Insurance renewal: massive increase for less miles?

DezMiller

My Hastings Direct renewal price was around £420, but as I'm not doing as many miles now, I reduced my mile usage from 5000 to 2500 on the app, hoping to save a fiver or so. No other details were changed but, to my horror, my renewal price rocketed to £675.
What kind of algorithm does this? (A profiteering one is all that I can come up with)
Thoughts?

Car_54

Its not profiteering if the most likely result is you’ll go elsewhere.

redped

Does the renew cost go back to £420 if you put the miles up again?  If so, there's your solution.

Iceweasel

Less miles likely means more urban trips so greater risk, not less.
Counterintuitive as it may sound the insurance companies have plenty statistics to back that up.
Apparently the cheapest insurance quotes go to those who estimate 12000 miles per year.
That's approx 50% more than the mileage the average car covers.
High milers likely do more motorway miles which have less accidents than urban / town roads.

tacpot12

Less miles might also indicate an aging driver, potentially with failing eyesight and slower reflexes. 

Aretnap

People who drive very low mileages are often nervous inexperienced drivers, so are not necessarily safer than those who drive higher mileages. Plus there's an element of fraud risk - very few people actually drive only 2500 miles per year so a significant proportion of those who claim that they do will be lying in the (erroneous) belief that it will get them a lower premium. What else might they be lying about, wonder insurers.

This of course doesn't apply if it's a second car. Which is why insurers ask questions like "do you have access to another car" - it's a way of teasing out whether you drive more than the headline figure that you put down suggests.

If you really do only drive a couple of thousand miles a year then it's worth considering whether you really need the expense and hassle of owning and running a car - you might well find that taxis are cheaper.

Mutton_Geoff

tacpot12 said:

Less miles might also indicate an aging driver, potentially with failing eyesight and slower reflexes. 

I think the insurers would work out the age of the driver from the proposers DOB rather than have any algorithm that linked mileage to health condition!

forgotmyname

I found below 4000 miles tended to increase premiums.

DullGreyGuy

DezMiller said:

My Hastings Direct renewal price was around £420, but as I'm not doing as many miles now, I reduced my mile usage from 5000 to 2500 on the app, hoping to save a fiver or so. No other details were changed but, to my horror, my renewal price rocketed to £675.
What kind of algorithm does this? (A profiteering one is all that I can come up with)
Thoughts?

Very low mileage has frequently been higher cost car insurance, its priced on statistical analysis of claims but if you wanted to apply logic to it, then it'd be because you aren't driving it enough to keep up your skills with this car. 

tacpot12 said:

Less miles might also indicate an aging driver, potentially with failing eyesight and slower reflexes. 

DoB tells them the age of the driver, dont need to second guess it from other factors. My uncle, as he got older, increasingly disliked driving at night but he still drove the same distances just left earlier or stayed over and drove back the next day.