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!

Personal mileage just means non business mileage, so needs to include all the things you list. That screenshot is just badly worded. Insurers have access to actual mileage from MOT data, so if you significantly under declare mileage then expect to be penalised.

What companies did you get those insurance policies from @steppemum ?

You can get them insurance per hour, per week etc on your own car. A quick google will bring up lots of these companies.

I know someone who has a policy with an app, so she shares a car with her mum and they toggle the driver.

round me the newly qualified drivers are paying between £1200-£1700 with a black box on cars like c1’s/107/aygos / ups/ citigos/ miis
learning they are paying £250-£400.
use the comparing websites and give Adrian flux a call.

We reduced childrens very expensive car insurance by putting them down as students but adding that they had a job as a waiter. Perfectly honest.

Yeah, I'm afraid I agree with everyone who says you have misunderstood their wording. They mean after as in, once those trips are all done what's your total. It does not say Excluding.

Yes sorry OP I think they should have better wording, but this is just saying these are the tasks you should factor in when calculating your mileage, as in your personal mileage is what you get after you have travelled for those things. If you have already taken out insurance I would advise getting it corrected if the number you put is very different.

I tend to go by how much my car mileage has gone up in each MOT, but I suppose if you have a new car or your circumstances are likely to be different in the next year it makes sense to get people to actually work out the likely number with all these things.

Yes- please, no-one should be calculating the mileage in this way. It's wrong.

It literally tells you to include your commute

I have reported it, but according to MNHQ encouraging insurance fraud, albeit it unwittingly / through ignorance, is not against Talk guidelines 😂

can't remember what ds was insured with, dd is with admiral I think.

As I said in a pp, hers dropped from 1,200 to 800 by adding me and dh as named drivers (which is fine as long as she is the main driver)

I knwo we aren't London, but we are in a big town and our postcode is not a desirable one. Old small engine cars.

When they were learning, it cost 400 to put them on our car insurance, that becomes invalid the day they pass their test, to then add them would cost 3,000.
So it was cheaper to buy a car and insure it.

You have misread it from that screenshot.
The only way you wouldn't declare a commute as part of your personal mileage (which of course you have to insure yourself for), if if you were going to different places each time you start work. In this case you would have to have both buisness and personal cover and give the split for each to your insurance.

What do you think would happen if you had an accident on your commute if you hadn't put this mileage on?

You need to make a revision, if you don't declare and anything goes wrong when you are over the mileage you stated, they will refuse to pay

My mileage would be zero if i followed that
What am i missing?

So who insures you for the commute to work?

Yes, they told me to challenge it on the thread. However, misinformation is against talk guidelines!

It is still possible for them to charge higher premium for boys than girls, but I agree with pp there was a case a few years agao where I thought they had stamped that out. This is what AI says:

Yes, car insurance generally costs more for young men (boys) than young women, largely due to higher risk statistics, despite legal bans on gender-based pricing. While insurers cannot legally use gender to set premiums, they use factors like occupation, car type, and driving offenses, which show men are more likely to make costly claims.

This doesn’t mean it’s more expensive for either gender

if both genders have exactly the same details - same car, address, convictions, DOB etc etc the prices will be exactly the same

no.
Fill in the form and tick male and you get one price.
Fill in same form and tick female and you get another price.

My experience with 3 kids aged 18-23 (dd1 was driving ds old car so literally every detail the same even without ticking the m/f box) and upthread another pp said the same.

If work pays you milage, you need to have cover for both buisness & personal milage and give the estimated split. I do this. Mine is set at 50/50. I dont think it makes much difference in price

Ds is now 34 so a good while ago.

I work in car insurance but even if I didn’t re read your AI quote it clearly says they do not directly get charged a different price. You’re incorrect.

I would strongly suggest you check the wording on your actual insurance providers policy rather than a comparison site to ensure you are adequately insured. I would be amazed if this is stated in this way anywhere else.

Yeah this doesn’t seem right to me. What does anyone use their car for really that isn’t commuting, shopping or visiting friends and family?

How could they possibly be asking people to estimate mileage based entirely off of occasional journeys outside of those categories that they can’t foresee needing to do?

I can't believe that was the response!? It's pretty well known that a lot of people don't actually read follow up posts on a thread and will only read the OP and take that as gospel, therefore they will just believe the misinformation and won't see it being challenged and corrected. I think that's totally wrong of MNHQ

I have literally sat with the computer and my dd and seen the different prices.

We have had the same car, same address and same age child apply for car insurance, but one is a boy and one a girl, and got different prices.

the AI screen shot says they shouldn't but they do!

You can tell me I am incorrect as much as you like, but the empirical evidence of my own eyes tells me otherwise, and I am not the only one on this thread.
And it is true right through my kids friendship groups. All living in same area, all same age, similar old beat up fiesta type cars. All the boys are paying more than all the girls.

I know it is illegal. I would love someone to take it to court and prove they are doing it. But believe me, they are definitely doing it.

I reported it also and was told it was not against their talk guidelines.

Hopefully anyone reading it will read the whole thread, not just the opening post.