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How to save money - ECO tips

None of us can hide from the fact that driving contributes to global warning. Your Cover believes that while few of us would currently be in a position to surrender our cars for environmental reasons, most drivers would like to reduce the impact their driving has on the environment if it were practical to do so.

With Your Cover you can reduce your insurance costs by only selecting the levels of cover your lifestyle and circumstances require. We model ourselves around being flexible to suit the needs of our customers and in a similar way, you can be equally as flexible when it comes to adapting your driving habits in order to reduce your impact on the environment. The great thing is that in most instances, these changes require the minimum of fuss. What’s more, what’s good for the environment turns out frequently to be good for your pocket, too.

It is estimated that many drivers could reduce their fuel consumption, and so their fuel cost, by as much as 25%, simply by making small modifications to their driving.

Setting up your car	Like all machines, a car costs most to run, and causes the greatest pollution, when it’s not running at its most efficient. Have your car serviced every year, and ask the garage to ensure that the engine is properly tuned, the catalytic converter is checked over, and the wheel alignment is correct Remember that your tyres have a huge impact on the fuel you use and therefore on how much you spend. Tyres that are not properly inflated require more work to turn on the road surface and turn more energy to heat. Alarmingly, if your tyres are inflated to 7psi below their correct pressure, you will waste around 2 litres of fuel in every tank Everything you carry in or on your car requires fuel to move it. That means that if you keep your boot or cargo area filled with sports equipment, tools or anything else you don’t use, simply by being there they cause environmental damage and waste money every time you go out. The same goes for roof boxes and trailers. Driving around with additional weight wastes your money and causes more atmospheric pollution by requiring extra fuel. If you include the Roof box & trailer insurance option in Your Cover, they’ll be safely insured, even when they’re at home in your garage or shed

Setting up your car

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Like all machines, a car costs most to run, and causes the greatest pollution, when it’s not running at its most efficient. Have your car serviced every year, and ask the garage to ensure that the engine is properly tuned, the catalytic converter is checked over, and the wheel alignment is correct
Remember that your tyres have a huge impact on the fuel you use and therefore on how much you spend. Tyres that are not properly inflated require more work to turn on the road surface and turn more energy to heat. Alarmingly, if your tyres are inflated to 7psi below their correct pressure, you will waste around 2 litres of fuel in every tank
Everything you carry in or on your car requires fuel to move it. That means that if you keep your boot or cargo area filled with sports equipment, tools or anything else you don’t use, simply by being there they cause environmental damage and waste money every time you go out. The same goes for roof boxes and trailers. Driving around with additional weight wastes your money and causes more atmospheric pollution by requiring extra fuel. If you include the Roof box & trailer insurance option in Your Cover, they’ll be safely insured, even when they’re at home in your garage or shed

Thinking abut your trip	Short journeys that start and stop your engine can more than double your fuel consumption, yet over 60% of all car trips are under 2 miles. Convenient though it is to leap in the car, the environment, your pocket and, perhaps most importantly, your health, will all benefit if you walk when it’s practical. It makes no sense at all to waste money, damage the environment and deprive yourself of the chance to improve your fitness, simply to save the extra five minutes it might take to walk to the local shop Go out once and get everything done in one go. It’s better for your car and burns less fuel if you cover off three or four errands in one trip rather than going out on three or four separate occasions simply because you didn’t plan in advance. It saves you time, too, which is another economy always worth making If you’re retired, or work from home, or don’t have children at school, try to avoid driving in rush hour. Sitting in traffic causes huge amounts of atmospheric pollution and eats up your fuel. Get in the habit of listening to local radio, or checking local traffic websites, for news of roadworks or other unexpected blocks which will have you sitting still, wasting money and getting angry Plan your journey. And use a sat nav. It is estimated that we waste 350,000 tonnes of fuel every year simply by getting lost. (If you have a removable sat nav, provided you leave it locked away and out of site, you can protect it by adding the Car contents insurance option as part of the Your Cover policy.) Think seriously about car sharing. We all like our own space, but it makes little sense for 2 people who live a few doors apart to individually drive 5 miles to the same station every morning, or for 2 neighbours to go separately to the supermarket. Car sharing is sociable and encourages a sense of community, as well as saving fuel. (If you do decide to take a colleague or neighbour in your car regularly, you might wish to consider including the Personal accident option in Your Cover.)

Thinking abut your trip

Short journeys that start and stop your engine can more than double your fuel consumption, yet over 60% of all car trips are under 2 miles. Convenient though it is to leap in the car, the environment, your pocket and, perhaps most importantly, your health, will all benefit if you walk when it’s practical. It makes no sense at all to waste money, damage the environment and deprive yourself of the chance to improve your fitness, simply to save the extra five minutes it might take to walk to the local shop
Go out once and get everything done in one go. It’s better for your car and burns less fuel if you cover off three or four errands in one trip rather than going out on three or four separate occasions simply because you didn’t plan in advance. It saves you time, too, which is another economy always worth making
If you’re retired, or work from home, or don’t have children at school, try to avoid driving in rush hour. Sitting in traffic causes huge amounts of atmospheric pollution and eats up your fuel. Get in the habit of listening to local radio, or checking local traffic websites, for news of roadworks or other unexpected blocks which will have you sitting still, wasting money and getting angry
Plan your journey. And use a sat nav. It is estimated that we waste 350,000 tonnes of fuel every year simply by getting lost. (If you have a removable sat nav, provided you leave it locked away and out of site, you can protect it by adding the Car contents insurance option as part of the Your Cover policy.)
Think seriously about car sharing. We all like our own space, but it makes little sense for 2 people who live a few doors apart to individually drive 5 miles to the same station every morning, or for 2 neighbours to go separately to the supermarket. Car sharing is sociable and encourages a sense of community, as well as saving fuel. (If you do decide to take a colleague or neighbour in your car regularly, you might wish to consider including the Personal accident option in Your Cover.)

