Two people, same car,
same road. Different price.

Premiums are not a judgement on how well you drive. They are an arithmetic on a fairly short list of factors, most of which are visible to you before you ever ask for a quote.

What the arithmetic actually uses

Factor
Weight
Can you change it?
Claims historyAt-fault claims in the last three to five years
Heavy
Only with time
Where the car sleepsOvernight postcode, not where you work
Heavy
Only by moving
Annual mileageWhat you declared, not what you drive
Moderate
Yes — and often out of date
DeductibleWhat you pay before cover starts
Moderate
Yes, immediately
Coverage limitsHow much the policy will pay out
Moderate
Yes — carefully
Continuous coverWhether you have ever let it lapse
Quiet
Yes, by never lapsing
The car itselfRepair cost and theft rate for that model
Quiet
At next purchase

The one most often wrong

Annual mileage is self-declared and then rarely revisited. A commute that ended two years ago, a job that went remote, a second car that took over the school run — all of them leave a policy still rated for a drive nobody is doing.

It is worth checking because it is the factor with the largest gap between what people declared and what is true.

The one most often misused

Raising a deductible reliably lowers a premium, which makes it the obvious lever. It is only a genuine saving if the higher figure is money you could produce in the week you need it.

A deductible you cannot pay converts a covered loss into an uncovered one, which is the opposite of the intended effect.

Before you shop

Compare the cover, not the number.

A quote is only cheaper than another quote if it is for the same thing. Put the declarations pages side by side and check the liability limits, the deductibles and whether comprehensive and collision are present on both. A price difference usually resolves into one of those three.

Then check the lapse question. Continuous cover is one of the quieter factors in the list above, and a gap created while switching costs more, for longer, than the saving that prompted the switch.

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