HOW TO SAVE ON... INSURANCE:ONE of the first things people anxious to cut costs should look at are the prices they pay for insurance policies remembering all the while that although shopping around is essential, it's less effective if it is not accompanied by forensic analysis of all policies to make sure they cover only what is needed.

Repeated surveys carried out by the National Consumer Agency (NCA) point to savings which can be made on life, health, car and home insurance. In fact, according to some of its reports, more than €1,000 can be cut from motor insurance alone with just a couple of phone calls.

You might not be able to save such massive sums - unless you are very lucky - but you should still be able to shave something off your insurance costs by being a bit cuter.

There are, for example, car insurance companies offering discounts to policy holders who use public transport to get to work.You have to ask for it and have to prove you actually do it, with a tax-saver commuter ticket for instance, but once you tick all the boxes, the cost of a policy can fall by as much as 20 per cent, or over €100 a year.

Make sure to check if there are deals for buying car insurance and home insurance from the same provider as many companies offer multi-insurance discounts.

Many also offer discounts to those who book online, even if they also have an off-line presence too. Onedirect.ieoffers a 10 per cent online booking discount while 123.ie, is worth checking out because despite its infuriating advertising jingle, it can save you money. And never limit your search to traditional providers - Tesco sells car insurance at competitive rates and offers discounts of 10 per cent to club card carriers and as the saying goes, every little helps.

There is also blagging - when your renewal comes up, just ring your provider and imply that you have been offered a cheaper quote elsewhere. It is amazing how often companies will match the made-up quote.

While health insurance premiums are climbing, there are things you can do to cut costs. All providers have discounted corporate plans which are cheaper than private policies but available to everyone. You can save hundreds of euro each year with no effort, well, not much effort - some of the deals are hard to find, because the companies don't want you to find them, but the Health Insurance Authority ( hia.ie), can help. Alternatively just contact your insurer and ask for an equivalent company plan to what you already have. If there is no corporate plan right for you, there are still ways to save.

If you take on an excess on inpatient care in private hospitals and are prepared to pay a €2,000 shortfall for certain orthopaedic procedures, the cost of a policy can fall from more than €1,400 to around €800 a year.

The VHI’s Forward Plan Level 2, which offers money-back on GP visits, costs a pretty hefty €2,055 for an adult. That same level of cover, albeit with a requirement to pay the first €2,000 for orthopaedic care and an in-patient excess for day cases and overnights in private hospitals of €75 is available with Aviva for €974. A couple taking out such a policy will save over €2,100 in a single year – or the cost of the orthopaedic shortfall (which may never be needed once your joints are in good shape) in just 12 months.

In the 1980s when the only player in the game was the VHI, there were maybe six or seven different policies people could choose from. They went from A to E and a child could work out the differences.

Today there is around 200 different policies on the market and for many, the system has become a nightmare to navigate.

Many consumers pay too much for home insurance because they have not reviewed their level of cover. It might have cost more than €300,000 to rebuild a three-bedroom house in Dublin three years ago but it now costs less than €240,000. The responsibility of setting the sum insured at the right level rests with you so if you have not reviewed the cost for some years, you’re probably paying too much.

With life insurance you should forensically examine policies to assess if they offer what you need and to see if you can cut elements out without sacrificing too much. Simply shopping around can lead to real savings. By giving up smoking you can slash the costs dramatically although you will neeed to be off the smokes for at least a year to benefit and you will need to let your insurance company of the new, improved you.

Then there is shopping around. A colleague bought a house several years back and took out a mortgage protection policy worth €300,000. It cost herself and her husband €109 a month. After two years she decided to see if she could get it cheaper elsewhere. Mnutes later, an online service quoted her €639 a year and offered her a 50 per cent discount in year one. So she knocked €1,000 off the cost in the first year and over the lifetime of her mortgage, the savings will be €13,700. As both policies simply covered the mortgage on the house, they were identical.