Multi-policy discounts for car insurance

About multi-policy insurance discounts

One way to save on your car insurance could be to bundle it together with other insurance products, such as home insurance.

How do multi-policy insurance discounts work?

A number of insurers offer discounts on your premiums if you take out multiple policies with them. This is known as a multi-policy discount, and is aimed to create loyal customers. Depending on the provider, this saving may apply to all of your policies, or any subsequent policies you take out.

What are the potential pros and cons of bundling insurance for a multi-policy discount?

As with any financial decision, it’s a wise idea to weigh up the potential advantages and disadvantages of insurance discounts before signing up. This could include comparing your options and obtaining multiple quotes, to get a clearer picture of whether or not a multi-policy discount is worth it.

• Potential advantages:

In addition to lowering your premiums, having multiple policies with one insurer may also help to streamline your insurance and make your policies easier to manage.

You’ll only have one company to deal with when it comes to payments and renewals, and if you need to make a claim, it’s likely that you’ll go through the same process for some of the different types of insurance. This could mean that you only need one insurance app, for example, rather than multiple apps to manage different policies.

There may also be other compounding benefits, such as being able to add on other discounts after a multi-policy discount has been applied.

And, if you need to apply for financial assistance or relief from payments due to hardship, you typically would only need to deal with that one provider to make arrangements, rather than multiple providers.

• Potential disadvantages:

Opting to bundle insurance with the one provider limits your choice.

For example, you may not be able to access the add-on insurance that you need as the provider (with which you have multiple policies) does not offer it. In that case, you may have to find alternative insurance to cover you, or forego being covered for what you need.

It’s important to weigh up whether skipping the discount by taking out policies with different insurers might be cheaper, as well as if it would provide better coverage for your needs.

There may also be a limit on what discounts can apply to your policies, which may reduce the impact of the multi-policy discount (or other discounts).  There may also be eligibility requirements, such as having to hold a specific type or number of policies before the discount kicks in.

What types of insurance policies can you expect to get a discount on?

There are discounts applied to many different types of insurance policies, for a range of reasons. These could include:

• multi policy discounts, and ‘combining’ similar insurance policies (such as home and contents insurance)
• buying the policy online
• being a new customer
• renewing within a certain timeframe
• paying yearly instead of monthly
• ‘no claims’ bonus or discount
• Insurance-specific discounts, such as for being a ‘good driver’ or only driving ‘low kilometres’ for car insurance, or being a non-smoker for life insurance.

What types of insurance can you bundle for a discount?

Multi-policy insurance discounts encourage consumers to be loyal to one provider. When it comes to bundling policies to save on premiums, depending on the provider, there are possible multi-policy discounts available for products such as:

• Home insurance
• Health insurance
• Travel insurance
• Life Insurance
• Landlord Insurance
• Pet Insurance

Other car insurance discounts

You can compare the features of comprehensive car insurance policies that offer a multi-policy discount using the table at the top of this page. Adjust the selections to suit your needs.

There could also be other discounts available to you on car insurance. Examples could include:

• discount for low kilometres
• discount when purchased online
• good driver discount
• no claims discount (offered at purchase).

You can also use the table at the top of this page to compare features of comprehensive car insurance policies with the above discounts, by changing the filters.

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