We are off topic as regards the original question.
But checking the mot could only be used if you’ve gone over the mileage after the mot.
The car could have done zero miles between insurance take up and mot time.
You could have been driving 6 months or the car stood for all anyone knows.
Although it seems in this case mileage was declared.
Of course, my reply was on the strong side, granted. I just wanted to make sure that the OP was well aware that in some circumstances it would be straightforward to deduce a vehicle had gone over a limited mileage using a combination of publicly available information and information that the insurer could request. I will edit my reply accordingly.
Ok yes I understand.
What’s to say that the MOT tester entered the mileage correctly
Interested in the whole concept of the cover being invalid the day you go over your stated mileage. Is this just an assumption . If not and if this is in the contractual terms I see it.
However, if you under insure your house by, say, 20% then you get an 80% payout on the grounds you were under insured. That’s how it used to work anyway.
So does invalidating your car insurance cover immediately constitute an unfair contract term?
What would happen if you had an accident 5 miles before you went over your agreed mileage, just 6 months into your term? Would the insurance company gladly pay out, even though it was obvious you were doing twice the mileage you should be doing.
Only an insurance company can answer your questions, unless it’s stated explicitly in the policy wording. This might also vary from insurer to insurer.
I think this thread got overcomplicated - that’s partly on me.
IMHO the takeaway should be that if you are putting a car on limited mileage and don’t have a fair degree of certainty over its annual mileage then make sure you can make changes to your policy online, without an admin fee, and midway through the term. In my own experience, the difference between a couple of thousand miles is pounds or low tens of pounds. For that reason, I don’t know why you wouldn’t just make sure you update your insurance if necessary. The OP is in a different position in that apparently Lancaster can’t update their existing policy so if the mileage is exceeded it’ll be expensive to put cover in place that allows for the higher mileage.
I’ve always had 20k mileage on my policies, ever since I read about over running your quota. Never really noticed a difference in price as I change companies every time they pu5 my policy up and get a cheaper one.
Hi
Would be interested to know who you are with now then. Have spent the morning getting various quotes all of which are over twice what I was paying before with Lancaster (who as someone said will give no refund) for a 9500 pa mileage.
Still have 1700 miles to run so I am sitting tight at the moment.
Michelle.
As you’ll get no refund on the policy that’s already in place, are you going to run that down from a mileage point of view and then just take out a new policy elsewhere at that point?
Overall I’m surprised that Lancaster can’t adjust it, but it sounds like you’ve exhausted all avenues. It would be good if there was someone from Lancaster who could respond, especially as they’re an MX5OC club insurer. @martin - do we have any direct club liaison that could be approached with this particular issue?
Is your car standard (unmodified)? How close to your price at Lancaster do you get if you run a comparison through, say, Compare the Market?
Hi
Yes, that’s exactly what I intend to do. I rang Lancaster this morning in the midst of speaking to other insurance companies because I thought it was only fair to give them a chance to respond, given that I have been with them for four years. The answer I got from their customer services was exactly the same : they could not adjust the mileage and for a mileage of 10k on a new policy would cost £800. They would not give a refund but since I had paid enough there would be no admin fee for cancellation!!
I find it incredible that this company, which advertises profusely in Hard Top Soft Top and claims to be on the side of MX5 owners is not in the least bit interested in being helpful or competitive. I had thought I might be able to speak with their actual insurer but of course there are not contact details and they would probably insist that I went through Lancaster as broker.
Frankly with some of the premiums I am being quoted it is almost worth the risk to do nothing at all until next April, almost but not quite, so I will leave it until I am within 500 miles I guess and then accept the lowest premium offering the best value.
This should certainly be a wake up call to others in a similar position.
Michelle.
As per suggestion above our Club contact has recently moved on, and waiting to hear about a replacement, will chase that up. I think part of the issue is the specialist brokers/insurers such as Lancaster like to deal with us Club members who are more likely to look after their car, and do low mileages. The risks are clearly far less. Once you move up to higher mileage per year, I guess its not then considered an enthusiasts car, with all the extra care taken with it, so your looking at insurance costs more akin to daily drivers. I did get close to my limit one year, as two European tours managed to fall within the same 12 month period of my policy, it was near renewal anyway, but I did advice the broker (who was one of the Club partners) and they took note of it, and no extra charge. But I was within a few weeks of renewal, and was only likely to go over by a few miles. Premiums have gone bonkers it seems. I had a real battle with the daily driver a few months ago getting that renewed for sensible money, so market is not what it was.
Hello Martin
Yes, I understand what you are saying. When I owned a Lotus Elan +2 I believe I had a mileage limited to 5k. However that was principally because I also had a Rover 2000 at that time and also much as I loved the Lotus, it was not anywhere near as reliable as an MX5. As a Club member Lancaster should appreciate that I do look after my car however I also enjoy driving it as much as possible and it is my ‘daily car’
I took it up to the Lake District on Holiday in June and that added nearly 900 miles in total. Fact is I feel I am being penalised for enjoying and driving the car and that is unfortunate.
Michelle.
Figure out how to pause the mileage.
I’m currently with Aviva. Was with Direct Line before that. DL raised my renewal by £100 so I changed.
I use the Compare the Market to find a good deal and then those site that don’t use 3rd parties.
I do have a 20000 mileage on my policy, I just had a look. So I don’t need to worry about going over it.
Regards Micky
Hi Micky
Many thanks for that. Have decided to wait a bit but will try compare the market when I need to renew.
Michelle
Is it really a limited mileage policy or is that the indicated mileage you gave them to quote against?
Even if the former I can’t believe Lancaster won’t amend the mileage. Changing that is no different to changing your car…
Hi
Yes it was a limited mileage policy : 7500 miles pa. I can assure you that Lancaster absolutely refused to increase this and would not give me a sensible premium for another policy. Therefore after 4 years with them it is likely that I will go with another insurer who is more flexible.
Michelle.
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