experience, and brings about many pleasant memories. However there is of course always the question of security. Given that a caravan is often a hefty investment, often running into thousands of pounds, it is obvious that good security is a must.

Fortunately there are a number of things you can do to improve your security (and at the same time protect your insurance). You will often find that hitch locks and/or wheel clamps are a minimum requirement for an insurance policy. And that they must always be used whenever the caravan is unhintched or unoccupied. Alarms are another good form of security, and although a more expensive option, tracking devices have an excellent track record at protecting caravans from theft.

The great side-effect of improved security is the discounts you can achieve on your touring caravan insurance policy. These can be up to 25% discount for a tracking device. Bear in mind though that discounts will only be applied up to a certain level, and that any additional security precautions will not attract discounts. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have other forms of security, because they still reduce the chance that you will have to claim on your insurance policy.

Another thing to bear in mind is storage of the caravan. If it is not kept at a secure storage site, the next best thing is to have it behind locked gates in your drive. It is not unknown for caravans to be stolen from driveways, so don’t believe that just because it is outside your house that it is necessarily safe.

Security is of course a big issue for touring caravan owners, because it can save you decent amounts of money on your insurance, make it less likely for you to need to claim on your insurance. It also increases the peace of mind you experience, allowing you to enjoy those wonderful trips away with the worries of ‘what if…’ Security and a good caravan insurance policy are two sides of the same coin.

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Save Money On Your Caravan Insurance: Tip 4

Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Cheaper Caravan Insurance

Cheaper Caravan Insurance

This is the latest in our posts to offer tips to help you find cheaper caravan insurance. Today we look at the excess of a policy.

Caravan insurance has what is called an excess attached to it. This means that if you were to claim against your policy for any reason you would receive how ever much you claimed for minus the amount of your excess. For instance if your excess is £200 and you make a claim for £500, if your claim is approved you would receive £300… i.e. 500 – 200 = 300.

What this means for the insurance company is that they will end up having to pay out a pound less for each pound more you have on your excess. So from their perspective, the higher your excess, the more profit they are going to make. They in turn will charge you lower premiums the higher you set your excess level.

This can be a useful way of saving money when buying a caravan insurance policy. But it should be considered that it is pointless having cheaper caravan insurance if when you make a claim you don’t have enough money to cover the excess, and as a result end up without a usable caravan.

So next time you are getting caravan insurance quotes, experiment with different excess levels to see the effect it has on the premiums. You could save yourself a decent amount of money.

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Saving Money with Caravan Insurance Excess

Monday, November 28th, 2011

With all the belt tightening going on these days, people are sensibly looking for more ways to save their hard-earned money. There is an opportunity to do this with your insurance policies. If you have a caravan insurance policy you may want to think about opting for a voluntary excess.

Almost all policies have an excess as standard. This means the insurance company will only pay the amount of any claim minus the amount of your excess. Clearly the higher the excess on your policy, the less you would receive back in the event of a claim. However bad this may sound, it also attracts the benefit that it reduces premiums.

It is important however that you get the balance correct. It’s great to be able to save some money on premiums, but you have to bear in mind the practicalities if you have to make a claim at some point. You need to be realistic about whether you could acutally afford to cover the excess. If you choose a voluntary excess to save yourself some money, you need to know that you could bear the cost if you need to make a claim.

So with some common sense it is easy to save yourself money on your caravan insurance. You just need to consider carefully that you are getting the balance between saving money and protecting yourself adequately

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Saving Money On Your Caravan Insurance: Tip 1

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

One of the best ways to keep down the cost of your caravan insurance is not to make a claim on it. Fairly obvious I know! But the question is what can you do to make this more likely?

One possible way to achieve this is to improve your caravan manoeuvring skills. The Camping and Caravanning Club provide one day courses aimed to achieve just this. The course costs £95 for club members (non-members should include the cost of joining the club) and breaks down into the following Syllabus:

  • Towing a Caravan
  • Caravanners and the Law
  • Loading a Caravan
  • Hitching and Unhitching
  • Reversing with Safety

All trainers are qualified driving instructors. And there is a restriction of only twelve participants per course. This gives a ratio of four participants for each instructor.

