How do I further reduce car insurance cost from the quotes sent to me?

We believe that our quote comparison service inherently ensures that you to get the best deals, especially since the pricing strategy of insurance companies is one of the key factors that we look at when deciding on our panel of providers. We therefore do not engage in the process of negotiation and ‘beating quotes’. Our first quote comparison to you is certainly the best price based on the information given to us by you and the subjectivities and assumptions mentioned in the quote email (which need to be confirmed before you go ahead).

We do not claim to be the cheapest (in the field of insurance nobody can!) but in view of how well we are priced and in view of the level of service and claims commitment we provide, coupled with the first class reputation of the car insurance providers that we work with, we strongly believe that we’re the best value solution for car insurance in the whole UAE insurance market. This is why Alfred proudly writes under InsuranceMarket.ae “best insurance deals in the UAE!”

Here are some ideas to help you to reduce the cost of your insurance premium from what we have already quoted to you:

1. Multiple policy discounts – if you currently have various insurances through other providers like the insurance for your other cars, home, medical, annual travel, business or yacht, simply give us a list of all of these policies along with their policy copies and renewal dates. If you intend to move all your insurances to us, we’ll give you a discount. The percentage of discount really depends on the overall size of the portfolio. On the other hand, if you are looking to insure your home or health at the moment, we’ll give you a discount if you buy your car insurance and another one at the same time.
2. Voluntary excess – the excess is the part of the risk that you as the policyholder share with the insurance company. This is the amount paid if there is a non-recoverable claim – in plain words this is the amount that you pay towards the loss if an accident occurs and it is caused as a result of your fault or the third party is unknown (like a hit and run in the parking). Usually this is an insignificant and marginal amount eg. AED 500. Should you feel confident about your driving abilities and seek to save some money at the time of buying your car insurance why not have your excess increased? If you really want to save a big amount, you can even have a percentage excess applied – for example your policy would cover a non-recoverable claim for only 90% or 80% of the claim amount.
3. Car value – while it’s important to ensure that your car is appropriately valued in your insurance policy (undervaluation can mean that you’re not paid a fair market value in the event that your car has to be written off after a major accident and overvaluation means that your paying too much premium for your car insurance), it is worth noting that since your insurance premium is a percentage of the sum insured (i.e. car value) you can save some money if you value your car a little lower (however the valuation should be accepted by your insurance company and they do have a right not to accept – car insurance policies here in the UAE are ‘agreed value policies’ which means that the policyholder and the insurance company both have to agree on a valuation for the vehicle at the time of policy issuance.)
4. Do you really need agency repair coverage? Agency repair cover (the cover that guarantees your car will be repaired at your car make’s official authorised dealer workshop) can really cost you quite a lot more and in the end it may not even be something that you really need – read this article to learn more about agency repair here in the UAE. The below infographic also summarises everything you need to know:
5. Optional benefits like rent-a-car and personal accident for the driver and passengers on face value can not be very expensive for the value that they offer in terms of peace of mind however sometimes can add up to 30% of your total car insurance premium here in the UAE – ask your personal shopper if you’re not sure about which optional benefits have been included in your quote (and which ones haven’t).
6. Policy restrictions – you can restrict the use of your vehicle to certain people or a certain amount of kilometres annually in order to have a better car insurance premium rate (however this facility is currently available only for a limited number of products and with a selected few insurance companies here in Dubai).
a. Estimated Annual Mileage restriction – this can usually be applied for high value luxury vehicles or exotic vehicles or supercars. Usually, in order to have this restriction on your policy, you would need to have a car valued at least at AED 350,000.
b. Named driver policy- again, for high value vehicles, you can restrict the policy only to a few drivers all of whom have a favourable claims history (like 3 years of no claims). Usually this is restricted to one or two drivers and can bring down the insurance premium by up to 20%.
Insurance companies in Dubai generally prefer not to have a policy without a named driver clause and a limited mileage clause if the car is valued over AED 1,500,000.
7. Risk profile information – if you have any tangible means to show that you’ve always been a good driver, we can use that information to get you a further discount:
a. No claims history – good drivers have a history of driving for a few years without claims – if you can confirm that you’ve not made claims while driving and being insured for a certain number of years, you can save some good money on your car insurance – to learn more see self declaration no claims discounts.
b. Convertible drivers license – if you have a drivers license that can convert to a UAE drivers license without a driving test, this can usually bring you some further discounts. Click here to check if your drivers license is convertible.
8. Insure in your Dad’s name! While we absolutely don’t encourage this since it is against the principle of utmost good faith in insurance, it is common practice here in the UAE for young drivers to save on their insurance premium by having their cars registered in their parent’s name. The normal excess of 10% of the claim amount for non-recoverable claims would still be applicable if a young driver causes an accident or is in an accident where the third party is unkown.