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Caravan insurance money saving tips

Caravan insurance offers valuable protection for any investment you’ve made in a touring caravan or a static caravan kept as your beloved holiday home. The insurance is specifically designed not just to protect the caravan itself but also its contents, your personal belongings within it, and the various liabilities with which you may be faced as its owner.

Here at Cover4Caravans, we’re constantly aware of your need to manage – and, at times, rein in – the costs of your caravanning. For that reason, we’ve already listed 15 ways in which you might save money on those costs.

Now let’s go a step further and examine ways that you might save money on probably the most important of your caravanning overhead costs – the cost of caravan insurance.

Safeguarding your pride and joy

The family caravan – touring or static – is often the pride and joy of its members. It’s a prized possession that gives you many exciting holidays throughout the year and one which deserves the adequate and effective protection of suitable insurance.

Away from the hustle, bustle, and all-around excitement of the long days of summer caravanning, this time of year might be just the time to review how much you are paying for your caravan insurance – and whether there are ways you might be cutting that cost.

At Cover4Caravans, we are – and always have been – firmly committed to providing our customers with suitable and what we consider to be attractive and cost-competitive insurance deals. But there may be still further decisions you can take to keep down the cost of your caravan’s insurance.

Saving money on the cover you need

However highly you rate the importance of your touring or static caravan’s insurance – and quite rightly too – that doesn’t mean you have to overlook opportunities for saving money on its cost.

Whenever you seek any kind of insurance quote or decide to buy a policy, it’s never a question of just going for the cheapest deal on offer. Instead, you look for the cover you actually need – the cover that meets your particular needs and circumstances.

This is just as true when looking for caravan insurance whether your van is continually used for holidays or in storage – bearing in mind that your needs and circumstances may change from one year to the next.

Nine times out of ten, therefore, you’ll be looking for cover that represents good value for money and includes features and benefits you need, rather than just an apparently bargain basement deal or an offer that looks too good to be true – which it just might be.

Shopping around

Shopping around for that good value for money can prove a daunting task these days. So many insurance providers offer such a wide range of products and different policy terms, conditions, and benefits.

Advice might be given by friends, relatives, or fellow caravanners. What is likely to count more than any other, though, is expert, professional advice about securing insurance cover that represents good value for money.

Using a specialist insurance broker

However familiar you might be with all the ins and outs of the insurance market, it can prove a complicated and quite involved matter to decide the insurance cover you need for your particular make, model, and age of towing or static caravan and the use to which it is put.

To complicate things still further, a host of different insurance providers are all desperately competing for your business and offering a broad range of products to do so.

An experienced insurance broker – such as ourselves here at Cover4Caravans – may be in the best position to make the closest match between your particular, individual needs and the products available in this niche of the insurance market.

With expertise and experience gained over a number of years, we not only recognise your particular, individual requirements but also have the industry-wide connections to present to you the particular insurance policies matching your requirements – at a competitive market price.

Additional money-saving tips

We’ll help you with all the money-saving tips we’ve discussed so far – but there are still more ways you can save on the cost of your touring or static caravan insurance premiums:

Club membership

  • your membership of a caravan club, for example, helps to show that you are a responsible caravan owner, sharing the ideals of your fellow caravanners;
  • these are characteristics recognised and valued by some insurance providers – including ourselves – who can offer discounts to customers who are also members of a recognised caravanning club, such as the Caravan Club or the Camping and Caravanning Club;

