1. Cover choices - Well you have to have insurance, that’s a fact, but there are choices as to what level of cover you go for. The most expensive is ‘Comprehensive’, which will cover most eventualities. The next level down is ‘Third party, fire and theft’, which covers damage to others, fire and theft to your car but not accident damage. Lastly, there’s ‘Third party’, which is the legal minimum, and is a basic option.

2. The right home - A big factor on the size of your quote is where you live, which of course you can’t do anything about other than move to somewhere deemed ‘safer’ such as the depths of the countryside. What you can do, though, is keep you car on a driveway if possible and even better lock it in a garage during the night. Both these can get you slight discounts.

3. Shop around - There are so many places selling car insurance that it really is worth shopping around as you will be surprised at how much prices vary.

4. Secure your car - While steering locks and other forms of security will give you peace of mind they won’t make any difference to your insurance company unfortunately. For them only the highest level of security (Thatcham Category 1) will make a difference, and it’ll cost you to install so might not be worth it anyway.

5. Who’s driving - Basically the more drivers you want to be able to drive the car the more it will cost you. So, the cheapest option is to have just one driver nominated, but of course this isn’t necessarily practical so try to leave it at two people. Many insurers will allow you to add further drivers for agreed periods if required.

6. Choose the right car - This is where you have a major input as all cars have an insurance rating on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being the highest, and most expensive, end. There’s no further explanation needed here except to check your chosen car’s rating based on the model and engine size.

7. Paying the excess - Unfortunately it’s highly likely that your insurance company won’t pay out the full amount. You will be expected to pay what’s known as an excess. The amount of the excess will have been agreed when you signed up to the policy and can be as little as £50, but up to hundreds. You can increase the amount of excess you want to pay, which will reduce your premium, but make sure it’s an amount you are able to pay should the worst happen.

8. Protect your no-claims discount - Having a no-claims discount can be important to the cost of your premium which is why, for a small charge, you can pay to protect it. This way you can make a claim but still keep your no-claims discount.

9. Introductory discounts - Drivers over 23 can find introductory discounts, but there are usually stipulations related to this which need to be met. It’s worth looking around, though, as any money saved as got to be worth it.

10. Get it free - It’s natural to get a bit suspicious when the word ‘free’ is used, but when you buy a new car it isn’t unheard of to get free insurance thrown in. You’d have to decide if buying a new car is worth the expense, but if that was the avenue you were going down anyway you might as well get some freebies.

If you are thinking about buying a new towcar check out our advice first.