A LAWYER has revealed a 29p trick that could save you £1,000 when you stop in a car park.
Daniel ShenSmith, known online as the BlackBelt Barrister, took to his YouTube channel to share the handy hack with his viewers.
He explained how drivers can access parking insurance to protect their vehicles while staying in private car parks.
The policy ranges from just 29p per hour and insures your motor against damage incurred during its stay in the bay.
Daniel said: “That seems like rather a bargain to me.
“I came across this for the first time recently so either I’ve been living in the dark ages or it’s come about relatively recently.
“What they cover is up to 100% of the excess on your insurance.”
CAR insurance is an essential cost that you hope to never use but will need to cover the costs of theft or damage to your vehicle.
It’s a legal requirement to have car insurance, and going without it could land you with a £300 fine, six penalty points on your licence and even a criminal conviction.
But there are several ways to slash your premiums.
Pay upfront
Insurers give you the choice of paying for insurance monthly or upfront.
Paying monthly spreads the cost of your cover but the insurer adds interest charges which means the average motorist pays around ten per cent more overall.
If you pay for your car insurance annually you don’t pay any interest.
A typical motorist can save up to £225 a year by paying in one go, according to comparison site MoneySuperMarket.
Increase your excess
The excess is what you agree to pay each time you need to make a claim on your policy.
You can usually choose your own excess when setting up a policy and it can be as low as £100 and as high as £500 or more.
The higher your excess, the lower your premium and vice versa.
This means you could bring the cost of your insurance down by agreeing to pay more if you do need to make a claim.
But before you hike your excess, make sure you would be able to pay in the event that you do need to make a claim.
Tweak your job
Certain jobs are seen as more risky than others for insurance purposes.
Making small but accurate changes to your job title can save you money.
For example, swapping your role from “chef” to “caterer” can save you £20, comparison site GoCompare found.
And changing your role from “fast food delivery driver” to “delivery driver” could save you £40.
But lying about your job could invalidate your policy so make sure any changes are legitimate and accurate.
Shop around
Not all comparison sites have the same range of insurers so to get the best price it’s a good idea to check two or three from Go Compare, Comparethemarket, MoneySupermarket and Confused.com.
Insurer Direct Line is also not on comparison sites so check its prices directly.
You can also get a free cash bonus by going via a cashback site such as Topcashback or Quidco.
Save the date
Renewing your car insurance sooner rather than later could save you some cash.
New cover becomes more expensive the closer you get to the renewal date.
But you can buy your car insurance up to 29 days before the policy start date and ‘lock in’ the price you’re quoted on that day.
A typical driver can save up to £265 buying new cover at least 27 days before their current policy ends, according to Go Compare.
As many Brits will know, an excess is a voluntary payment applied to a policy in the event of a claim.
So, for example, if you sign up for a £300 excess, you would pay the first £300 of any costs even if your insurance claim was successful, with your provider covering any amounts above that.
This can be an advantage to drivers as a higher excess can mean a lower monthly or annual payment – but if you get in a smash it could be a costly one even if it wasn’t your fault.
What the parking insurance does is take out a temporary secondary policy for the duration of your stay covering your excess payment.
This means that if, say, someone were to hit your vehicle while it was parked up and you made a claim, the car park operator would provide up to the full value of your excess payment so you don’t have to pay a thing.
However, there are, as you might expect, some terms and conditions.
First of all, the insurance only protects your excess in the event of a successful claim with your primary insurer.
If your claim fails, then you can expect to pay the full costs as normal.
You also need to check whether your primary insurer actually covers accidental damage in a car park under your existing policy otherwise it’s a “waste of time”.
Secondly, the payout is limited to £1,000 so if your excess is higher than that it won’t cover all of it – though such a high excess is relatively rare.
Finally, the scheme that Daniel was demonstrating was only available through parking operator JustPark.
The firm owns more than 100,000 bays across 45,000 locations in the UK so there are plenty of them about but make sure to check who is operating the car park you are in and whether they offer this insurance.
It comes after Daniel revealed exclusively to SunMotors how simply checking the time while driving could land you a hefty fine.
