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!

That isn’t something most people can change though…

@HopeMumsnet can you put some sort of disclaimer about the first post at the head of the thread? That way people will know.

I park my car on the street, though technically have an off road parking space (I don't use it as access is awkward) I have tried both on quotes and it has made no difference. Which makes sense really, because on road you're more likely to get parking bumps or scrapes which would be relatively inexpensive. On a driveway although less likely, higher risk of having your car targeted by thieves (eg who break into the house looking for keys knowing there's a desirable car)

I don’t think it’s remotely ambiguous and frankly just basic common sense should prompt someone to question the erroneous belief. I read it numerous times to try and understand how the OP had reached that conclusion and it was only after reading other posts I understood what she thought although confused as to how anyone could reach that conclusion. As other posters have said if you don’t include ,commute, shopping or visiting family and friends a lot of people would have zero mileage?

This is the wrong decision. Anyone reading only the OP and following their advice is being guided to unwittingly take the following risk. When obtaining a quote you will be asked what claims or incidents you have had in the last five years (or sometimes three). You will also be asked if you have EVER been refused a policy or granted one on special terms. You will be asked this ABOUT any type of insurance (home, car, travel etc) FOR any type of insurance. This means if you are caught understating your mileage, not only could your policy be voided and payouts refused, but you might never get insurance of any type on standard terms for the rest of your life.

Buy them an automatic car. All cars will be automatic eventually. Because not many 1-21 yr olds drive automatic cars the stats for accidents are low. Underwriters use these stats to work out premiums so they are much lower for young drivers. You will save the extra money it costs for an automatic within a couple of years of purchase.
My DS pays under 1k on insurance for his VW Polo.
Also newer cars are cheaper due to the safety features.
LV are good for new drivers, they don’t do black box.

However, if your DS hits a deer and causes 3k of damage the insurance will go up. Fortunately, when my DS did this last year he had enough experience to work out that swerving to miss it would seriously damage both him and the car so the deer unfortunately died.

Learning to drive in an automatic is also safer because there is no distraction from constantly changing gears. DS is considered a good ( safe) driver amongst his peers. He is also very road aware because he learnt to drive rather than learned to change gears.

I was a massive fan of manual driving until I had an automatic and realised just how much safer they are to drive.

Not sure what you mean by "No transparency at all"?

Selling insurance is strongly data driven and bit like dynamic pricing because it's based on different risk profiles which might change from one moment to the next

Claims are being submitted to insurers and settled (or not settled) constantly.

Your son might get a quote at 3 pm and find it's changed by 4pm because he's suddenly become a more (or less) attractive risk to an insurer

It's a very competitive market and insurance premium quotes can change from day to day and from hour to hour. They aren't static

But quotes at the same time, literally, on different computers sitting next to each other, with exactly the same data?
And further quotes within minutes.
We sat there with 3 computers getting wildly.differing quotes on the same data, from the same insurance companies at the same time.

OK, chill! I was trying to be kind to the OP about her error.

assuming you meant you didn't think OP meant to mislead, nobody else has suggested that they did, either? It would be an odd thing to do.

Everyone makes mistakes, and I'm sure if they'd come back saying 'I've just realised what was meant, thanks everyone for letting me know and saving me a potentially huge issue, I'm going to ask MN to amend my post,' people would have been nicer.

But I can't respect someone who firstly keeps stubbornly and arrogantly insists they MUST be right despite all logic and common sense, and refuses to think, hang on, if multiple people are querying this, should I double check, and then, even worse, when it becomes completely obvious they were wrong, then decides to abandon the thread, without even asking MN privately to take it down to save other people following their advice.

OP, please read the following: www.gocompare.com/car-insurance/mileage-calculator/
Please note the line 'Remember to include commuting journeys during the week, social or shopping trips at the weekend plus one-off journeys you do around the country.'
You could also search 'how to calculate mileage for insurance' or similar, and compare the results. Much of the wording is careless and clumsy (like your earlier link), but I hope you will see where you have gone wrong. Then please ask MN to remove your post before someone ends up in serious trouble. Thanks.

Ok but don’t take the anger out on me!! 😂

We did that for our DC's adding us as named drivers for a few years. And job titles can make a difference - some don't like engineers as they think the driver may soup up the car themselves.

It means that you have to put in the total after adding all those different types of mileage together. That is your personal mileage. As opposed to business mileage which you only need if you are making journeys on behalf of your employer.

Why #bekind? I wouldn’t have commented if she’d acknowledged her error but instead she stubbornly refused to even consider she could be wrong. Unfortunately there are too many people who will read the OPs original post and lacking any critical thinking will blindly believe what she said.

Recent research indicates that drivers with an automatic‐only licence may pay, on average, around 35–45% more for their car insurance than those who have trained in a manual vehicle. Insurers argue that automatic drivers present a higher risk profile.
A key element in these differences is the skill of planning. Learning to drive manual forces a pupil to consider gear selection, engine revs, and the precise moment to decelerate well before reaching a junction or hazard. This process naturally cultivates a mindset of anticipation and proactive hazard management. In contrast, learners who opt for automatic lessons often experience a more reactive driving style; the absence of gear changes means they are not compelled to plan as meticulously in advance. The result, according to updated data, is a higher likelihood of being involved in incidents that result in insurance claims.

To get a 5-10% discount on your DCs first insurance after passing test, put a start date for the policy at least 3 weeks hence. I heard about this 'hack' before on MN so played around with quotes once my DS passed, saw it made a £££ difference so took advantage of it. I mentioned to two friends who also found it saved them between 5-10%. Ours was a new policy for our car with DS as a named driver and my friends' policies were in their DC's name. Obviously it means your DC can't drive immediately (but is that actually a bad thing?).

It often takes that long to get a black box fitted

Yes to job title: customer service instead of waitress/waiter

never heard the commute mileage not counting.

make sure that you have that you have children on your policy if you do as it lowers it.

I always ring and see if they can make the quote cheaper and look around. If you are pleasant to the call operator they normally will look to see what discounts there are

The absolute bollocks being talked on this thread is truly astounding.

If you have repeated the same quote and changed the gender, the reason the price has gone up is because you have now been flagged for 'quote manipulation' ie. multiple quotes in a short space of time with conflicting details.
Gender isn't a field that is even allowed to be passed into any of the price algorithms any more (and the FCA are very hot on making insurers prove this regularly, auditing the models multiple times a year)

I’ve never had to input mileage for a car insurance quote?

Of course you have, its asked every time.

OP lights blue touch paper.

Thread explodes with misinformation that could get people's insurance voided and permanently damage their insurability.

OP retires.