"I can't afford the deposit, let alone the premium!"

If the sight of the amount of your premium renewal made your eyes water and your heart skip a beat, you are not alone. Premiums across the board increased roughly 9 percent between 2009 and 2010, and jumped a drastic 40 percent between 2010 and 2011. How long is this going to continue, you wonder. Unfortunately, the trend does not seem to have an end.

Even though elderly drivers may have accumulated years’ worth of no claims discounts, many are still struggling. Similarly, teenage drivers naturally have high premiums because they are considered to be a high risk to insurance companies; many of these young individuals are, in general, reckless and do not have nearly as many years of driving experience as adults. In fact, when people of all ages are caught driving without insurance, the main reason they claim that they did not purchase a policy was because they could not afford it and attempt to blame insurance companies instead.

However, it is never a good idea to drive without car insurance, ever. The risk of being caught is high as regulations are in place that require each owner to have insurance or make a SORN instead. Additionally, police are catching more uninsured drivers than ever before; through the use of camera monitoring, they are able to record the number plates and match it to the motor insurance database to see which vehicles have cover and which are without. Oftentimes, if the camera captures a car without insurance, the police will notify an officer in the area who will track down the car and remove it from the driver’s possession. The driver then faces an insurmountable number of costs to gain the car back, never mind the money that will have to be paid in fines and other costs.

You know that you cannot give up driving completely; you live outside the city and cannot walk or ride a bicycle to work. Is there anything you can do? You can use car insurance comparison websites to search for the best policies that fit your cover needs and budget, but you may find that paying traditional policies, no matter how inexpensive, still does not work for you. Instead, you can purchase a “zero-deposit” monthly insurance policy that allows you to pay your premium in 12 equal sums instead of one lump amount every year. Fantastic, right?

There is a small catch, however. In order for a policy to be valid in the UK, there has to be some sort of consideration between the insurance company and the driver; in other words, both sides have to have an equal advantage within the contract. By charging a small sum of money up-front, the insurance company has its advantage and you have yours – the ability to pay for your insurance every month! In fact, you can pay this deposit by credit card so you are not paying anything immediately. The insurance company must protect itself against drivers who purchase this policy, pay one instalment and then cancel it the next month. For this reason, they have strict penalties for backing out of the contract, so make sure you intend to make every payment before entering into an agreement.

Copyright Sandra Brierman and carinsurancewithoutdeposit 2011