Skoda Fabia - Insurance question | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks

Wed 15 Mar 2023 21:42

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - Glenn 42

Hello

My insuirance policy is for 9000 miles a year, as I normally average 8000-9000 miles a year. I bought my new car in September 2021, and only covered 6800 miles in 12 months, well below the limit set by the insurer. Would I be OK to reach 18000 miles in two years, or should I keep below 16000 miless due to my low mileage in the first year?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Wed 15 Mar 2023 21:49

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - RT

Each year's insurance contract is separate - at renewal you're confirming the estimated mileage on which the insurer assesses the risk and decides the premium - so no, you can't carry over the shortfall unlees the policy expressly provides for it.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Wed 15 Mar 2023 21:56

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - Glenn 42

Thankyou, I thought so, although this yeatr I'll probably only do the same milaege again.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Thu 16 Mar 2023 06:12

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - _

It's an estimated mileage so a. Bit less or more is fine.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Thu 16 Mar 2023 08:09

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - skidpan

It's an estimated mileage so a. Bit less or more is fine.

No its not. My policy clearly states that your cover and any payouts would be reduced should it be discovered that you had exceeded the annual mileage stated. It says that should you expect to exceed the figure you must contact them and amend your policy. In reality the difference in cost between a 6000 mile policy and a 10,000 mile policy is peanuts in the big scheme of things so best to go for a higher figure.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Thu 16 Mar 2023 08:46

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - RT

It's an estimated mileage so a. Bit less or more is fine.

No its not. My policy clearly states that your cover and any payouts would be reduced should it be discovered that you had exceeded the annual mileage stated. It says that should you expect to exceed the figure you must contact them and amend your policy. In reality the difference in cost between a 6000 mile policy and a 10,000 mile policy is peanuts in the big scheme of things so best to go for a higher figure.

Where the difference in premium is marginal, then it's perverse to use the quotation mileage as an absolute limit - but that's insurance for you!

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Thu 16 Mar 2023 09:32

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - catsdad

Some insurers load premiums for low mileage drivers and get shirty if they think you are over stating expected miles to reduce the premium. There may be a sweet spot around the average (10k miles?).
They won’t actively monitor miles but in the event of a claim may do so.
Our mileage is potentially very variable with poorly in-laws and parents necessitating irregular round trips of 150 and 750 miles. It didn’t take many emergencies to rack up the miles. We tend to use my car for the longer trips and my wife’s for the shorter. Towards the end of the insurance year I do keep an eye on our respective mileages to keep within our 9k and 12k forecast miles. In practice we’ve been within our limits without inconvenience.

I suspect in practice, as long as you don’t take the proverbial, you get a bit of leeway. After all on my wife’s renewal when she forecast going up to 9k it was the same price to the penny as her existing 5k.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Thu 16 Mar 2023 11:53

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - Andrew-T

Some insurers load premiums for low mileage drivers and get shirty if they think you are over stating expected miles to reduce the premium. .

It seems illogical to increase premiums for drivers who do fewer miles, but no doubt those companies have actuaries who can explain why. Does anyone know ?

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Thu 16 Mar 2023 13:13

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - Gibbo_Wirral

Some years ago I found a loophole with mileage and premiums. Not sure if they've closed it since.

I used to do 6000 miles a year. Price was xxxxx

At renewal time I went into the policy settings to adjust it to upto 8000 miles as I was expecting to do more miles the next year. Price went DOWN by a tenner.

So I did it again set it to "upto 10,000 miles". Price went down again.

This kept happening until I reached 20,000 when it started to rise again.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Thu 16 Mar 2023 21:11

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - Glenn 42

It's a grey area as my policy maximum has been 9000 miles for years, but due to working from home three days a week, my mileage for 2021/22 was 6800. I'd imagine for 2022/23 I'd probably do the same, but do like some longish trips away from home.

Basically in a week when I'm working, I'll do 80-90 miles a week, but this week due to being off work and having three trips away from home, I'll have done nearly 400 miles. However, this only happens for 4 weeks of the year, so hopefully, I'll keep my annual mileage to 7000 a year.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Fri 17 Mar 2023 12:47

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - Engineer Andy

Some years ago I found a loophole with mileage and premiums. Not sure if they've closed it since.

I used to do 6000 miles a year. Price was xxxxx

At renewal time I went into the policy settings to adjust it to upto 8000 miles as I was expecting to do more miles the next year. Price went DOWN by a tenner.

So I did it again set it to "upto 10,000 miles". Price went down again.

This kept happening until I reached 20,000 when it started to rise again.

I found with my previous two insurers that there was a 'low mileage floor' - 5000 miles in my case, where it wasn't worth going below because it made no difference to the annual premium.

TBH I was surprised that it didn't start going up again, reason being is that they may think you're just a 'Sunday driver' who then loses some of their abilities, rather like they appear to assume the minute a driver hits 75 years of age.

I suspect the small rises between 10-20k miles are for what they deem 'normal' driving for work/homelife, but above that becomes 'travelling salesperson' territory or suchlike.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Fri 17 Mar 2023 12:53

Skoda Fabia - Insurance question - Engineer Andy

It's an estimated mileage so a. Bit less or more is fine.

No its not. My policy clearly states that your cover and any payouts would be reduced should it be discovered that you had exceeded the annual mileage stated. It says that should you expect to exceed the figure you must contact them and amend your policy. In reality the difference in cost between a 6000 mile policy and a 10,000 mile policy is peanuts in the big scheme of things so best to go for a higher figure.

The risk often is that (say) yor car is MOTed at the start of the year and insurered in the middle, and thus the sneaky person might change jobs at a 'fortunate moment' from one where they did low mileage compared to the premium's quotation to one with a much higher one, and including some of the new job's commuting in the previous insurance year's policy because there was no official proof via a visit to the dealership or enything else.

Only 'works' if you have no accidents that result in a claim or are stopped by Plod and details are requested, where that information would / could get back to the insurer.

Like with car servicing on a mileage or date basis, a little bit here or there won't make much difference if you have a decent provider, the trouble is what is the limit of 'acceptability', especially when a change of personal circumstance results in inadvertantly just going over.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Ask Honest John

Sell Your Car

Real MPG

Fuel Calculator