Car insurance comes in more shapes and sizes than ever before, making picking a policy a challenge.

And new Which? research shows that how firms are naming their policies isn’t necessarily helping. 

You might imagine a ‘platinum’, ‘gold’, or ‘premium’ policy would provide more cover than a ‘standard’ or ‘essentials’ policy.

But our analysis of over 70 policies suggests that paying more for an upmarket-branded policy won’t necessarily pay off.

Here we examine how so-called ‘platinum’ policies can diverge, the vital cover ‘essentials’ policies sometimes leave out, and how to find insurance that will meet your needs.

How ‘platinum’ policies compare

We analysed 76 car insurance policies and awarded each a ‘policy score’ – a percentage score reflecting how comprehensive, overall, the policy’s cover levels were in our assessment.

Names such as ‘platinum’ suggest insurers have gone all out to deliver the most comprehensive insurance available, whilst ‘essentials’ indicates you’re getting a fair price for ‘good-enough’ cover. However, when it comes down to the detail, there’s little consistency in what you can expect.

Darwin Platinum, for example, earned a policy score of 54% – some way below the 61% average and even slightly less than the Essentials cover from Admiral, which earned 55%. The highest-scoring policy named ‘platinum’ was from the AA, which ranked joint 12th in our analysis with a score of 68%.

The AA’s premium policy didn’t outperform Darwin equivalent in all 79 areas examined, but it had higher cover levels in several areas and included some features Darwin’s policy lacked – such as onward travel cover, misfuelling cover, and guaranteed hire car (as a temporary replacement if your car is damaged or written off) as standard.

Meanwhile, the top-scoring policy in our analysis, from Allianz, earning 77%, was simply labelled ‘car insurance’.

• Find out more: all our car insurance policy scores

How ‘essentials’ policies differ

Promising the basic cover you’ll need for a fair price, an increasing number of policies bearing names such as ‘essentials’ were released in the past few years while car insurance premiums were on the rise. 

In reality, however, they won’t all offer the best prices. As insurers provide all customers a personalised price, an essentials policy from one insurer won’t necessarily be cheaper than another insurer’s middle of the road or higher tiers of cover. 

And when it comes to what the cover contains, there’s little agreement between insurers on what ‘essential’ means, making it difficult to tell at a glance what’s included.

We assessed nine policies with the names essentials, essential and bronze. Unsurprisingly, none stood out in our analysis. All received below-average scores, while Hastings Essentials was the lowest-scoring policy we reviewed, with 44%.

Reasonable trade-offs

One of the features most commonly omitted from essentials policies is personal belongings cover (which is included in 84% of policies generally).

This covers items you have with you in the car such as gadgets or a handbag. However, fewer than one in 10 claimants told us that they used this cover, and you might not want it if you don’t carry items with you or have already insured them separately.

For many, this might be considered a fair trade-off for a cheaper premium. You might feel the same way about other commonly omitted features such as misfuelling cover (paying out if you accidentally fill your tank with the wrong type of fuel), cover for driving other people’s cars, and cover for audio equipment or satnavs that aren’t manufacturer-installed.

Consequential cutbacks

Other cutbacks could be more sorely missed. For example, glass cover was absent from all but three of the budget policies (Allianz, Churchill and Direct Line left it in).

Yet when we surveyed 4,719 claimants in November, a sixth said they’d claimed for damaged windscreens, making it the second most common type of claim.

Meanwhile, 7% had claimed for repairs to their car windows. You may decide you’re happy to pay out of pocket for this kind of damage (on average, these claims were worth £300-£400), but carefully consider whether the saving on a budget policy is worth it.

Higher claims-related costs

Less obviously, essentials policies could increase the costs of claiming or even add to future premiums. 

Five of the budget policies we looked at had higher excesses than other policies in those insurers’ ranges, meaning you would pay more towards claims. With Quotemehappy.com Essentials, for example, there’s a compulsory £200 excess that isn’t payable on higher-tier policies.

Budget policies were also less likely than others to spare your no-claims discount (NCD) in the event of your car being vandalised. Vandalism was the fifth most common kind of claim reported.

• Find out more: How to find cheap car insurance

How to look beyond names and get the right policy

1. List the cover you want

This may seem basic, but it’s crucial. Car insurance policies will typically be presented with a price, perhaps five to 10 points of basic information, and reams of small print. This makes it deceptively difficult to compare policies like-for like. 

It’s therefore worth listing what you want included beforehand, to help filter out policies that simply won’t meet your needs. Do you want highly comprehensive cover, or are you eager to dispense with ‘bells and whistles’? Would you need a replacement car if yours was out of action, or legal cover?

2. Check our tables

We’ve rated the cover in 76 policies, and scored 19 insurers based on claimant feedback. You can find them all in our online tables, which you can search by name of the insurer or policy.

See our full tables and the providers we recommend.

3. Get quotes

Comparison websites will give you a quick idea of what large numbers of insurers currently offer (including your existing one), helping you benchmark how competitive their offers really are. However, you may need to search further afield if you have specific insurers or policies in mind.

Some, such as NFU Mutual, don’t operate on comparison website sat all, whereas others (such as Aviva) sell certain policies exclusively through their own websites, not on comparison sites.

If you come across insurers you’re not familiar with, check whether they’re rated in our tables. With most insurers it’s cheaper to pay annually. If necessary, you could use a 0%-interest purchase credit card, then pay that off monthly.

4. Haggle

If you’re considering renewing with your current insurer, check its offer in light of the information you have from shopping around. If you’re happy with everything about its offer except the price, now is the time to haggle. If the price has risen – or seems uncompetitive compared to policies with similar cover – discuss this (politely) with the insurer. 

It’s not guaranteed to work every time, but it’s straightforward and regularly pays off. In other words, if you renew without discussing your premium, there’s a reasonable chance you’ll be paying more than you need to.

5. Refine and double check

It’s now time to choose from your shortlist of policies. Before committing to your purchase, carefully double-check the policy wording document to see that the items you’ve noted on your checklist are included.

If the price includes optional extras that aren’t on your list (such as courtesy car cover or no-claims discount protection) consider cutting these out to save money.

Look at the ‘total excess’ – the compulsory excess plus the voluntary excess you’ve added – to make sure you could afford to make a claim.