Adding an immobiliser, alarm or tracker will not necessarily reduce your car insurance

It is a known fact that installing security devices like an immobiliser, a car alarm system or a tracker device will bring your car insurance quote down but that’s not necessary true. I wanted to know how much I could save on my car insurance premiums if I had one or more of these security devices however this information was not readily available on the Internet. I thought somewhere on a blog or forum I would be able to see what difference it really makes to your premiums but unfortunately I had to do my own research.

The experiment

So I went to a car comparison website to check for the lowest quotes for 2 cars; a Nissan Micra and a BMW X5. It seems that having an immobiliser and an alarm counts as one because many cars come with a combined alarm and immobiliser. The strange thing is that only a handful of insurers will give you a 5% discount for having these systems in your car. For the rest, the quotes have gone up. One important thing to note is that you need to have an alarm or immobiliser which is certified by Thatcham and installed by a professional to get the discount. Brands not approved by Thatcham will not attract any benefits insurance-wise.

For the tracker device, I’ve chosen 3 different types. They are Cobra Trak Q, Tracker Retrieve and NavTrak ADR 5 which are Thatcham Category 5, 6 and 7 respectively. For the Nissan Micra, the quotes increased by 20% and for the BMW X5, they increased by 10%. This is very odd because the tracker device is a way to track down a vehicle if it gets stolen and therefore would aid recovery so that insurers do not have to dig into their own pool of money to get your another car but having the tracker does not seem to be very well appreciated by car insurance companies.

Cars manufactured within the last 10 years are already fitted with an immobiliser/alarm system but for older cars you would need to get a Thatcham Category 1 or Category 2 system installed to reap the benefits on your premiums. The reason I believe why the quotes went up for having a new alarm/immobiliser is because it is regarded as a modification to your car and changes to the original workmanship are not welcomed by insurers as it would be more difficult for them to repair if any damage is done.

I chose the BMW X5 as the second car as it was the top stolen car in the UK and I thought insurers will love the idea that it had a tracker system installed so that it could be recovered quicker and easier but that was not the case. They took it as an unnecessary modification to the car and increased the premiums accordingly. The only way to bring down the car insurance quote was to get a tracker from the insurance company itself and there are only a few which do that. However their systems are mostly to do with monitoring the driving habits of the driver than the ease of getting it back if it gets stolen.

The verdict

Therefore, before you think of installing any one of these security devices like immobiliser, alarm or tracker, you should try to get quotes first without these devices available in your car and then with them installed to see whether you will make any savings. It might be worth talking to them on the phone and telling them exactly what you’re thinking of adding to your car to make it more secure and see whether they’re willing to give you a discount. This way, you will only spend your money if it’s worth it.