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Multi-car insurance
A multi-vehicle car insurance policy lets you insure all your cars together and could save you hundreds per year in the process.
It's quite common for one household to have multiple vehicles, so why not insure them all together and reduce your premiums and your paperwork?
Some insurers will give you up to 15% off if you insure your cars together and will even offer additional discounts on their other products like home insurance.
How does multi-car insurance work?
Multi-vehicle car insurance refers to insuring more than one vehicle under the same policy and merging the payments. This comes with two major benefits:
- You may get a discount
- It reduces the paperwork
In most cases, you can customise each car's cover, meaning that you can get stronger cover for your new Mercedes and something a little more basic for your kid's beater.
Who can get multi-car insurance?
You're eligible for multi-car insurance as long as you are listed as a driver for each of the cars you're insuring. So if you are insuring both your car and your wife's car, you'll need to list yourself as a secondary driver of her vehicle as well as the primary driver of your own.
In many cases, you can help your child save some money on their insurance even if they don't live with you. Just make sure you list yourself as a secondary driver on their vehicle and not the primary driver, because that would be illegal.
A multi-car policy is perfect for:
- Individuals who have more than one vehicle, like a 4-wheel drive for recreation and a sedan for everyday commuting.
- Families who have more than one vehicle, such as a minivan to lug the kids around and a hatchback for trips around town.
- Couples where each partner owns their own vehicle.
- Empty nesters who want to help their children save on insurance.
Is it a good idea to insure your child's car?
As the example above illustrates, there's no drawback to insuring your child's car under a multi-car policy if you would have insured the car anyway. However, there are some cases where you can save some money by leaving your child's car parked and not insuring it.
If your daughter is a learner and she has her own car, the cost to insure it will be sky high. And if she's the one who will be driving it the most, it would be illegal to list yourself as the main driver.
Luckily the insurance you have on your car will most likely cover learner drivers automatically and without the need to list them on your policy. That means letting your daughter drive your car won't raise your rates (although you may owe a bit extra in excess if she crashes).
In this case, you're better off leaving her car parked and waiting until she's off her L-plates to add her car to your policy.
Once she's off her L-plates, you'll have to list her as a secondary driver for your car or add her car to the policy and make her the main driver. The second option will probably cost more, so you'll have to weigh that against her need for independence.
Are there any other discounts available?
You might be able to bring your costs even lower by stacking other discounts on top of your multi-car discount. Here are some other ways to save:
- No-claims bonus. Some insurers will give you a driver rating that improves every year that you don't make a claim. As your rating increases, so do your discounts. However, once you do make certain claims, your rating will go back down and your discounts will too.
- Multi-policy discounts. Some insurers will offer you a discount if you take out a different type of insurance alongside your car insurance. This can include home insurance, life insurance, travel insurance or health insurance.
- Loyalty discounts. Some insurers will apply discounts if you've been with them for a long time. For example, NRMA will give you a 5% discount if you've had the same policy with them for at least three years. It increases the longer you stay and the more products you have with them.
- Safety discounts. Safe driving means less risk for the insurer, and many insurers will reward you for that. You might be able to score discounts for parking in a garage, installing a car alarm and even taking driver safety courses.
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