Jasmine Birtles
Your money-making expert. Financial journalist, TV and radio personality.
Alternatives to owning a car
Chiara Cavaglieri
20th Feb 2020
Running and owning a car is quickly becoming un-affordable for lots of people. If you add up the costs of breakdown cover, insurance, servicing and maintaining a car, you’ll see how much of a dent in your wallet it makes. And with the rising cost of living taking its toll we need to make savings where ever we can. Here at MoneyMagpie we’ve found you some brilliant money-saving alternatives to owning a car. So take a look and see what might work for you and how much you could save.
Car clubs
How does it work?
A car club gives you access to what are essentially pay-as-you-go cars. You can sign up with a car club like Zipcar or Enterprise Car Club and rent one of their cars by either the hour or day. Once you’ve signed up and paid the annual fee (around £60) you will be sent a special smartcard and PIN number which you can then use to access the cars and make your bookings. There are charges for returning the cars late but most give around ten minutes’ leeway and you can always call the club to extend your booking if you know you’re running late.
Club cars will have breakdown cover and insurance (although you will have to pay an excess towards the insurance). You will also be fined if you leave the car in a mess, so don’t smoke or allow pets in there and clear out any rubbish before you drop it back to the parking bay. You will also be required to leave a certain amount of fuel in the tank (which the club will pay for) so that the next person has enough to get going.
- Zipcar is the world’s largest pay-as-you-drive car club with over 731,000 members and more than 11,000 vehicles in urban areas across the United Kingdom, United States, Spain, Canada and Austria. This is as well as major cities in the UK.
- Enterprise Car Club has cars across several UK cities including London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Bath, Brighton, Birmingham and Norwich. Book online, by phone or even from cars themselves, and gain access to the cars 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by using their app.
How much will it cost?
Pay-as-you-go
Zipcar: Annual fee: £59.50 a year or, alternatively, you can pay £6 monthly for twelve months. No deposit. No monthly commitment. Hourly rates from £5 per hour or £49 per day.
Enterprise Car Club: Annual membership: £60. Alternatively, you have a monthly membership which costs £7 per month. Hourly rates start at £3.15 or £25.55 per day.
Package deals
If you are going to use the car for longer than just the occasional short trip around town then a package deal may be best for you.
Neither ZipCar nor Enterprise Car Club offer these deals any more, although Enterprise Car Club do offer a business membership which allows several employees to use cars, often at a discounted rate.
Any requirements?
Zipcar drivers must be 19 years old and have a valid driving licence for at least a year. You must have no more than six penalty points on your licence or no more than three if you’re under 30. You must have no major endorsements, no major violations in the past three years and no alcohol or drug related violations in the last seven years.
At Enterprise Car Club you can join as a member from the age of 19, UK or non UK licences accepted. You must have had your full licence for at least one year if you’re aged under 22. If you’re over 22, you can join as soon as you’ve acquired a full licence.
Advantages
- With a car club you only pay for what you use and if money is tight one month you can simply try to use the cars less.
- Car clubs are ideal if you only need a car every now and want the option of having access to a car when an occasion crops up. All you have to decide is whether you want to pay-as-you-go (probably best if you won’t be using it for more than about ten hours a month) or pay a monthly fee and get a package deal (best if you’re likely to need a car regularly).
- You can get rid of your car (along with all the costs that add up from owning one) but still have the luxury of being able to drive when you need to.
- Londoners can avoid paying the congestion charge if they use Zipcar.
Disadvantages
- Renting a car by the hour is never going to be as flexible as owning a car – you will have to book and there is a chance that a car won’t be available when you need it.
- Car clubs tend to be available only in bigger cities like London, Manchester and Birmingham but coverage is spreading so there will be more and more opportunities to get involved.
- There tends to be quite a high excess to pay on the insurance if you have an accident. At Zipcar you pay a damage fee of up to £750 or £1,000 for higher risk members.
Do a car share
How does it work?
You use your own car or ride in someone else’s so there are no contracts to sign. You register your details with a car sharing website and specify where and when you want to travel. The system then matches you up with other travellers going the same way. You can share a car for pretty much any journey, whether getting to work, going shopping, taking the children to school, or even going to a festival. The idea is that you split the cost of the journey, so that everyone can save money on their travel costs.
You can find out more by visiting liftshare.com which lists car sharing pools all around the country. All you have to do is click on a location near you and see who else is travelling your way.
