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Received a letter from my son's insurance co. saying he'd reached his mileage limit (I pay the instalments for the credit agreement as he's under 18 ). Turns out that the nominal mileage I unthinkingly give at every renewal is a cap when you're a new driver. He's reached 12,000 miles in 9 months so we have to stump up for another 4,500 miles cover to get him to renewal date
I've no doubt it's nicely buried in the small print so just something to consider when you're comparing quotes or taking out cover!
How did they know? Does he have a black box fitted?
Tracker? If so, is this really a surprise?
Yes, he's got a black box
It's just that every year for my own renewal I give a rough figure for yearly mileage - I've certainly never been challenged on it. It's not particularly clear that it's a cap when you've a black box fitted
but this is exactly the sort of thing the black box is for, to ensure nobody is taking the piss (which you are to the tune of 4,500 miles) and/or driving like a dick
It could be said if the black box has no dodgy driving then he's got an extra few thousand miles of experience!
If your estimate of mileage is 25% under you can expect them to do something. Even without a black box insurers will check your mileage in the event of a claim and adjust your payout accordingly if they think you've significantly mislead them on your mileage.
Given that we've had COVID for the last 4 months and most people's mileage has dropped significantly during that time then you're original estimate was probably even further out
They insurance co's are generally a lying bunch of sharks. Yes Direct Line I'm looking at you in particular
Son's 1st car was way cheaper to get BB, the only issue was he works at airport early starts 0200 and late finishes 2330 depending on shifts. This was all explained to them before agreeing to policy "not a problem we'll add this info to his account and he won't be penalised" Fast forward a month later massive hike in premium due to him driving in unsociable hrs and on a road with high accident rate. There is only one road he can take to work.
Called them up and they denied that any exclusions can be added to a BB policy, we asked them to review the call I made and what the operator had told me, surprise surprise there was a technical issue that the call and all calls that day weren't recorded that day. worked out it was cheaper to pay to have the BB removed from policy than pay the month on month increase.
B@STIDS
My son's Black Box policy has a dashboard we can log into, shows his journeys, scores for speed, smoothness etc. and pretty prominently the Mileage. We covered him for 7000miles for the year.
Due to lockdown he's done a fraction of that, but it's bloody easy to keep a check on it, so you don't get any surprises.
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this
bruneep
They insurance co’s are generally a lying bunch of sharks