Quoting Low Mileage Car Insurance

djphatic

Hi

I recently bought a car and whilst at the dealership I had a quick check for how much the insurance would be on one of their computers using a comparison site. When filling in the details and asked for the Annual Mileage I had to ask my dad (seeing as its my first car), he recommended 12,000 miles, though the guy at the dealership said to put in 2,000 miles.

The reason he said this was he had heard about it on Radio 1 from some moneysaving expert (im only aware of Martin within the media) and said that your not doing anything illegal and they don't check what your actual mileage is going to be. Now having done a thorough search it appears that each extra 1,000 miles adds about £10 to the insurance, at present i've always entered 7,000 miles so thats a saving of £50 roughly if I put 2,000 miles.

Is it true what the guy from the dealership said or could I get into alot of bother if found out. From what ive found searching around the net it says to quote the best estimate you can give. Obviously insurance quotes and policies are based on the information you give them, so its really they are trusting you to supply the correct information and not abuse the system.

Any comments much appreciated.

mattymoo

Fairly easy to check though if you need to claim. It is on the purchase invoice, any subsequent MOT and of course, the engineers inspection.

Place of work / home address can also be used to work out the mileage.

Insurers do not like being lied to and are likely to try and recoup any underpaid premium if they find out. I doubt they would invalidate your policy though but I'm not 100% sure (never been a motor underwriter, just claims back in the late 80's).

Alfrescodave

Someone who only drives 2,000 miles might be considered to be an inexperienced driver and therefore potentially a higher risk for insurance companies.

Some insurance comparison sites allow you to see the effect of "adjusting" various particulars in your application before submitting the final version. Have a go and I bet most of them have better rates for a 10,000 mile driver than a 2,000 one

djphatic

The cheapest ive been quoted is from Bell and elephant, with me the main driver and policyholder etc. and my dad as a named driver as well.

The reduction from 7,000 miles to 2,000 miles gives a £50 saving. But for what its worth and the risk of being found out, I think i'll leave it at 7,000.

greyster

mattymoo wrote: »

Fairly easy to check though if you need to claim. It is on the purchase invoice, any subsequent MOT and of course, the engineers inspection.

Place of work / home address can also be used to work out the mileage.

Insurers do not like being lied to and are likely to try and recoup any underpaid premium if they find out. I doubt they would invalidate your policy though but I'm not 100% sure (never been a motor underwriter, just claims back in the late 80's).

Actually its not that easy.

They would have to prove you exceeded the mileage since you took out the policy with them. Scenerio.

You MOT your car in January. Recorded your mileage at 10,000.
In March, you take out a policy with an insurer who DOES NOT ask you for your current mileage. You say you do 6,000 miles a year.
In June, you crash your car (whoops)....

If you have 20,000 miles on the clock. How can the insurer prove you did 10,000 miles since you took out the policy.

You could have been a boy racer, driving your car day and night from January & February. You could have done 9,999 miles from when you left the MOT garage and when you took out your policy. You could have not driven it for months because you went on holiday and then crashed it on your first mile.

There is no proof. You would have to take out the policy on the same day as passing the MOT. That would be silly if you want to follow the OP's advise.

I'm with prudential btw... hint. Churchill unwritten insurances... tend not to ask.

PS They can't calculate your distance to and from work. Just cos you say you use it for commuting doenst mean you have to. All they can do is read the metre... only scenerio is the one i described - taking out policy same day as MOT.

raskazz

greyster wrote: »

They would have to prove you exceeded the mileage since you took out the policy with them. Scenerio.

No they don't.

If you state, say 10,000 miles per year you would be expected to have not exceeded 5,000 in 6 months, and so on. The figure will be made pro-rata. Unless of course YOU as the policyholder have a convincing explanation as to why your mileage would be much higher towards the front end of the policy.

In your example the insurer would quite rightly estimate your true mileage as 24,000 miles per year, i.e. 4 times the amount you told them. You would then have to explain how the discrepancy arose.

The insurer will have you over a barrel if they have reasonable cause to suspect that the mileage disclosed was incorrect. In all probability they will either refuse to deal with the claim until the difference in premium is paid or just void it if there are other non-disclosures/misrepresentations. If you seriously believe that an insurer needs 100% cast iron proof to repudiate you are mistaken. If the insurer decides to repudiate it is then up to you to prove what your mileage actually is. Which is just as difficult as the insurer proving what mileage you are doing.

It is not worth it.

raskazz

greyster wrote: »

PS They can't calculate your distance to and from work. Just cos you say you use it for commuting doenst mean you have to. All they can do is read the metre... only scenerio is the one i described - taking out policy same day as MOT.

If you claim not to use your car for commuting they will ask you how you get to work. They will ask you when you leave to get there and how you get there. It is very hard to maintain lies in the face of claims handlers who know every trick in the book.

raskazz

Alfrescodave wrote: »

Someone who only drives 2,000 miles might be considered to be an inexperienced driver and therefore potentially a higher risk for insurance companies.

Some insurance comparison sites allow you to see the effect of "adjusting" various particulars in your application before submitting the final version. Have a go and I bet most of them have better rates for a 10,000 mile driver than a 2,000 one

No, this is not true. Driving experience is rated on time licences have been held for.

All other things being equal, on average someone who drives 2000 miles per annum will incur less claims costs than someone who drives 10000 miles per annum. Hence will be charged a lower premium.

greyster

I would never not select commuting. I think you misread it or I wrote a line that could of infered this. I meant just because you select commuting doesnt mean you have to commute everyday or often... you can commute whenever you like or not at all. As this ranges per customer it is not possible for them to calculate your mileage.

It would be an assumption anyway, not evidence and therefore can not be proven. Thus meaning they can't do that and would have to rely solely on your mileage meter.

raskazz

greyster wrote: »

It would be an assumption anyway, not evidence and therefore can not be proven. Thus meaning they can't do that and would have to rely solely on your mileage meter.

Say you state an annual mileage of say 5,000 per annum, but in reality your actual mileage is 20,000 per annum.

The claims handler will ask you how you get to work, then work out the mileage that that would involve given the distance from your house to to your place of work.

Then you are stuffed.

Remember in these matters it is only based on balance of probabilities, so it is not difficult for an insurer to make their case. They do not have to prove their assessment of the reality beyond doubt.

greyster

hi raskazz I'm not trying to argue here, I think you may have misread my OP.

Firstly I am referring only to insurers who DO NOT ask for current mileage at signup.

How do I know your mileage at signup?