How to save with multi car insurance

What is multi car insurance?

Many insurers will cover up to 5 or even 10 cars, provided they are registered at the same address or belong to immediate family.

Multi car works by offering a discount, for example 10%, for every car that is added to the policy. Insurers do this to attract business and stop drivers signing up to other companies.

They are often a good option for:

• Couples living together with a car each

• Families with multiple cars at the same property

• Friends living in a house share

• Drivers with more than one car, e.g. a classic car and an everyday car

Is multi car insurance cheaper?

For example:

• Jim and Bob get quotes for two standalone annual policies with insurer A. Jim gets a quote for £400 and Bob gets a quote for £550, a combined cost of £950.

• They then get a quote for a multi car policy with the same insurer to cover them both for £850, a saving of £100.

• If they shop around they might find a sole policy with insurer B for Jim for £300 and another sole policy with insurer C for Bob for £450. At a total cost of £750, this is £100 cheaper than the multi car policy.

Compare multi car policies and get quotes for sole policies to see which works out cheapest overall.

Compare multi car insurance

Compare car insurance

What affects the cost?

Your multi car quote will be influenced by the same factors as other car insurance policies, including your:

• Car type

• Location

• Age

• Job

• Driving experience

Find out what else affects your car insurance premiums here.

Multi car insurance has to cover everyone named on the policy, so a high risk driver (for example aged between 17 and 21 or with driving convictions) would push up the overall cost of the policy.

If this is the case, it may be cheaper for them to look for a separate specialist policy.

Who can share a multi car policy?

Most policies will only cover cars registered at the same address, although some allow you to cover immediate family that live elsewhere.

Before you share a policy with someone else, ask yourself:

• Are they a safe driver or are they likely to need to claim?

• Do you trust them to pay their share of the policy?

• Will you split the cost evenly between all drivers?

Although multi car policies are usually taken out by families, it is still important to think about how you will share the responsibility and costs, and to make sure you can trust the other drivers.

When is the renewal date?

If you want to add several cars to a multi car policy it can be tricky if they all have different renewal dates.

Some insurers will align the renewal dates by starting the policy once the last car added is up for renewal.

Many insurers allow you to keep separate renewal dates for each car, which makes it easier to spread the cost. In this case each car has its own policy and the discount is added to each car that joins.

How do you make a claim?

The process for making a claim is no different to claiming on a sole insurance policy. Each person is responsible for making a claim for damage to their own vehicle, not the policy administrator.

Read our making a car insurance claim guide for step by step instructions.

How do you make a car insurance claim?

Will a multi car policy affect your no claims bonus?

A multi car policy may put your no claims discount at risk if another driver claims. For most policies only the no claims bonus of the driver that makes the claim will be affected, but check the terms carefully before you apply.

Adding and removing cars

You can usually add up to 5 cars to a multi car policy, with some insurers covering up to 10 vehicles. There should be no charge for adding additional cars, however the total amount you have to pay will go up.

If you wish to remove a vehicle from your policy you can do so, but you will be charged an amendment fee of around £30 and your premium will be adjusted accordingly.