Since the financial downturn begun, research has revealed that there has been a 7% decrease in no claim protection cover.

There has also been an 8.6% drop in the take-up of motor legal protection over the same time span as drivers look for ways to save money and reduce their overall car insurance premium.

As a result, insurers have warned motorists that ditching vital cover could be harder on the wallet in the future, if anything bad were to happen.

Motor legal protection provides drivers with the ability to recover uninsured losses if they are involved in a crash, it also covers legal costs and lost earnings arising from any injuries suffered.

Mike Pickard, the head of risk and underwriting at an insurance firm, said: "Protecting such a valuable way to bring down your insurance premium makes sense. By adding a small premium - in the tens of pounds - makes sense if it could stop your no claim discount being reduced in the event of having to make a single claim, or more than one claim.

"Although car insurance is mandatory, ditching additional cover such as no claim discount protection, motor legal protection and breakdown cover to save a few pounds can be a false economy if the unexpected does happen such as hitting a deer, a sudden mechanical failure or an accident where you're not the one to blame."