Annual Mileage for Insurance

[March Hare]

I just wondered how Forum members work out the projected annual mileage for their motorhome insurance....

Do you base it on what you used the previous year, or sit down with a calculator / spreadsheet to precisely work out your routes, or do you take a guess and then adjust it +/- it as you go through the year?

We're still in our first year of motorhome ownership, so when we insured it at the end of last year we guessed at 9k miles but have had to since adjust it upwards twice, and it's now at 15k which will hopefully be enough to see us to the end of the year....

We live up in Northumberland and with family living down in the south it can be 1k miles just to drive down to see them, stay a few days touring around and head back again so the mileage "allowance" can disappear quite quickly. We also managed to fit in a six-week trip to France/Spain/Portugal in Jan/Feb this year which obviously accounts for quite a few of the miles.

 

[DavidG58]

Not sure if I am impressed or mortified that you have covered so many miles during CV19 restrictions

you must be one if very few doing so many miles this year

in 8 years our motorhome has covered 53K miles, nearly 10K one year, less than 2K this year, but there will be no ‘normal’

we declare 6K but did have an issue when we decided to go to Norway and tried to increase, but were told we could could only go up by 2K miles

had to take out a new policy before year end, we didn’t stay with the same company

 

[hblewett]

I have always insured for 10k miles a year, doing 2 long trips abroad plus whatever happens in UK. I have continued with that, more in hope than expectation for this year and probably next. I figure that there’s little point in paying a bit less insurance to guess at a reduced mileage only to have to pay the cost for more miles and a charge for amendment on top.

 

[Nasher]

I have always insured for 10k miles a year, doing 2 long trips abroad plus whatever happens in UK. I have continued with that, more in hope than expectation for this year and probably next. I figure that there’s little point in paying a bit less insurance to guess at a reduced mileage only to have to pay the cost for more miles and a charge for amendment on top.

What he said...

 

[Podney]

It will always be a guesstimate. If you choose a figure which proves to be too low,you can always inform your insurers before you exceed the figure.

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[MikeD]

I would ask them at renewal how much it goes up and at what mileage increments.

Sometimes extra mileage does not cost much but it will if you change the mileage mid term.

 

[March Hare]

Not sure if I am impressed or mortified that you have covered so many miles during CV19 restrictions

you must be one if very few doing so many miles this year

in 8 years our motorhome has covered 53K miles, nearly 10K one year, less than 2K this year, but there will be no ‘normal’

we declare 6K but did have an issue when we decided to go to Norway and tried to increase, but were told we could could only go up by 2K miles

had to take out a new policy before year end, we didn’t stay with the same company

Hi DavidG,

Thanks for your reply!

Ref the mileage, as I mentioned in my post, we had a trip across to France/Spain and Portugal in Jan/Feb this year, so we returned before Lockdown and before any of the major outbreaks were declared in France and Spain. That trip accounted for around 5k miles, and since Lockdown eased we’ve had a couple of UK trips and several visits down to family in the south. We’ve carefully adhered to the Covid regulations, and although we’ve mainly stayed on Club Sites & CL’s, as far as possible we aim to be self contained. We probably won’t get near our revised max but rather than keep increasing by small increments it was more cost effective to make the bigger increase.

But thanks for the info ref your insurance company only allowing you to increase by 2k miles when you needed to - if we change to another insurance company we’ll make sure we check what the mileage restrictions are.

 

[March Hare]

I have always insured for 10k miles a year, doing 2 long trips abroad plus whatever happens in UK. I have continued with that, more in hope than expectation for this year and probably next. I figure that there’s little point in paying a bit less insurance to guess at a reduced mileage only to have to pay the cost for more miles and a charge for amendment on top.

What he said...

Hi hblewett & Nasher,

Apologies for the late reply, but thanks for your replies, your advice is very helpful.

I'm sure you're right in that it's false economy to go for a lower mileage figure - I think our insurers charge £15 per amendment, which I think is reasonable enough but equally if we got it right to start with, we'd not have to make the amendments which all add up.

Thanks again!

 

[March Hare]

It will always be a guesstimate. If you choose a figure which proves to be too low,you can always inform your insurers before you exceed the figure.

Hi Podney! Thanks for your reply yesterday! Fortunately our insurers have allowed us to increase our annual mileage limit this year - I don't know if that's the same across the board with insurers. Hopefully we will make a more informed estimate when we come to renew our policy, although obviously with Covid it's going to be difficult to work out plans for 2021 especially wrt planning any trips across the Channel... 🗺

Thanks again.

 

[March Hare]

I would ask them at renewal how much it goes up and at what mileage increments.

Sometimes extra mileage does not cost much but it will if you change the mileage mid term.

Hi MikeD, Thanks for your reply yesterday. When we made the first increase from 9k, I think I'm right when I say the minimum you could increase was to 11k, and it was quite an expensive increase. But the last change was much cheaper per k for some reason. As you suggest, we'll definitely ask for more detailed info wrt the cost of the mileage and the available increments next time. Thanks again!

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[gus-lopez]

Start off by asking what unlimited is.