Which insurance company is the cheapest?

We have carried out price comparisons for hundreds of different motorists, with different ages, postcodes, cars etc. and we have discovered the following:

• There is no single insurer which is the cheapest overall.
• The cheapest insurers varied from month to month.
• Different price comparison sites often gave different quotes for identical policies.
• There is a world of difference between the cheapest insurer for those paying their annual premium upfront, and those who prefer to pay monthly.
• Different companies save their lowest quotes for different types of motorist. For example, Some are cheaper for young drivers, some for more experienced ones.
• How much driving experience a motorist has had has a huge impact on the cost of cover.
• The best bargains go to those who who either pay in advance, or pay a larger deposit.

We found that for young drivers with two years' driving experience companies like MoreThan and Admiral scored well. However they required quite large deposits upfront.

For drivers over 50 there was much more choice with Saga offering not only lower quotes in many cases, but very small deposits too.

So our conclusions are:

• On average, the higher the deposit you put down, the less you will have to pay.
• Motorists who are young, or those lacking experience, will find it very difficult to pay less than 20% of the total premium upfront.
• The same insurer rarely offered the lowest annual quotes as well as the lowest monthly quotes.
• Over 50s were offered not only lower premiums, but also lower deposits, too.
• Your chances of being offered low deposits increase with age, experience and a clean driving record.
• Bad credit can reduce your chances of being offered a monthly paid policy, or can increase the interest rate charged.
• To find the lowest quotes, comparing them on several different sites makes this more likely.