How to Compare Touring Caravan Insurance

So, another season's over and the caravan is sitting somewhere cold and lonely while you wait for the arrival of the spring. This is typically the time of year when some owners start to think about their caravan insurance and how they may be able to compare touring caravan insurance.

Here are a few tips that you may find useful.

· Don't put it off. It's too easy to let it drift from one day to another and then you'll be in spring again and too busy to bother.

You may be able to save money or improve your cover (possibly both) by conducting a structured caravan insurance comparison.

· Look at the contents cover. If you're trying to compare touring caravan insurance, looking at what policies offer on contents replacement may be useful.

Some policies may offer new-for-old replacement whereas others may only provide market value replacement.

· Discounts. Some insurers offer a range of discounts for things such as the use of additional security features (some many, in fact, even be mandatory), membership of an owners' club, reduced annual mileage estimates, not parking your caravan on the public road and so on.

Any individual item is unlikely to save you huge amounts of money but some providers may be more generous than others and taken together, those savings may mount up.

· Use mileage estimates - UK and overseas. Not all insurers operate on the same mileage break points and some may see overseas trips differently again.

Trying different scenarios here may illustrate some interesting differences between policy providers. So, try getting a quote for varying mileage estimates and days overseas and you may be surprised at the results.

· Compare those exclusions and terms. One thing you can be sure will generally be different between insurers is their terms and conditions.

Sometimes these may materially affect your policy and the probability of a successful outcome to any claim you may make.

For example, some policies may not cover external fittings to your caravan such as awnings and satellite dishes. Other policies may do although they may have conditions relating to needing to stow the awning when you're away from the caravan.

Reading and noting these is an important aspect of trying to compare touring caravan insurance.

· Price. Of course, it wouldn't be appropriate to ignore the question of cost but it might be worth keeping it in perspective. Your touring caravan is likely to be a fairly big chunk of your financial capital and putting it at risk by buying insurance simply because it's the cheapest, might not be a particularly great idea.

Looking at some of these areas might make the job of trying to compare touring caravan insurance just that little bit easier.

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Explaining Term Caravan Insurance

Term caravan insurance is an expression sometimes used within the insurance industry to mean the period of cover.

Jargon

All industries and professions tend to have their own specialised language (sometimes referred to as 'jargon'!) and insurance is no exception.

Broadly speaking, the term of the policy is simply the period of cover. So, for example, if you have an annual policy then it will have a term, typically, of 12 months.

So term caravan insurance simply means a policy that is valid for a specified period.

Other dates

The insurers exact practices may vary a little between companies but typically a policy or supporting documentation may contain a number of dates and specific times that you may need to pay attention to:

a quotation 'valid until' date - if you have quotation these may sometimes be only valid for a specified period of time and the date of expiry may be mentioned explicitly; commencement of cover - usually a date and sometimes an exact time, at which your caravan will be under cover; expiry date - the date and perhaps time at which your cover will cease to be effective unless you have taken steps to renew it; renewal notification date - sometimes used to indicate the date in the future at which time the insurance provider will notify you that a renewal is required (not commonly used in caravan insurance but you may see it); instalment dates - some policies that are paid in instalments may list the exact dates by which a payment is due.

Cover and dates

Insurance companies typically take very seriously the period of cover and the dates involved.

For example, if your cover is due to commence at 08:00H on a given date, then deciding to collect the vehicle the day before would leave you uninsured until 08:00H the following day unless you notified the insurers in advance and changed the date/time.

So, it's advisable not to get caught out on dates and times when thinking about your caravan and term caravan insurance.

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Thinking About the Cheapest Static Caravan Insurance

Sometimes one comes across caravan owners that are a little bit relaxed and perhaps even complacent about the cheapest static caravan insurance.