If you have a car yourself and you drive to work, get started now by registering yourself for free with one of the car-sharing websites like Liftshare.
You can choose whether to always be the driver or passenger and search nationwide or simply within you’re own area.
Consider sharing with friends or family
Another option is to share a car with a friend or relative. This is much more difficult because only one of you can be the policy holder and the other must be added as a named driver. This means that only one of you (the policy holder) can build up No Claims Bonus (NCB) – which is crucial to reducing your insurance premiums. One way around this is to contact your insurers covering the car you’re sharing and explain the situation. It’s likely that you will be able to build up the NCB as long as you agree to stick with the same insurers when you get insurance later on down the road.
If you do decide to share with a friend make sure you’re both absolutely clear about who is going to take the car on any given day, including holidays and weekends. Split all the costs (insurance, petrol) and set up an online calendar so that you both know who’s turn it is to take the car on any given day.
How much will it cost?
The only cost will be the petrol to get you to your destination, which you will split with whoever shares the journey. This figure could be really come down if you manage to find three or four people to share one car journey.
Advantages
- You can save a lot of money on petrol and parking.
- You get to meet new people and have some company on long, boring journeys.
- You’ll be doing your bit to reduce congestion and pollution.
- Sharing a car journey is perfect for part-time and shift workers, or people that don’t own a car but need a lift every now and then.
- Liftshare even helps you find walking, cycling and taxi groups so that you can find companions on all kinds of journeys.
- You can use car sharing to take a break from driving whenever you feel like you’ve had enough.
DISADVANTAGES
- You may not feel safe sharing a car with someone you don’t know, but there are steps you can take to feel safer.
- It’s a good idea to arrange to meet in a public place (rather than at your house) when you first meet and show each other some personal identification. Also, inform a friend of who you’re travelling with and when/where you’re going.
Get on your bike
Get a motorbike
Could you be financially better off on two wheels instead of four? Savvy commuters often turn to motorbikes as a cheaper alternative to driving.
You’ll need to take your CBT test at the very minimum. This is a one-day course that, if you pass, means you can ride with Learner plates on a limited-size engine. For larger engines, you need to take an advanced test. A fast-track course over one or two weeks will set you back between £500-£800. Or, you can gain road experience on your smaller bike then pay for a few lessons on a larger one, then the tests – which’ll cost around £300-£400 instead.
You need protective gear, too. At the very least, invest in:
- A good helmet
- Gloves (even in summer you need them!)
- Motorcycle boots
- A biking jacket fitted with armour
This initial investment will set you back a couple of hundred pounds – but will last you for years and could save your life. A learner bike starts from £800 up to around £2,000.
The overall outlay for a motorbike is more than a car. However, in the long term, the maintenance and running costs are significantly lower.
Don’t forget to get some motorbike insurance – it’s a legal requirement for motorbikes. Read our full article to find out how to save money on your premiums.
Cycle
TFL also provides Londoners with a cycle map with handy tips to get cyclists from A to B with the least hassle.
Bicycle insurance can be really cheap, and with a bike being stolen every 65 seconds in the UK it could save you paying out a large sum in the long run. Read our full bicycle insurance article for more information about where to get insurance and what to expect.
If you can commute to work by bike do it – you’ll save hundreds of pounds and get fit in the process. You can even get a fold-up bike so it’s easy to stash away in the office, and once you’re a confident rider you can find the best routes and get to work in double-quick time.
Get your hands on a cheap bike from eBay or Amazon and check police auction site Bumblebeeauctions for some fantastic bargains on unclaimed stolen or confiscated bikes.
Take advantage of the government’s Cycle to Work scheme which allows you to save up to 32 per cent with tax-free bikes. Ask your employer to sign up to the scheme – it won’t cost them anything.
Using public transport is a great way to get around and there are ways to cut costs. Find out how by reading our full article on cheaper train tickets.
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FYI – Whizzgo pulled out of St Albans and Streetcar don’t have cars there. Their reasoning was lack of demand, though many users at the time complained of a total lack of advertising, apparently.
The wiki tells their side of the story; //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whizzgo
For a new type of car sharing try WhipCar. It enables people to rent their unused car to others in their local vicinity, and drivers in need of a car can hire from locally situated car owners. Car owners can set their own rates and decide on the times that the car is available. Since its launch WhipCar has gone on to create one of the most diverse car fleets of the UK, and it is growing by the day.
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