A different approach to Car Insurance – By Miles [ad]

By Miles

Hands up who hates changing their car insurance? Definitely me, oh my gosh it’s the one thing every year that I absolutely do check the prices on and change but I hate doing it. Mainly because the whole process takes me hours to compare quotes and be sure that I have found the best deal.

I have good news for you, I have details on a company with a different approach to car insurance.  ByMiles.co.uk is the only UK company to offer real-time pay-per-mile car insurance. You can pay according the number of miles that you do. Wow!! This is a different way of paying for car insurance.

By Miles have been trading for over 1 year now and are gaining lots of customers (aimed at the 25-78 age group) in the age 25 to every day. They are currently (as at Sept 2019) rated 9.6/10 on TrustPilot. I know this is very rare for a car insurance company, it’s a tough industry for customer recommendations!

Many of us Drive very few Miles

Did you know that more than half of us drive very few miles in our cars? This new pay-per-mile insurance gives those of us whom drive less miles a different option for their car insurance. According to MOT data, 60% of UK motorists drive less than 7000 miles per year.

By Miles did some interesting research and found that lower mileage driver ends up paying more expensive premiums! Which is ridiculous and does not make any sense, if you drive less, you’re less likely to have an accident and so should you pay less. Here is the link to the research of 2,500,000 comparison site quotes which shows that with normal car insurance the opposite is true and lower mileage drivers normally pay more)

Getting a Quote

I did my own check as there is a handy 5 question tool to give you an idea of what your insurance would cost with By Miles. Here is link to the tool, click here to get a quote to compare to your current insurance. 

The 5 questions ask you car reg, years of no-claims, your postcode, age and no of miles you estimate you will do. And this was my quote.

A base cost to be paid up front of £170.69, with a further 3.2p per mile driven to be paid on a monthly basis. If I did 6000 miles, so 500 miles per month the insurance would cost an extra £16 per month. The full year policy would cost £362, which is a very good price and very comparable to my current policy (that includes awful admin charges, see later)

This is wonderful for those of us who hardly ever use their cars. People who use it for local popping to the shops, or those who commute to work using the train and the car is mainly for weekend. Also perfect for those of us with second cars, the 2^nd car normally being used far less.

Why not grab yourself a quick quote and see if its something that would save you money?

How Does the Mile checking process work?

I am intrigued by this as I have read a bit about black boxes, an insurance option often recommended for younger drivers.

• By Miles charges according to “how far you drive” and not on “how you drive” and your per-mile rate doesn’t change over the life of your policy. There’s no driver scoring and no penalties or price changes if you break or accelerate a bit too hard.
• They don’t report any speeding to the police (at least, not without a court order).
• There are no curfews.
• You don’t need an engineer to fit the Miles Tracker. Before you buy, they check your car’s compatible (most cars made in the EU after 2002 are). After you buy, they send you a Miles Tracker in the post, it’s about the size of a small match box and you simply plug in yourself. If you have a problem just give them a call and they’ll talk you through it.

I am loving the many money saving aspects of this different approach to car insurance

I normally begrudgingly pay the car insurance in full as I know if I pay it monthly, I am hit with added interest charges. You do not get this with By Miles. Once you’ve paid your upfront fee for the year, you just pay for the miles you drive at the end of each month. That’s it. There are no interest rate charges. This also helps you spread the cost of your insurance rather than paying it all at the start of your policy.

Mileage costs are capped so that you can drive as much or as little as you want. To help when you drive more:

• Daily mileage costs are capped at 150 miles, so the rest of your miles that day are free once you’ve driven more than 150 miles.
• Annual mileage costs are capped at 10,000 miles, so the rest of your miles are free once you’ve paid for 10,000 miles in a year.

E.g. if you go for a long drive of 250 miles in a day, then you remain fully covered but you are only charged for 150 miles for that day.

I must moan about admin fees, as I have recently been stung. A simple name change on a policy cost me £65! YES £65. With By Miles there are no admin charges on your first 3 policy changes each year. Most insurers charge you admin fees when you need to update your policy e.g. because you’ve moved to a new house, changed car, added a person to the policy etc. By Miles don’t charge admin fees on your first 3 changes each policy year.

Note the price of your fixed annual cost and per-mile rate could still go up if e.g. if you move to a higher risk area or it could go down e.g. if you get a cheaper car.

There is a very cool app 

I love an app that gives me information to help control my spending. It includes the following

• Statements – stay in control of your spending with transparent itemised monthly statements – these are also available online
• Individual journey details – keep track of your trips with maps for each journey
• Find My Car – remind yourself where you’ve parked in car parks or get help tracking your car down if it’s stolen
• Car Medic – a quick scan of your car’s engine codes to check for problems

This is a collaborative post with By Miles. If you do decide to get a quote and switch your insurance over to By Miles I will receive a small fee for referring you. This in no way affects the price you pay.