Insurance Mileage

Swordfish · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:07

My insurance is up for renewal in a few weeks and on checking my policy my mileages is listed 10-12 K per year.

Having just had my MOT I noticed my mileage was only around 6K last year.

Questions is does a lower mileage increase or decrease my premium or does it make no difference?

Cheers.

Jez · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:08

it will lower it, and often by a significant margin.

Spamalot · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:09

Sometimes it makes a di

Swordfish · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:10

Jez said:
it will lower it, and often by a significant margin.

Cheers for that.

Renewal is on the 29th so will give them a bell.

Jez · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:13

Yeah do, i keep mine low as it affects my premiums drastically

GT3 · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:13

What about if you do a lot more miles than you declared, how can they prove this? I've always just delcared about 10k but done about 20k this year although I swapped cars 3 times.

With Churchill it makes quite a bit of difference on price.

edscdk · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:16

GT3 said:
What about if you do a lot more miles than you declared, how can they prove this? I've always just delcared about 10k but done about 20k this year although I swapped cars 3 times.

With Churchill it makes quite a bit of difference on price.

im sure for every case where its not possibly to tell some poor fool gets their claim thrown out when they look at the records and find you did 2x what you were paying for?

- however I have never known anyone to be caught out by this...

Swordfish · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:19

Phoned and premium down by a fraction over 20%

Cheers for replies.

lordrobs · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:19

I used to find that it made about £10 difference for every 1k above or below 10k/year.

Swordfish · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:20

GT3 said:
What about if you do a lot more miles than you declared, how can they prove this? I've always just delcared about 10k but done about 20k this year although I swapped cars 3 times.

With Churchill it makes quite a bit of difference on price.

Mileage at time of claim and mileage on current MOT is how I would figure things out to get an average.

GT3 · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:22

edscdk said:
im sure for every case where its not possibly to tell some poor fool gets their claim thrown out when they look at the records and find you did 2x what you were paying for?

- however I have never known anyone to be caught out by this...

Saved me about £100 which as they can't prove suits me! They charge me £100 extra for some points on my licence from nearly 4 years ago though so I suppose it balances out! :rolleyes:

Swordfish said:
Mileage at time of claim and mileage on current MOT is how I would figure things out to get an average.

But they don't ask you the mileage on the car when you take out the policy, so unless your MOT is on your renewal date they can't prove it can they? And when you change car mid policy this makes it even more difficult.

I suppose if you kept the same car and insurance company for years in a row then I guess they could sort of prove it, but whats to say other drivers haven't used the car with DOC cover?

I really can't see how it can be proved so I will continue to declare the average!

Swordfish · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:34

GT3 said:
But they don't ask you the mileage on the car when you take out the policy, so unless your MOT is on your renewal date they can't prove it can they? And when you change car mid policy this makes it even more difficult.

I really can't see how it can be proved so I will continue to declare the average!

I see where you are coming from but for example

MOT Jan = 60000 miles on clock

RENEWAL April = Mileage not declared.

CLAIM JULY = 66000 miles on clock.

With those figures you have done 6K in 6 months so therefore it would be safe to assume that your average per year is 12K.

GT3 · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:40

Swordfish said:
I see where you are coming from but for example

MOT Jan = 60000 miles on clock

RENEWAL April = Mileage not declared.

CLAIM JULY = 66000 miles on clock.

With those figures you have done 6K in 6 months so therefore it would be safe to assume that your average per year is 12K.

But they can't try and refuse to pay out over an assumption, whats to say you changed job's just before renewal and you did 5k miles before April and then only 1000 between renewal and claim. Or like I say, if your mum borrowed the car to do a 500 mile round trip once a month with DOC cover.

Can't see it myself.

Meatball · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:44

Even if you do go over your estimated mileage how can they prove it was you driving and not someone else driving the car under their own policy via DOA?

Swordfish · 13 Apr 2011 at 16:57

Meatball said:
Even if you do go over your estimated mileage how can they prove it was you driving and not someone else driving the car under their own policy via DOA?

This is my point exactly. They can make an assumption but cant actually prove things.

Good to know that lower mileage does reduce your premiums though.

[TW]Fox · 13 Apr 2011 at 17:32

Swordfish said:
MOT Jan = 60000 miles on clock

RENEWAL April = Mileage not declared.

CLAIM JULY = 66000 miles on clock.

With those figures you have done 6K in 6 months so therefore it would be safe to assume that your average per year is 12K.

It wouldnt be safe to assume that at all.

I do 300 miles a month. But completely at random I can do 1000 miles in a few days if I choose to go away somewhere. Sometimes I'll do this quite often, sometimes I don't do it for months, often a year.

My annual mileage therefore cannot be predicted based on the previous 6 months usage.

Just work out how many miles you think you'll do based on what you know you do on a regular basis - it's an estimate and thats a fair and reasonable way to provide one.

BennyC · 13 Apr 2011 at 18:33

GT3 said:
What about if you do a lot more miles than you declared, how can they prove this? I've always just delcared about 10k but done about 20k this year although I swapped cars 3 times.

With Churchill it makes quite a bit of difference on price.

If it's a low mileage policy then you might be asked to return a form declaring the low & limited amount of miles you will do where you declare the cars current mileage.

Flux did this with me but never asked for it back. I ended up upping my estimated mileage anyway which cost me 20% as I would be bent over should I claim having declared low miles, provided them proof and then driven more.