Whether you're about to renew your health insurance of your car insurance here are some top tips to help you cut costs, without impacting your level of cover. If you want further information and comprehensive insurance cover, visit Santander online for more details.

Monthly vs. Annual payment

Although a small selection of companies does not distinguish in terms of price between paying monthly and paying annually, most will. Because it is less convenient for insurers to get your payment on a monthly basis rather than in one payment every year, they will factor in some interest to the monthly payments. Therefore you can save anything from a couple of percent right up to around 10% purely by paying on an annual basis.

Voluntarily increase your excess

The ‘excess' is the amount you pay towards every claim. Insurers will stipulate you must pay a certain amount, usually a flat fee of £150 or so. However, you can voluntarily choose to increase this excess to say £500. Why would you do this? If you choose to share some or the risk and cost with your insurer for each individual claim, it will offer you a lower policy rate. So long as you don't claim too often this is a great way to cut costs quite significantly.

Buy online

Nine times out of ten it is cheaper to buy things online and this is true of insurance too. Because insurer incur lower overhead costs from online purchases because they don't need to spend money on call centres and wages for call centre operatives, they can pass at least some of these savings on to you. You might only save 5% but you could save up to 30% depending on the insurer and type of insurance. Try the wide range of Santander insurance policies that are easy to research online.

Reduce your risk

Insurance premiums are based on the level of risk you pose to your insurer. For example, older people pay more life insurance because they are more likely to contract a disease, become ill or die. Likewise, young, male drivers will pay the highest insurance premiums because, according to statistics, they are more likely to have an accident. Some risk factors you cannot control, such as your age and where you live, but others you can.

For example, by joining your local neighbourhood watch and installing a NACOSS approved burglar alarm you can chop up to 10% off your home insurance premium. If you keep your car in a garage and have an immobilise and steering wheel lock you can shave Pounds of your car insurance and if you join the gym and quite smoking you will see the price of your health insurance come down.

Reducing the likelihood of a claim is the best way to save you money and cut the cost of your insurance.