To share my newly discovered knowledge of how to save money on your car insurance?

[apostrophewoman]

I know this isn’t an AIBU, but I’ve been driving for 38 years and only discovered this from the Martin Lewis website email I had yesterday.

Theres a link on Martin Lewis to fill your details in on Money Supermarket and it points out sections where you can make changes to reduce your quote.

For instance, my job isn’t on the list but I’ve always chosen ‘Admin’ which covers it. By choosing a different job title, while still remaining appropriate to your job, you can save all sorts of different percentages - the drop down list will tell you.

Im also feeling a bit stupid that I’ve always put in my mileage per year as my full mileage, but again, it will tell that work commute mileage doesn’t count, and in many cases your figure should also not include shopping or visiting family and friends!

So I’ve legitimately halved my mileage and changed my job description and saved about forty quid on my quotes - maybe not life changing but it’s my forty quid!

So this is not unreasonable but hopefully helpful!

The ‘after’ here doesn’t mean except for. It means ‘after you have counted them all up’.

Aviva say it includes everything.

https://www.aviva.co.uk/insurance/motor/car-insurance/knowledge-centre/mileage-impacts-car-insurance/

I am guessing that there is something about miles paid for by your work counting differently?
I do a few thousand miles per year for which I need to make sure my insurance covers working. But they still count in our total mileage, so I am confused.

Nobody has ever had an accident going to or from work, the supermarket or visiting friends.

If I take off all of my driving then I would do zero miles per year

Personal mileage is everything that isn’t business mileage. Business mileage would be the miles you use your car for work, for example if you drove to an offsite meeting. If you do business miles you have to tell your insurer. It’s a while since I had this but I used to have to prove to my employer that I had “occasional business use” on my car insurance before I could claim expenses for mileage.

Nearly all insurers/brokers have access to the MOT database, which records the mileage each year at MOT. If the value you enter for mileage on your insurance quote differs significantly from the recorded annual mileage on the car (regardless of what the miles were for), you will likely be charged higher prices for providing inaccurate information and possibly even flagged for fraud

Sorry op you’ve misunderstood, the after is what is your mileage AFTER doing all those journeys, not except for

Good grief this post is causing confusion. To insure a vehicle you do need to declare how much total mileage you will do in that vehicle in a year. Some companies will want to know a split between business and personal which includes commuting (direct line doesn't as it covers business automatically). Business mileage is different to commuting. Please don't skimp on declaring mileage as they will check, remember mileage is posted with MOTs so if your car is old enough to have them your mileage is public record!

Agree with the advice to use the correct job title and to use multiple search engines to get quotes, strangely last year moneysupermarket gave me the best quotes!

Any time I've applied for insurance (as someone with business insurance) I've had to specify the breakdown of work mileage, social and commuting. However that's because insurers consider different types of driving as higher or lower risk, eg that commuting is typically high risk because of driving in peak times. The overall total mileage you declare is what it says - total - you can't knock bits off and say it doesn't count, and if you end up in an accident it could well invalidate your insurance.

This the relevant page on Compare the Market’s website.

It makes it clear that all miles are included.

www.comparethemarket.com/car-insurance/content/the-effects-of-annual-mileage-on-car-insurance/

A few nips and tucks can reduce new driver insurance.. We added ds's details at 20 years old to get a quote. 4.5k. Changed his gender to F for a laugh and cut it to 2.5...
Also how long to declare a crash pisses me off. Someone got me on a bend (country road) as he came round on the wrong side of the road. Absolutely nothing I could have done except stayed home that day. Premiums rose and 1 car they refused to re - insire it! Nearly 3 years now and I hope I can stop ticking that box.

@apostrophewoman You've misunderstood I'm afraid, it means the mileage you come up with after you have counted ALL the driving you have done, e.g. commuting / shopping / visiting friends. You need to ring your insurance back asap and tell them you made an error in your calculation.

What the OP has screenshot is very poorly phrased and I understand the confusion.

All this does is underestimate your mileage which is fraud not a money saving tip.

Its as valid as weighing avocados at a supermarket and saying they are spuds.

Thank you.

I can understand why the "after" wording caused confusion but come on OP a bit of logic and common sense should have caused you to query that. How on earth would someone's commuting (often the main or even only reason people have cars) not being included in their mileage make any sense! Let alone then including stuff like shopping! You'd end up excluding almost everything a car is used for!

Did you really think that someone who drives 30,000 miles every year back and forth to work every day should only put in the 200 miles they spend driving to Cornwall once a year on holiday, and that would be an accurate estimation for insurance purposes? Come on!

The phrase "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is" is almost always appropriate!

If you want to invalidate your own insurance to save a few quid rock on OP but it's really irresponsible to start a thread providing completely incorrect and misleading information to others!

If you don't include shopping and commuting, then your car mileage at MOT isnt going to match what you are saying you do. I have a classic car that only does a max of 4k miles a year and if I go over that, then I'm only covered 3rd party.

4.5 k???
What is he driving - a BMW?

ds got insurance at 17, in a Ford Feista, £1,500
dd just got insurance on her first car, again 17, £800

It might be a good idea for the OP to report her post and get the thread deleted, since the consensus is that her advice is based on misreading some information.

Oh I see...so you do declare the mileage, but call it something else... In which case, why did say you don't need to include those miles... I can't see how misleading an insurer is ever going to go wrong ;)

Your prices are exceptionally low. I had to pay 2k for my first car insurance, age 30, on a 1l engine car. Premium was that high due to living close to a city centre. Many companies wouldn't give me a price or were joke prices (eg 5k upwards) That was fifteen years ago too!

Agree but as OP seems pretty firmly welded to her incorrect understanding might also be a good idea for everyone else to report it soon to get it taken down ASAP before other people act on it!

As someone who has worked in car insurance fraud, good luck with that.

When it asks you for mileage it is your annual mileage. Not just half.

If you have a claim and your details are not correct you will be penalised. Some insurers have departments who check all the quotes you have done online and will contact you at new business to ensure you have put down legitimate details and not manipulated the quotes for a cheaper cost

@Swiftie1878
For any young person until insurance drops a lot at 25 putting parents or an adult on the insurance too, really brings it down.

When was this? Insurers are no longer allowed to use gender as a rating factor, and this has been the case for many years.