How to drive down your motoring costs

Here's how to drive down your motoring costs and find cheaper diesel and petrol prices.

Why is buying a car such a tremendous hassle?! Just click this link and find out more. http://tiny.cc/i42kx

The price of both diesel and unleaded petrol are now at record highs.

This means fuel taxes bring in record sums to HM Treasury. This is largely because taxes account for the majority of fuel prices.

Indeed, I recently calculated that, for a litre of petrol costing 135p, fuel duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) account for 81p. In other words, three-fifths (60%) of pump prices are gobbled up by taxes. This explains why unleaded petrol costs just 62p a litre in the low-tax USA.

What can you do?

For the sake of argument, let's say that you drive 10,000 miles a year in a car that does 10 miles to the litre (or 45.5 miles to the gallon). This means buying 1,000 litres of fuel per year, which cost £1,350 (assuming 135p/L for unleaded petrol).

In effect, this means that you're paying £810 a year in fuel taxes alone!

However, there are ways to pay less for your diesel and petrol.

Compare pump prices

Why waste fuel driving around to find the cheapest prices, when the PetrolPrices website does the legwork for you? This brilliant, free site will find the cheapest forecourts in your area for petrol, diesel and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). All it needs to get cracking is your postcode and how far you're willing to cruise for cheaper fuel.

Fill up when you see a cheaper petrol station

If you happen to be passing a petrol station that's cheaper than the ones in your area and you need some fuel, why not take advantage?

Grab supermarket coupons

The Big Four supermarkets - ASDA, Morrison, Sainsbury's and Tesco - occasionally provide money-off coupons to redeem at their own forecourts. Usually, these promotional vouchers give you 5p or 10p off a litre of fuel, as a reward for spending, say, £50 in-store.

For instance, a 5p/litre discount would save you £2.50 when filling up a 50-litre tank. This is a saving well worth having, but only if this exceeds any additional shopping and driving costs.

Use loyalty cards

Most petrol retailers (and supermarkets) have some kind of loyalty programme designed to encourage you to spend more and keep coming back.

You can find out more about these in The best petrol loyalty cards.

While these freebies are worth having, it's obviously not worth driving halfway across your county purely to grab reward points.

Avoid getting caught short on the motorway

Pump prices at motorway service stations are notoriously expensive so make sure you have enough fuel before setting off.

Fed up of your car costing a fortune? Why not give these tips a try and save some serious cash?

Why is buying a car such a tremendous hassle?! Just click this link and find out more. http://tiny.cc/i42kx

Cars aren’t cheap to run, and if you live in a two-car household you’re doubling those expenses. Ouch. Fortunately there are some simple things we can all do to save ourselves hundreds of pounds every year.

Fuel

If, like me, you’re shocked at the cost of fuel, make an effort to pay as little as you can for it.

By choosing where to fill up carefully you can save a few quid each time, which all adds up over a year. Sign up to sites such as Petrolprices.com – it will email you each week with the lowest priced petrol and diesel in your area.

Don’t forget to take into account the areas you pass through on your commute to work – but don’t drive miles out of your way for cheaper fuel as you may use more than you will save.

Supermarkets

And don’t forget the supermarket offers – Sainsbury’s recently issued vouchers giving a 10p/litre discount if you spent £60 or more in-store, which must be used within two weeks.

Tesco is currently offering 5p/litre discounted fuel coupons with the purchase of certain items in-store - useful if you’d buy the products concerned anyway.

And if you always pay for your fuel with a cashback credit card, you could make a little back, too.

Reduce usage

How many trips do you make each week in an empty car?

By arranging to travel with three other colleagues who live relatively close (sometimes called a car-pool) you could drive just one out of every four days, significantly reducing the wear and tear on your car, as well as fuel and parking costs. Plus it would help reduce the number of cars on the road, and pollution levels, too.

Ask around at work to see if any local colleagues would be keen to car-pool - or register with websites such as Liftshare (although obviously use your common sense and exercise caution if arranging to travel with people you don’t know).

And car-pooling is not limited to commuters – if you regularly meet up with local friends in the evening, why not take it in turns to drive?

Stay-at-home-mums who meet up each week could pick each other up. Parents could offer to collect and drop-off their kids’ friends who attend the same ballet/football/rugby session.

And why not offer a lift to someone travelling in the same direction as you at the weekend and split expenses?

Frugal driving

If you can avoid leaving home during the rush hour you can greatly reduce your journey time, saving fuel (as you won’t be queuing in stationary traffic) as well as reducing stress levels!

Smooth and gradual acceleration, driving in the correct gear, slowing down early and regularly servicing your car can all save on its wear and tear and improve your fuel economy (you could even try hypermiling).

Tyres that aren’t properly inflated can wear down unevenly, cause you to use more fuel and may even be dangerous, so check them regularly.

And emptying out any unnecessary clutter and removing the roof rack/tow bar when not required will make the vehicle lighter, and improve fuel efficiency.

Maintenance and Insurance

Garages vary widely in labour charges, especially if you maintain your car at a main dealership.

Ask for recommendations from local friends and compare labour costs to your current garage. You may be amazed at how much you can save.

And as always, shop around for car insurance quotes – insurers love to tempt us in with low prices, only to increase them dramatically the next year in the hope we’ll just accept it.

