Car Insurance Cost Comparison Calculator
Compare two insurance quotes on price and on what they actually cover you for.
Insurance quotes differ in more than price. The excess, the courtesy car, the legal cover, the protected no-claims discount and the windscreen cover all change what you pay when something happens, and the cheapest quote is often the one that leaves you paying most at the worst moment.
Enter both quotes with their excesses and cover levels, and this calculator compares the annual price, the cost of a claim and what three years of average driving would cost you.
At a glance
- What you enter
- Policy A: annual premium, Policy A: excess, Policy A: value of extras included, Policy B: annual premium, Policy B: excess, Policy B: value of extras included, Claims you expect per year, Years to compare
- What you get
- Policy A cost per year, Policy B cost per year, Policy A over the period, Policy B over the period, Annual gap including excess and extras
- Formula shown
- Yes - every step, right below your results.
- Cost and privacy
- Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.
See worked examples ↓ Read the FAQ ↓ Share this calculator ↓
Results are estimates for general information only - always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.
How to use the Car Insurance Cost Comparison Calculator
- 1 Enter Policy A: annual premium
- 2 Enter Policy A: excess
- 3 Enter Policy A: value of extras included - Courtesy car, legal cover, protected no-claims, windscreen cover, breakdown.
- 4 Enter Policy B: annual premium
- 5 Enter Policy B: excess
- 6 Enter Policy B: value of extras included
- 7 Enter Claims you expect per year - Most drivers claim once every three to five years, so 0.2 to 0.3 is realistic.
- 8 Enter Years to compare (years)
- 9 Press Calculate. You get Policy A cost per year, Policy B cost per year, Policy A over the period, Policy B over the period, Annual gap including excess and extras, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
- 10 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result - that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.
Worked examples
Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.
A $980 policy with a $400 excess against a $760 policy with a $850 excess
Three years compared at 0.3 claims a year, with $150 of extras in the dearer policy.
You enter
- Policy A: annual premium
- $980.00
- Policy A: excess
- $400.00
- Policy A: value of extras included
- $150.00
- Policy B: annual premium
- $760.00
- Policy B: excess
- $850.00
- Policy B: value of extras included
- $0.00
- Claims you expect per year
- 0.30
- Years to compare
- 3 years
You get
- Policy A cost per year
- $980.00
- Policy B cost per year
- $760.00
- Policy A over the period
- $2,850.00
- Policy B over the period
- $3,045.00
- Annual gap including excess and extras
- $65.00
Policy B is $220 a year cheaper on the premium alone, but its excess is $450 higher. Counting 0.3 claims a year, policy A costs $980 less $150 of extras plus $120 of expected excess, which is $950 a year; policy B costs $760 plus $255, which is $1,015. Over three years policy A comes to $2,850 and policy B to $3,045, so the dearer premium is $195 cheaper once the excess is allowed for. The annual gap in policy A favour is $65.
A $1,450 policy with a $250 excess against a $1,280 policy with a $300 excess
Five years compared with a higher claim rate and more extras in the dearer policy.
You enter
- Policy A: annual premium
- $1,450.00
- Policy A: excess
- $250.00
- Policy A: value of extras included
- $260.00
- Policy B: annual premium
- $1,280.00
- Policy B: excess
- $300.00
- Policy B: value of extras included
- $180.00
- Claims you expect per year
- 0.60
- Years to compare
- 5 years
You get
- Policy A cost per year
- $1,450.00
- Policy B cost per year
- $1,280.00
- Policy A over the period
- $6,700.00
- Policy B over the period
- $6,400.00
- Annual gap including excess and extras
- $60.00
The premiums are $170 apart and the excesses only $50 apart, so the excess hardly matters here. Policy A costs $1,450 less $260 of extras plus $150 of expected excess, which is $1,340 a year; policy B costs $1,280 less $180 plus $180, which is $1,280. The annual gap is only $60 and it favours policy B, which comes to $6,400 over five years against $6,700 for policy A, a difference of $300. With twice the claim rate of the first example the excess still does not close the premium gap.
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Frequently asked questions
How does the excess affect what I really pay?
The excess is what you pay out of your own pocket on each claim, so it is multiplied by the claims you expect per year and added to the premium. A $400 excess on a policy you claim against 0.3 times a year costs about $120 a year in expected excess payments, on top of the $980 premium.
That is why the lower premium is not automatically the cheaper policy. A cheap policy with a large excess can cost more than a dearer one with a small excess as soon as you make a claim, and the larger the difference in excess, the fewer claims it takes for that to happen.
Why are the extras subtracted rather than added?
Because the extras field is the value of what the policy already includes, such as a courtesy car, legal cover, protected no-claims or windscreen cover. If policy A includes $150 of cover you would otherwise buy separately, its real cost is $150 lower than the premium suggests. Subtracting it puts both policies on the same basis.
Value them honestly. A courtesy car is worth a great deal if you cannot work without one and very little if you have a second car. Setting the field to zero is fine if you would not buy the extra yourself, and it makes the comparison a pure price comparison.
What does the multi-year line show?
It takes the premium, adds the expected excess payments and takes off the value of the extras, then multiplies the result by the number of years you entered. It is where a small annual difference becomes a large one, and where a policy that looks better in year one can lose over three or five years.
Two assumptions are built into it: that the premium stays the same each year and that your expected claim rate stays the same. Both are optimistic. Premiums usually rise after a claim and often rise with the market each year, so treat the multi-year figure as an ordering device rather than a forecast.
What is not in this comparison?
Anything that decides whether a claim is paid. The calculator compares prices, excesses and the extras you value, and it knows nothing about exclusions, the approved repairer network, the level of courtesy car or how a claim affects next year premium. Reading the policy wording is the only way to compare those.
It also leaves out the cost of an uninsured loss: a claim that is refused still costs you the repair, and a policy that refuses more often can be the most expensive of the two. Check the excess for each type of claim separately, because windscreen, theft and fire excesses are often different figures.