Annual mileage on car insurance

hstudent

If you select 5000 miles for your annual mileage and do 5005, for instance, would that invalidate your insurance? If it was would you be able to upgrade when you're on 4900?

LittleMissAspie

Might do and should be able to. Would probably cost a fee to change it. It should say in your insurance terms somewhere, if you have the policy already.

Hintza

Interesting question. I would have thought there would be say 10% leeway but probably safer to ask them.

Last year I had an extra 1,000 miles that came from an unexpected trip down south which made me all twitchy as I thought i had declared 12,000 miles and on recent claim was at 12,500 miles wilthg a fortnight to go for the year to expire. Fortunately they had me down for 15,000 per annum. Personally I think they are wrong but it was stated as such on the policy...whew!

Mark_Hewitt

hstudent wrote: »

If it was would you be able to upgrade when you're on 4900?

Of course, just call them up. Most likely there will be no extra charge.

It's just really to seperate the 40,000mile a year drivers from the 3,000 mile a year drivers. They won't bother for an extra 5k but it's worth making sure.

One thing, did you tell them your current milage when you bought the policy? If you didn't how would they know anyway?

Keith

Mark_Hewitt wrote: »

One thing, did you tell them your current milage when you bought the policy? If you didn't how would they know anyway?

MOT certificate, service schedule, etc.

Hotspur

IMHO the insurance industry would struggle to refuse insurance or a claim if someone had gone over the mileage, estimated sometime ago, by say 10%. Most people know roughly how many miles they travel a year however, if circumstances change and there is a significant increase in the mileage from that estimated previously I would suggest a call to the insurance company would be wise. I always overestimate by a thousand and haven't had to worry yet.

dacouch

In general the Insurers would not chuck out your claim if you have exceded the mileage you stated. In my experience as a broker they either ask you to pay the extra premium you would have paid if you had declared the correct mileage this is often not much however they often to not bother asking for this as it is to much trouble.

If you have blantly lied about your mileage say you declared 5000 miles and were actually doing 15000 and it would be reasonble for you to know this eg you had always been doing this they may investigate further but even then woudl still probably pay your claim.

Moral of the story is do not lie to your Insurance Company but in general if its an honest mistake and they would have covered you in the first place if you had told them the correct information they will normally pay the claim (They may ask for you to pay the premium you should have paid).

sarah_elton

Sometimes (depending on circumstances), a higher mileage will lower your premium. The logic being that someone driving 10,000 a year is driving regularly, whereas someone doing 1,000 isn't and is more likely to crash when they do drive.

I recently upped my mileage on my insurance from 10,000 to 12,000 and it cost about £3. As others said - just phone up and tell them.

hstudent

Elephant's pricing is weird. I'd save £10 a year by leaving my car on the road instead of in a garage!

bj_of_bristol

I asked the same question of Direct Line a few years ago (I have used then for many years now). I reduced my annual mileage from 12k to 10k and they stated that it was just a rough figure and that it would not effect your insurance if you were just over, even by a couple of hundred miles or so.

lisyloo

If you select 5000 miles for your annual mileage and do 5005, for instance, would that invalidate your insurance?

No.
There are statutory rules about contracts being fair under UK law, and that would not be fair, given that you are asked to estimate it in advance.

The figure given up front is an estimate.

If your driving changes markedly e.g. you move house and your commute changes drastically, then you should should inform your insurer.
However if you do slightly more or less then you would not be penalised.

If your driving varies then it might be something that's worth monitoring but if you are doing the same commute then that should ot be necessary for most people.