Page 1 of Pay as you drive car insurance advice for me mum.

My mum does about 3000 miles a year and the best quote she has had is for pay as you drive, but she knows nothing about it other than it is based on how much you drive. So she has asked me to find out. I am clueless, so it is back to you wonderful lot. What are the advantages and disadvantage of this way of doing it.

Dr 42%er


Care in the football community is proved not to work.


It`s not easy being different. It`s not easy being cool....but somehow I manage....

Never heard of it. How can you only be insured when you drive? The car still needs to be insured on the drive/in storage.

If the company is respectable, they should send through info on request so you can take a look at it. That`s what I would do.

Is she paying an outlandish amount of money at the moment?

I drive about 6000 miles a year and pay about £300 fully comp (driving a 2.2 Petrol engined Vectra valued at about £3K). This includes legal cover and courtesy car - 2 things that I consider essential. After using one of those car insurance search engine websites, I went with Marks and Spencers Insurance to get the above deal. It was about the 4th cheapest on their list, but seemed to be the best deal, and with a respectable company.

Sometimes saving a few pennies just isn`t worth it with what you stand to lose.

As I say I know nothing about it. I assume it is a bit like classic car insurance where you limit your mileage?

Dr 42%er


Care in the football community is proved not to work.


It`s not easy being different. It`s not easy being cool....but somehow I manage....

Quote:
pay as you drive,
You hit a car - you pay
You get stopped by the police - you pay
You dont hit a car or get stopped by the police - you drive for free!

Quote:
How can you only be insured when you drive? The car still needs to be insured on the drive/in storage.


Of course it`s insured when you`re not using it. It`s just like a normal policy. It`s like a PAYG mobile phone. If you`re on a tarrif of 500 free minutes for £35 and you only use 200 minutes, you still have to pay the £35. if your 200 minutes costs only £20 a month on a PAYG, which one one do you pick. You pay a reduced monthly figure and get charged so many pence extra for each mile you drive.

Norwich Union do it and say if you do less than 6000 miles, you`ll be better off. They fit a free GPS to calculate your mileage. For the first year, they will refund the difference if it works out more than a normal policy with them would cost.

http://www.norwichunion.com/pay-as-you-drive/index.htm

This item was edited on Tuesday, 21st August 2007, 18:52

You have a GPS `Tracker` fitted to the car, which then records details of your usage. The unit has a GSM/GPRS modem which it uses to transmit the data. I am only aware of Norwich Union offering these policies currently. If you follow that link you can see how the charging is structured. There is a fixed element plus a usage charge (pence per mile), the usage is charged at varying rates according to time of day and type of road.

The main advantage is potentially lower costs. They also fit a `panic button`

It may be cheaper, but I wouldn`t do it. Do you really want Norwich Union tracking your every move just to save a few quid? And do you want to be thinking, oh, I wont take that trip, it`ll make my insurance go up.

Thanks for the replys. Me mum does so little mileage it could be for her. If they say under 6000 and you are better off. As she does about 3000 I doubt she is going to double that. I don`t think she has much to hide from NU as to her where abouts. Mind you with the money she could save I could buy her a foil hat.

Dr 42%er


Care in the football community is proved not to work.


It`s not easy being different. It`s not easy being cool....but somehow I manage....

Doc , I`ve recently joined Norwich Union on PAYD , sent you an email with a bit of info that might be helpful to you.

Quote:
It may be cheaper, but I wouldn`t do it. Do you really want Norwich Union tracking your every move just to save a few quid?

Could work in your favour if you ever become a victim of number plate cloning , I know of a few people who`ve had parking and speeding fines relating to places they never went as someone had cloned their registration onto another car.

Quote:
And do you want to be thinking, oh, I wont take that trip, it`ll make my insurance go up


I recently did a 103 mile trip and worked out it`ll cost me 63 pence for that trip which is on top of the monthly base rate which for me is just over £5.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 22nd August 2007, 00:16