To take the the course all that is required is a full drivers licence, caravans are provided to complete the practical elements of the course. At the end of the day all participants receive a course certificate and a free copy of the handbook “Safe Towing for Life”.

To book a course, or make an enquiry, you can call the club on 0845 130 7412.

These improved skills will help make you safer when in transit, and when siting the caravan on site, reducing the likelihood that you will find yourself in a situation where you have to make a claim on your caravan insurance.

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Saving Money On Your Caravan Insurance: Tip 3

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Caravan insurance needn’t cost the earth. In the third of our money saving insurance tips we talk about the importance of shopping around. Like when you are shopping for anything, if you just buy the first thing you see that you like in a shop you are guaranteed to walk 50 yards down the road to another shop and see either the same thing but cheaper. Or instead you find something you would rather have had, but you’re stuck because you were too hasty.

Human nature means many of us are prone to do this, when with a little patience and thought we could find exactly what we need at a price we can afford. There are many caravan insurers plying their trade on the internet, so there are plenty of ‘shops’ for you to look in (and you don’t even have to get wet!). And like high street shops there are cheap shops and there are expensive shops, so even if you find something that suits you down to the ground, it doesn’t mean you won’t get it cheaper elsewhere.

A key to this is being clear precisely what it is that you need. Questions like… how much cover do you need for belongings?… if I’m intending to rent the caravan out, how much public liability should I have? These are the kind of things that you should be looking to answer before putting your virtual pen to paper on your new static or touring caravan insurance policy (I’m assuming you’re using the internet, because if you’re not then you’re highly likely costing yourself money).

So you may find when you shop around that a policy has cover that you maybe don’t need, and you could save yourself money by getting a different policy that doesn’t have that cover on it. A little common sense and a bit of thought goes a long way here.

Okay it may take you a bit of time to have a look at what the different insurers are offering, but this is time well spent as you will not only be getting cheaper caravan insurance, but you will also have the peace of mind that you have the coverage you need.

Shop around, shop around, shop around. Good advice in all areas of life, and especially so when  it comes to getting your caravan insurance policy.

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Saving Money On Your Caravan Insurance: Tip 2

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

For the second of our tips on how to save money on caravan insurance we turn to the question of storage.

A good deal of caravan owners choose to store their vans on their drive at home. Whilst it is clearly the cheapest way of storing it, it is not necessarily the safest.

In terms of earning premium reductions on caravan insurance policies the best choice is to keep the caravan in a secure storage facility. And the good news is that there is even an association dedicated to this very thing. The Caravan Storage Site Owners’ Association (CaSSOA) were set up in 1999 to help ensure caravan owners were getting good security from storage providers. They evaluate sites on a number of different criteria and award them Gold, Silver, or Bronze Awards based on their security.

These awards are recognised by a number of the caravan insurance companies and attract premium discounts on their policies. These discounts can be up to 15%.

The association has over 550 sites nationwide, which between them store over 80,000 caravans. A figure which is constantly growing. To find a site near you, have a look on the association website at www.cassoa.co.uk.

For a more in depth discussion of secure caravan storage have a look here: secure caravan storage

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Saving Money On Your Caravan Insurance: Tip 5

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

In the fifth of our series on ways to get cheaper caravan insurance we look at caravan clubs.

There are several caravan clubs you can join, the major ones being the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravanning Club. And the great thing about being a member of these clubs is that you will find many caravan insurance companies will offer you discounts on you caravan insurance premiums.

If you are wondering why this is, it is because membership of these clubs is a good indicator that you are serious about your caravanning, and take security and safety seriously. As a result of this you will present a lesser risk, and thus a better bet for the caravan insurers. These are exactly the type of people that caravan insurers like to protect.

Membership of these clubs starts at around £40, and benefits extend beyond just getting money off of your insurance. For instance Caravan Club membership pays for itself in just 5 nights at a site with pitch fees savings offered at club sites. So all in all membership makes excellent sense, and not only because of the caravan insurance premiums.

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