It never ceases to amaze me how people will shop around for savings of a few pounds or dollars on the latest high street gadgets, clothes, or groceries, but leave much greater savings on the table when it comes to insurance.

The motor insurance industry is extremely competitive and all of the companies want your business. Being competitive however, does not mean that they all charge the same or similar premiums for the various types of cover. There are huge differences in premium rates and therefore great scope for a bargain if you are prepared to shop around.

There are many reasons why insurance rates vary between companies. Each assesses the risks involved in every area of cover and will have different views of the level of risk associated with each activity. These risk assessments will be based on the experience of those companies in the past and the plans they have for the future but they will change over time to reflect changes in internal and external factors.

Some insurers for example regard younger drivers as too high risk and the premiums they charge will reflect this while others are prepared to accept a certain proportion of higher risk customers in the hope that they will stay with the company as they get older and become less of an accident risk.

Others will be actively targeting certain types of policy or drivers and will therefore discount the price for new customers but may not carry this on for later years. Yet others may continue these discounts but vary the amount from year to year depending on what proportion of their business they want to have in that particular sector.

No claim discounts will vary in amount and the length of time they take to be earned and motor insurance companies will have different loadings for age. Some companies even specialise in insuring older drivers allowing them to pass on the benefit of the lower claims record of this group, to all policy holders.

Limited time offers may be made by other insurance companies which were not available when you last renewed your car insurance or you may have become a better risk by not making a claim in the previous year or by falling into a higher age bracket.

Remember the insurance world is always changing because it has to reflect changes in how we live and behave and the cars we drive and because of the complexity of calculating risks and costs there will always be different views about the appropriate premium rates for any car insurance policy.

It is now really easy to check out the market using Internet insurance sites that a few minutes spent online can result in major savings in costs plus if you sign up online you will usually get an additional discount of 10% or more. Those few minutes online could turn out to be the most profitable few minutes of the year!

So go ahead and shop around for a bargain.