Low-Mileage Insurance Discount

A low-mileage auto insurance discount is a decrease in your car insurance rates based on how many miles you drive your vehicle in a certain time frame. Many people don’t drive as much as they used to and the less time you spend on the road, the less chance you have of getting in an accident and filing a claim. You could save money on your car insurance simply because you are not doing something – driving!

A low-mileage car insurance discount is a way you can save money on your car insurance premium simply by driving very little. You’re already saving money on gas, so why not save money on your car insurance as well?

Freeway Insurance will help you discover what these savings can do for you, as well as finding other ways to save money and find cheap car insurance.

Anyone who doesn’t regularly have to drive very much is a good candidate for a low-mileage discount. This may include students, retirees, those who work from home, and anyone who lives in an area with a good public transit system.

If you’ve been having to fuel up the car less these days because you are traveling less, it’s certainly worth asking your insurance carrier about the discount. While different carriers have different numbers in mind for “low-mileage,” it never hurts to ask. When speaking to your carrier, you can also always ask about other discounts you may qualify for, including safe driving discounts.

Your insurance company will need to verify that you have driven below a certain threshold to qualify for the low-mileage discount. After that, they can provide a discount on your monthly insurance premium.

While anyone can benefit from this discount, it is particularly useful for college students, retirees, and others who don’t plan on driving much over the next few years. Ultimately, requesting a low-mileage discount helps these groups experience savings without making any real changes in their lifestyle.

Some insurance companies treat the low-mileage discount very differently from a usage discount, and some treat them similarly. The primary difference is that a low-mileage discount lets you get savings for the entire year, but the usage-based discounts may vary from month to month.

One of the reasons why many drivers confuse the low-mileage discount and the usage-based discount is because they often have similar prerequisites. For example, many insurance carriers have drivers install a device in their car to verify how much or how little they drive it. Other insurance carriers check your vehicle once a year to verify that you don’t use it very much.

Some insurance carriers check your car’s odometer each year to verify that you haven’t driven it very much from month to month. Other carriers ask you to install a device in your vehicle that monitors your driving habits and reports them back to your carrier.

There are some advantages to each approach. When the carrier checks your odometer and applies a low-mileage discount for the entire year, you get to enjoy a predictable amount of savings from month to month. With a usage-based discount backed by a device, you may be able to enjoy deeper savings on your car insurance from month to month depending on how much you drove.

If your insurance carrier simply checks your odometer for a low-mileage discount, there is functionally no downside to pursuing these savings. However, if your carrier uses a third-party device to verify your low-mileage, there are some potential drawbacks to consider.

Some low-mileage discounts and most usage-based discounts require that you use a device to report your driving habits back to your insurance carrier. Usually, this is a third-party device that you must buy and install, but your carrier may be able to use an existing device such as OnStar to monitor driving habits.

The primary drawback to these devices is that they are recording and transmitting all of your driving habits and not just telling your carrier how much you drove. They will also monitor things like your driving speeds and your braking speeds. If you tend to both drive and brake too fast in the eyes of your insurance carrier, they may end up raising your rates once they check the data!