Online car insurance

Thanks to the internet, it's easier than ever to search through quotes from rival companies to get cheap car insurance in the UK.

If you are using an online price comparison site like uSwitch you have to supply quite a lot of information, because how much you pay depends on personal factors such as your age, sex, occupation, where you live, what car you drive and whether you have any motoring convictions.

That's because insurance companies partly base their premiums on how likely they think you are to make a claim, and the potential size and cost of any claim. Of course, nobody can predict accidents, but they do complex sums to work out who is more likely to have them.Younger drivers, for example, are five times more likely to have an accident than a driver aged 35 or over, and are therefore punished with far higher premiums. Some insurers won't touch them at all. And here's a blow to male pride: contrary to the outdated stereotype of women as rotten drivers, they have a better motoring record, and grateful insurance companies reward them with cut-price rates.The flashier your car, the higher the repair bill. So you pay less to protect a Vauxhall Vectra than a whizzy BMW. If your taste in motors runs to a flash sports car, the cost of cover can quickly go through its soft-top roof.

Premiums will also depend on other factors, such as how many miles you drive each year (the more you drive, the greater the chance of a crash), where you park at night (it's safer in a garage than on the road), and whether you have fitted any security measures to deter thieves (yes, they do work).