insurance and declared mileage

I have a declared mileage insurance policy on a cherished car scheme with a maximum of 5000 miles because I do not drive the car sometimes from week to week! I have just got myself a daily driver and the same insurer has asked about my mileage. I have not declared anything other than the mileage declared from the previous insurance (which was cancelled in favour of the new one). IIRC, a conversation I had with the broker, they memtioned that if I were to claim, the mileage would be checked not only for the current year, but for all the years I was insured by them and if the mileage was greater than the average, the claim would be void.

On my previous daily driver insurance, I decared 22K miles/year and because of some work committments required me to drive to a different office, I would exceed my declaration and simply called them to increase it to 24K miles. They did so without charge or any forefeit - but that was a few years ago and on the renewals, the original declaration was re-instated!

OK, I bought my car 6 months old with 10k miles on the clock, it now has about 60K on it, my invoice shows the make model and price, but not the mileage. It will have it's first MOT at the end of July. In that time it has been with Elephant, Swiftcover and Esure. All of them have asked what my annual mileage is, none of them have asked the mileage on the car when I took out the policy. If they ask me for my service book, I tell them I have done all my own servicing because I believe FSH is a false economy, so I don't have a record book.

I crash and make a claim - how does the insurance company know what annual mileage I've done?

Even if the car is of MOT age, so long as the MOT and the insurance are not renewed at the same time, they can't prove bugger all either, unless they asked you to prove what your mileage was when you took out the policy, and what could they accept as proof without sending out a surveyor with a notebook to look at your dashboard?

If I was going over my stated annual mileage due to a change in circumstances I wouldn't tell them, and since they don't tell you the "estimation" you give when you take out the policy is a cap, then they can't enforce it.

Tell them you will write to the FSA if they insist on the £250.

I think they'd have a hard time in court wriggling out of a claim, because somebody had a change in circumstances that increased the mileage half way through the policy.

[Dave20046]

Yes but I said I'd lost my keys!
Despite Grace's conviction that they were in my pocket the guy gave in and left it.
This wasn't in the event of a claim (as in crash) though.

I have never had Bennets question my milage[6000 private] on either incident but my classic car insurance asked me for the recorded MOT mileage and what was on the clock at the time of renewal
Cheap option--disconnect the vehicle speedo and buy a cheapo GPS that shows your speed and mileage[£100]

[hindle8907]

Originally Posted by Dicky Ticker

I have never had Bennets question my milage[6000 private] on either incident but my classic car insurance asked me for the recorded MOT mileage and what was on the clock at the time of renewal
Cheap option--disconnect the vehicle speedo and buy a cheapo GPS that shows your speed and mileage[£100]

remind me to never buy a car off you ! hahahah

nope never, my insurers didn't even ask me what mileage i was going to do ...

They probably didn't if you were paying a large premium
Car and bike both on 6000 did not come to £250 for the two

Had to vote KeithD as I haven't claimed, but I won't limit my mileage for the sake of saving money. ATM, I have a 2-mile commute and cycle when I'm not being lazy! I have applied for a job with a 30-mile round trip a day. I will still use the bike outside of work, an might decide to go on tour. It is pretty shoddy of them though, to be fair. £250 is probably way over the actual risk increase. NAME AND SHAME!!!!!

I wasn't asked last time I made a claim, but I always declare 10K minimum anyway because the extra costs me pennies at my age and I do a lot of miles some years.