The first three work immediately. The last two are traps.
They work
1. Pay annually
The easiest reduction there is: about 15% off, with nothing changing in the cover. Why the quarter costs more.
2. Change company
It is the biggest number and the least popular. The gap between the cheapest and the dearest company for the same driver, with exactly the same package, runs around 35–40%. Renewing with the same company “because that is how it has always gone” is the most expensive habit in the business.
3. Check what you pay for and do not use
Look at your policy. Many packages carry covers nobody chose deliberately: a replacement car in a household with two cars, luggage cover, personal accident with sums that mean nothing. None is a huge number on its own; together they are.
They work less than you think
4. Garage, alarm, kilometres
They count, but a little, and mostly on comprehensive cover. On third-party liability their effect is usually smaller than the difference between two companies.
5. A higher excess on comprehensive
It really does lower the premium, but it is a trade and not a discount: you pay less every year and more on the day of the claim. It only makes sense if the excess is an amount you could find tomorrow without thinking about it.
Traps
6. Naming someone else as the main driver
Putting your parent down as the main driver while you do the driving lowers the price noticeably. It is called fronting, it is a false declaration, and the result is not a fine: it is that the company can refuse to pay the claim. You pay three years of premiums in order not to be insured on the day you need it.
7. Not declaring an old claim
Companies exchange histories. A “no claims” declaration that does not hold up does not give you a cheaper policy; it gives you a policy that can be cancelled retroactively.
The same rule for both: any method that relies on the company not noticing something is a method of not being insured. The product is the payment of the claim; whatever undermines that is not a discount.