Security and safe storage for your caravans

  • insurance is about the management of risk – in the case of your caravan, the risk of  loss, theft, or damage to the trailer and its contents or the risk of any liabilities you incur as the owner;
  • the more you are able to mitigate those risks, the fewer are there for the insurer to cover, and so the insurance premiums may be charged at a lower rate;
  • security measures and devices include locks on the doors and windows together with immobilising features such as hitchlocks and wheel clamps (which may be required by your insurer in any case) and motion-detecting intruder alarms to reduce any chances of theft;
  • some security measures may be for your own personal safety, too – fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are just two such devices that spring immediately to mind;
  • the winter time, or other periods when it is not in regular use, your touring caravan may become especially vulnerable to risks of loss or damage, particularly from theft and vandalism – if your caravan is left for long periods of time in the driveway of your home or even left some way away, in the corner of a farmer’s field, for instance;
  • given these vulnerabilities, some insurance providers – including us here at Cover4Caravans – offer attractive discounts on your premiums if you choose to store your trailer at a site registered by the Caravan Storage Site Owners Association (CaSSOA):
  • CaSSOA storage sites all meet established standards of security for the safe storage of touring caravans out of season and the sites are graded according to the particular level of security maintained;
  • an alternative register – and one offered free of charge to Caravan and Motorhome Club members – for helping in tracing your trailer if it is stolen or for checking the status of one you are planning to buy is TheftCheck;

Review the cover levels for both your caravan and its contents

  • underinsurance of your caravan and its contents are relatively common errors that you might live to regret;
  • underinsurance results from underestimating the value of your ‘van and its contents so that, in the event of any loss, the insurance settlement remains insufficient for the repairs or replacements necessary.

By taking on board some of these tips and suggestions you may be able to secure suitable protection for the pride and joy of your family’s holiday life, whilst enjoying the benefits of money saved on the cost of insurance.

A further note on saving money on your static caravan insurance

Your search for a comfortable yet affordable holiday home might have led you to one of the most popular solutions, a static caravan. This is a home that can be moved, of course, but rarely leaves its designated pitch on a purpose-designed holiday park or resort. So, a static caravan is generally a more apt description than, say, a mobile home.

The annual rent you pay to the park owners for keeping your static caravan on its chosen pitch is likely to be a major source of expenditure. But there are other ongoing running costs and chief among these is static caravan insurance for your holiday home.

In addition to the many money-saving measures you might take for caravan insurance in general, there are a few steps that might be especially relevant to your static caravan:

  • a case in point is public liability insurance, for instance, designed to indemnify you against claims from members of the public who are injured or have their property damaged in some way connected with your static caravan;
  • the owners or management of the park on which your static caravan is berthed are almost certain to offer to arrange insurance for your trailer – in most cases, you are not obliged to take their cover but may find more comprehensive protection at a more competitive price, by shopping around;
  • you might still need to satisfy the park owners that you have adequate public liability insurance cover;
  • if you intend to earn extra cash by letting out your holiday home from time to time, remember that your insurers will regard this as a “material fact” relating to your insurance contract – therefore, you must declare any such use to your insurers;
  • if you want to save money on your caravan insurance premiums, it is worth demonstrating to any insurer that you are taking every reasonable precaution to ensure the security and safety of your holiday home – even when it is unoccupied – and have invested in mitigating against any loss or damage;
  • this extends to some of the more obvious measures such as the locks used for securing doors and windows and the installation of smoke detectors and fire alarms;
  • but it might also extend to the levels of security maintained at your chosen holiday park during the closed season or when your holiday home is left unoccupied – when 24-hour monitoring and onsite patrols by the site’s management may be taken into account by your insurance provider;
  • remember, too, that if you intend to let your holiday home for any period, you also assume the responsibility for tenants’ safety – with respect to gas appliances, the risk of fire, and any danger from carbon monoxide fumes;

In summary, whether you own a static caravan or a touring caravan, securing good value caravan insurance as well as saving money on your insurance premiums, therefore, might be a combination of drawing on the expertise of an established broker regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) such as ourselves here at Cover4Caravans – as well as using the tips suggested above.

Finally, remember that if you have questions or concerns about your caravan insurance; you need a reminder of your policy features, benefits or excess; or you would rather get a quote from a person rather than getting an online caravan insurance quote, then please do ‘phone us on 01702 606301. We’d love to hear from you and would be delighted to help.