Alternative transport

-->

A few years ago my husband took my car for its annual MOT and was amazed to see it had barely driven 800 miles in the year. Being used only to drive to and from the railway station meant it was clocking up pitifully few miles each week, as we used my husband’s car for most journeys. Not great for the car, or our finances!

So, we worked out that I could walk to an alternative railway station if I simply left a bit earlier and made the decision to sell my car. Not only did I get a bit more exercise, we saved a fair amount of cash by not having a second car to run and insure, too.

If you have a car that is barely used, could you manage without it? Could you walk, cycle or use public transport instead? Could your partner drop you off on the way into work? Or could you arrange to use your partner’s car when he/she works from home? Could you lift-share with a fellow commuter/shopper? Does your office provide a shuttle bus?

Create a spreadsheet listing all of the costs involved in owning your car (insurance, MOT, fuel, running costs) and compare this to alternative modes of transport. Is the saving worth the inconvenience? What could you do with that cash?

Car Clubs

If you only really need a car a few times a year, hiring one when required could be a far cheaper alternative.

But if you need to make a couple of trips in a car each week, could a Car Club be the solution?

Car Clubs offer the opportunity to rent a car for as long as you need it – even on an hourly basis. Depending on how often you need a car this could save you a considerable amount of cash as compared to owning a car.

So there you have it, a number of tips to help you reduce your car costs. Take some time, put in a little effort and you could save yourself some serious cash.

Happy motoring!

The Office of Fair Trading has announced it’s looking into why car insurance premiums go up and up each year. But you don’t have to wait for its report to find out the reasons – we can tell you why right now.

Why is buying a car such a tremendous hassle?! Just click this link and find out more. http://tiny.cc/i42kx

Last week the Office of Fair Trading announced plans to look into the reasons why car insurance premiums are on the up.

The cost of comprehensive policy rose by as much as 40% in the year ending 31 March 2011 and the consumer watchdog says it wants to “establish the full facts, the reasons behind any increase, and whether there are any consumer or competition issues that need to be addressed to improve the functioning of the market.”

And so it should. This is because despite what insurers tell us about the increased cost of claims, the truth is not as straightforward and it doesn’t make insurers look good.

Personal injury claims

Shockingly, the number of bodily injury claims received by insurers rose by 72% between 2002 and 2010 – yet the number of road accidents actually fell.

This is mainly because of a scam cooked up by insurers and no-win-no-fee lawyers. Basically if you have a minor accident and report it to your insurers it will more than likely flog your details to an ambulance-chaser. For this it receives what’s known as a “referral fee”.

The next thing you know a “claims management company” will inundate you with texts and calls trying to convince you that if you’ve had an accident that’s not you fault and been injured you’ll be entitled to compensation.

They’ll often advise you to make a claim for whiplash which is notoriously difficult to prove. If you decide to go ahead the claims management company will hire a solicitor to do the legal work involved with making a claim against the other driver’s insurer. If you win the case the insurance company will have to pay up, paying you compensation and covering both sets of legal fees.

So how does the insurer recoup its losses? By increasing premiums for all its customers, of course.

Industry experts say legal fees add about £4.1billion to insurance costs – or £121 per policy.

Fortunately this month also saw justice secretary Ken Clarke announce a ban on referral fees, something ministers had previously resisted demands for.

Crashing for cash

Another reason why car insurance premiums keep going up is the increase in “crashing for cash”. This normally takes the form of a staged accident whereby two vehicles deliberately knock into each other, or a deliberate action by a motorist to force an innocent driver to crash into them, such as braking suddenly so they are hit from behind.

The cars’ passengers – and there are often several – then claim for injuries they don’t have, especially whiplash. According to the Association of British Insurers, in 2009 over 2,000 dishonest insurance claims worth more than £16million were detected every week.

And shocking statistics from Moneysupermarket back in July show that 1.3million motorists would consider staging a crash or already have done so.

But getting found out can have dire consequences. Once you’ve been convicted of insurance fraud you’ll find it nigh-impossible to get cover in the future and if prosecuted the worst case scenario could see you end up in prison.

Uninsured driving

Honest drivers who fork out for car insurance are also subsidising those who don’t bother buying cover even though a minimum of third party cover is a legal requirement in the UK.

Official figures show the cost of compensating the victims of accidents involving uninsured drivers is £500 million a year, paid for by honest motorists through their insurance premiums.

New Continuous Insurance Enforcement (CIE) rules mean all car owners need to have insurance whether they’re driving their car or not. It is now an offence to keep a vehicle without insurance unless you have notified the DVLA that your vehicle is being kept off the road and have a valid Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN).

Sneaky fees

As well as bumping up premiums to line their own pockets, insurance companies have other ways of costing you money. For example, many insurers are also guilty of hitting drivers with sneaky fees to cover administrative tasks which in reality bear no resemblance to the actual cost incurred.

Take Admiral for instance. Its car insurance business boosted profits by 28% in the first half of 2011. But the insurer charges a raft of sneaky fees including a £17 fee for sending out new documents, £47.50 for cancelling a policy mid-term, £22.50 for cancelling in the 14-day cooling off period and £5.95 for paying by credit card.

Why is buying a car such a tremendous hassle?! Just click this link and find out more. http://tiny.cc/i42kx

http://www.theauctionbook.com/?hop=likeit01