Insurance Policy and Mileage
Discussion
When adding a car onto our policy I've been asked what mileage it would do a year. I said 10k which got me thinking:
• How or why would they check?
• What yearly mileage would start to increase the premium?
• If you did go over by a couple of thousand, do you have to tell them the moment you click over 10,001 miles and then report back the total at the end of the year?
This is purely curiosity; I'm not planning on doing anything shady and the car probably won't do 10k in a year anyway.
• How or why would they check?
• What yearly mileage would start to increase the premium?
• If you did go over by a couple of thousand, do you have to tell them the moment you click over 10,001 miles and then report back the total at the end of the year?
This is purely curiosity; I'm not planning on doing anything shady and the car probably won't do 10k in a year anyway.
They can check by the MOT cert mileage, give or take.
Mileage rates depend on insurer, but as a rough rule of thumbs it's usually 3K, 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K or above. In my own experience anyway, this will massively vary with insurer.
My policy states that if I go over the limit then a charge of £100 will be added to the policy. Others will say something else. As a rule, if you've gone over it then you should tell them, as in effect you've changed the material risk of the policy as you're doing more miles than stated. Whether you actually tell them when you hit 10,0001 or not is another matter. They'll just up the premium to the next band anyway most likely, so going from 10K to 15K (for example) is probably only going to be a relatively low extra amount to pay.
Mileage rates depend on insurer, but as a rough rule of thumbs it's usually 3K, 5K, 10K, 15K, 20K or above. In my own experience anyway, this will massively vary with insurer.
My policy states that if I go over the limit then a charge of £100 will be added to the policy. Others will say something else. As a rule, if you've gone over it then you should tell them, as in effect you've changed the material risk of the policy as you're doing more miles than stated. Whether you actually tell them when you hit 10,0001 or not is another matter. They'll just up the premium to the next band anyway most likely, so going from 10K to 15K (for example) is probably only going to be a relatively low extra amount to pay.
Ekona said:
They can check by the MOT cert mileage, give or take.
That's no use, the car in question may be used by other persons under their own insurance or even off road with no insurance requirement, so the mileage it does in a year may not be mileage that applies under one policy. There is no way / requirement to track or verify this.And cars don't have MOTs for first 3 years anyway...
OP - they say it should be an "estimate" for the next 12 months. I estimate badly.
Edited by mikeN54 on Monday 7th March 12:50
It's all irrelevant until you have a cash and your insurer baulks at the 6 figure cost being billed to them and starts looking at you closely! For the sake of £xx it just isn't worth being cheeky with them by trying the ''.....but I do 7k a year offroad''.
Wouldn't take a genius to look at you & your commute, your wife & her commute, your 2 cars and their last MOTs and then just smile to a judge.
Wouldn't take a genius to look at you & your commute, your wife & her commute, your 2 cars and their last MOTs and then just smile to a judge.
You're right, with fixed commuting etc it might be tricky, but it is only an estimate.
For various reasons (being self employed or high personal trip mileage etc) you might not know where you might be in the next year.
So all you can do is give your best "estimate" of commuting plus basic personal use. The alpine trip or the new contract in Orkney might not be on the horizon when you make the estimate.
For various reasons (being self employed or high personal trip mileage etc) you might not know where you might be in the next year.
So all you can do is give your best "estimate" of commuting plus basic personal use. The alpine trip or the new contract in Orkney might not be on the horizon when you make the estimate.
Andehh said:
It's all irrelevant until you have a cash and your insurer baulks at the 6 figure cost being billed to them and starts looking at you closely! For the sake of £xx it just isn't worth being cheeky with them by trying the ''.....but I do 7k a year offroad''.
Wouldn't take a genius to look at you & your commute, your wife & her commute, your 2 cars and their last MOTs and then just smile to a judge.