If that's because they're happy with their policy, then fine. However, sometimes you may hear views expressed along the lines of:

· I don't need any, let alone the cheapest static caravan insurance, because my caravan is off the road; · I took out the minimum cover possible to save money; · my static caravan is parked in a private field so I don't need insurance; · my caravan is a park home in a secure location so insurance isn't necessary; · the site owner's insurance is mandatory so I can't look for the cheapest static caravan insurance anyway; · etc.

All of these views, and others like them, perhaps fail to take into account two important factors:

· bad things can happen to your caravan anywhere and at any time; · ultimately, your caravan is your asset and it may make a lot of sense to ensure that you personally are comfortable that it is fully covered by caravan insurance that meets your specifications - if not it will be you that ends up paying for it!

It may be worth looking at some of the above points individually.

Caravans that are off the road

If your caravan is stored away out-of-season or is simply out of service pending work, one thing won't change. It may still be vulnerable to certain types of natural disaster and sheer bad luck.

Storms and floods (etc) are not going to ignore your caravan simply because it's not currently being used.

Saving money

Always worth thinking about but ultimately, the quality of your cover may prove to be far more important than saving a few pounds on an annual premium.

Discovering this the hard way in the event of a claim, might not be much fun. It's also worth keeping in mind that what's cheap caravan insurance to someone else, may not end up being cheap for you. It all depends on your circumstances and policy expectations.

Private locations

This is really covered, in terms of caravan insurance, by the discussion about being off-road. In addition, burglars aren't put off by the fact that your caravan is in a private field as opposed to a site - in fact, the additional isolation and tranquillity may attract them.

Park home caravans and sites

Once again, no site, however secure, can guarantee the security of your asset. That storm won't be put off any more by the fact it is a formal site than it would have been had the caravan been on your drive.

Also, park homes as permanent residences may have a higher level and cost of fittings and contents.

Site owner's insurance

Site owners should not insist that you take their insurance - this type of practice was commonplace in the mortgage markets until the FSA stopped it.

They may have a right to insist that you are insured and even to make an admin charge if you use your own insurance.

However, the cost savings you achieve by using your own cover, even if it's not the cheapest static caravan insurance, may in some cases more than cover their charge.

It's also worth thinking, who do you want to decide what caravan cover is suitable for you - you or the site owners?

Thinking broadly

The issues surrounding the cheapest static caravan insurance aren't a matter to be dismissed too lightly, so if you have any doubts, always seek professional help and advice from a reputable caravan insurance broker.

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Want Cheap Touring Caravan Insurance?

Let us start by keeping in mind that cheap touring caravan insurance might be tricky to find - if for no other reason that what someone else finds suitable and cheap may not strike you as being similarly so.

However, trying to keep your costs down is understandable, so here are a few things you may wish to think about.

you may be able to keep your costs down if you do not try to insure young or inexperienced drivers on the towing vehicle; although tourers are, by definition, mobile, you may be able to obtain lower prices if you commit to only using formal approved parking sites; insurers may regard continental touring to be of higher risk than UK. Therefore, you may be able to keep your premiums lower if you reduce the number of days you plan to use your vehicle outside of the country; insurers typically like to see indications of maturity and responsibility and some consider membership of a caravan or owners club to be such an indication - you may get some discounts as a result; they may also welcome signs that you are taking life seriously by fitting alarms and additional security devices - things that may result again in discounts (in passing - note that for tourers the use of hitchlocks and wheel clamps may be obligatory); you may get closer to your goal of cheap touring caravan insurance if you avoid parking your caravan on the public road when it is not in use. That is because yet again, the insurers may offer you a more attractive price for reducing the risks of accidents in passing etc; the further you drive your tourer, statistically the more likely you are to have an accident. Therefore, if you reduce the amount of annual mileage you plan to do, this may again result in insurance price reductions for you; if you store your caravan over winter, then once again, using a secure storage service (or garaging your caravan) may also be lower cost in insurance terms than if you just leave it on your driveway or, worse, the public road.

These are all ways you may be able to keep your insurance bills a little lower and make progress towards that cheap touring caravan insurance concept!

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