Behind the wheel	Our busy roads make it hard even for highly experienced drivers to anticipate as well as we’d like to. But continuous braking and pulling off again uses a huge amount of expensive fuel, and causes unnecessary pollution. Try to smooth out your drive so you can keep moving Drive slower. The faster you go, the more fuel you burn. You can cut your annual fuel bill by up to a third, simply by lowering your speed reasonably in every situation Air conditioning uses additional fuel. It’s rare to need air-con in the UK, but having it on will increase fuel burn on the average car by 15% Change lower. If you drive a manual car, switch gear in the 1500 – 2500 rpm revolution range, rather than waiting for your engine note to prompt you at 3000 revs or more. Amazingly, developing this habit could result in you - and so everyone else – cutting up to 30% off their fuel usage If you’re stationary in traffic for any length of time, switch off. You burn more fuel idling for 45 seconds, than switching off and switching on again

Behind the wheel

Our busy roads make it hard even for highly experienced drivers to anticipate as well as we’d like to. But continuous braking and pulling off again uses a huge amount of expensive fuel, and causes unnecessary pollution. Try to smooth out your drive so you can keep moving
Drive slower. The faster you go, the more fuel you burn. You can cut your annual fuel bill by up to a third, simply by lowering your speed reasonably in every situation
Air conditioning uses additional fuel. It’s rare to need air-con in the UK, but having it on will increase fuel burn on the average car by 15%
Change lower. If you drive a manual car, switch gear in the 1500 – 2500 rpm revolution range, rather than waiting for your engine note to prompt you at 3000 revs or more. Amazingly, developing this habit could result in you - and so everyone else – cutting up to 30% off their fuel usage
If you’re stationary in traffic for any length of time, switch off. You burn more fuel idling for 45 seconds, than switching off and switching on again

Some other ideas	In the same way that you can change Your Cover to reflect changes in your own lifestyle and circumstances, think about the car you need for the different demands you may have at different times in your life. If you drove an estate car while your children were growing up, but they have now left home, economy and environmental awareness could just be the reasons you need to switch to a small hatchback; or perhaps to rediscover the pleasures of a 2-seater Try keeping a tally of your fuel efficiency, and aim to improve it. Let your fuel gauge drop to exactly half way, and then fill your tank as full as you can. Note from the pump how many litres or gallons of fuel it’s taken to fill it up. Now set your trip meter to zero, and let it count the miles or kilometres you do until your fuel gauge is again down to half way. Dividing the number of miles or kilometres by the number of litres or gallons of fuel will give you your fuel efficiency in, for example, miles/gallon. Keep a record of this, and make the process a regular part of your ‘driving management’. Try to increase your efficiency over each successive fill-up Shock yourself. Make a cup of tea and kill half an hour using Google to read up on driving, and its impact on the environment. Then try to amend your own journeys based on what you’ve discovered. For example, during the first half mile you drive on any journey, while your car is warming up, it produces 60% more fumes, and does more damage to your engine, than it does later in the journey. So if you are continually driving short distances that you could just as easily walk or cycle, you are effectively creating more pollution, and wasting more money, than most other drivers

Some other ideas

In the same way that you can change Your Cover to reflect changes in your own lifestyle and circumstances, think about the car you need for the different demands you may have at different times in your life. If you drove an estate car while your children were growing up, but they have now left home, economy and environmental awareness could just be the reasons you need to switch to a small hatchback; or perhaps to rediscover the pleasures of a 2-seater
Try keeping a tally of your fuel efficiency, and aim to improve it. Let your fuel gauge drop to exactly half way, and then fill your tank as full as you can. Note from the pump how many litres or gallons of fuel it’s taken to fill it up. Now set your trip meter to zero, and let it count the miles or kilometres you do until your fuel gauge is again down to half way. Dividing the number of miles or kilometres by the number of litres or gallons of fuel will give you your fuel efficiency in, for example, miles/gallon. Keep a record of this, and make the process a regular part of your ‘driving management’. Try to increase your efficiency over each successive fill-up
Shock yourself. Make a cup of tea and kill half an hour using Google to read up on driving, and its impact on the environment. Then try to amend your own journeys based on what you’ve discovered. For example, during the first half mile you drive on any journey, while your car is warming up, it produces 60% more fumes, and does more damage to your engine, than it does later in the journey. So if you are continually driving short distances that you could just as easily walk or cycle, you are effectively creating more pollution, and wasting more money, than most other drivers

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Allianz Insurance plc was voted General Insurer of the Year 2010 at the British Insurance Awards.

Allianz Insurance plc celebrated its centenary in 2005.

Your Cover car insurance was launched by Allianz Insurance plc in 2010.

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How to save money - ECO tips

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