Exactly. People are very quick to say "they cannot check so it doesn't matter". It's easy to lie to insurers, but a tad more difficult to remember what lies you told after a fatal accident, when you're being interviewed by the police for hours, or when you're giving evidence at the inquest.Wouldn't take a genius to look at you & your commute, your wife & her commute, your 2 cars and their last MOTs and then just smile to a judge.
Insurers rarely have to check. In most cases, the person who told the lie at inception will just forget and tell the truth at claim time.
The classic being "I told them I don't use the car for work, they'll never find out"" and then 6 months later to the claims department "You need to fix my car quickly as I need it for work."
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Exactly. People are very quick to say "they cannot check so it doesn't matter". It's easy to lie to insurers, but a tad more difficult to remember what lies you told after a fatal accident, when you're being interviewed by the police for hours, or when you're giving evidence at the inquest.
Agree it's easy to lie and get caught in your own web, but we're not talking about that. If they ask for an "estimate" of next 12 months mileage then that is all you have a duty to provide, an estimate with no requirement to notify them if you exceed that during the year.
You could even write it down and send it to them. "estimated commute + estimated personal mileage = estimated total for year"
By estimating my estimated estimates properly I've saved 30%+ on premiums.
There is a clear difference between a limited mileage policy and one that isn't. If in doubt read the documents that define what you have bought. It would seem that the OP is not talking about a limited mileage policy.
Therefore the estimate of mileage is just that and in effect only valid on the day you give the estimate. Unless there is something covering it in the policy, then it has very little bearing through the term of the policy.
There is no definition of the needed accuracy of the estimate. There is no obligation to inform the ins co if the estimate is wrong because circumstances have changed. Or even just plain wrong.
Bert
Therefore the estimate of mileage is just that and in effect only valid on the day you give the estimate. Unless there is something covering it in the policy, then it has very little bearing through the term of the policy.
There is no definition of the needed accuracy of the estimate. There is no obligation to inform the ins co if the estimate is wrong because circumstances have changed. Or even just plain wrong.
Bert
mikeN54 said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Exactly. People are very quick to say "they cannot check so it doesn't matter". It's easy to lie to insurers, but a tad more difficult to remember what lies you told after a fatal accident, when you're being interviewed by the police for hours, or when you're giving evidence at the inquest.
Agree it's easy to lie and get caught in your own web, but we're not talking about that. If they ask for an "estimate" of next 12 months mileage then that is all you have a duty to provide, an estimate with no requirement to notify them if you exceed that during the year.
You could even write it down and send it to them. "estimated commute + estimated personal mileage = estimated total for year"
By estimating my estimated estimates properly I've saved 30%+ on premiums.
Shaoxter said:
What about overestimating your mileage?
For whatever silly reason, my premium is cheapest if I state 7-8k miles even though I probably only do about 2-3k on each car. If they ever ask I'll just say I had a couple of European trips which got cancelled...
There's probably a mileage / risk curve which is lowest around 6kpa. Maybe lower mileage cars (i.e. sunday / sports cars) have a worse claim / mile ratio?For whatever silly reason, my premium is cheapest if I state 7-8k miles even though I probably only do about 2-3k on each car. If they ever ask I'll just say I had a couple of European trips which got cancelled...
TwigtheWonderkid said:
A request for an estimate isn't an open invitation to lie. You could estimate 10K a year, and do 12.5K, and it wouldn't be an issue. But if you estimate 10K and they find out as a result of a claim you were on course for 30 or 40K, that's a different matter.
You could estimate 10k per year and do 40k and it would not matter unless you knew you were going to be doing 40k when you estimated 10k.BertBert said:
TwigtheWonderkid said:
A request for an estimate isn't an open invitation to lie. You could estimate 10K a year, and do 12.5K, and it wouldn't be an issue. But if you estimate 10K and they find out as a result of a claim you were on course for 30 or 40K, that's a different matter.
You could estimate 10k per year and do 40k and it would not matter unless you knew you were going to be doing 40k when you estimated 10k.Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff