Guessing Your Mileage Is Not A Good Idea

Posted on January 31, 2017 by WebTeam

When you apply for car insurance there are many questions asked of you by the insurer such as your date of birth, where you live, the make and model of the vehicle you wish to insure, where the car will be parked overnight, do you have any motoring convictions, who will drive the car, what the car will be used for, the level of cover required and how many miles you intend to drive the car each year.

an accurate figure for the number of miles you drive your car each year is required as this is one of the things that the insurance company uses to calculate your premium.

You should provide your car insurer with an accurate figure for the number of miles you travel in your car each year.

Some interesting research has been undertaken on behalf of the comparison website uSwitch.com into the mileage figure drivers provide when completing an application for motor insurance. This research has revealed that 27% of drivers are guessing how many miles they drive in their car on an annual basis.

Unfortunately, as insurers use this information to help decide how much the customer will pay for their car insurance, this is not a sensible thing to do for a couple of reasons. Firstly, if the annual mileage quoted when applying for cover is too high then the customer could end up paying more than they should be doing for their car insurance and secondly, if the annual mileage figure quoted is too low, in the event of making a claim, the insurer could refuse to pay out.

It should also be noted that if your mileage is going to change at some point after the policy starts from the figure originally quoted perhaps due to a change in your circumstances then the insurer should be notified and this may alter how much you will be charged for the cover.

So, what could you use to provide an accurate mileage figure? Well, 22% of those people questioned in the above research said that they referred to their MOT certificate. Another way could be to check the invoice provided by the garage that services your car each year as the mileage figure may be quoted on that. If you have black box car insurance then this should provide an accurate figure for the mileage you drive.