The Benefits Of Car Insurance For Occasional Drivers
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Tracey L. Wells
Licensed Insurance Agent & Agency Owner
Tracey L. Wells is a licensed insurance agent and Farmers insurance agency owner with 23 years of experience. He is proud to be a local Farmers agent serving Grayson, Georgia and surrounding areas. With experience as both an underwriter and agent, he provides his customers with insight that others agents may not have. His agency offers all lines of insurance including home, life, auto, RV, busi...
Licensed Insurance Agent & Agency Owner
UPDATED: Oct 1, 2020
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Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about car insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything car insurance-related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by car insurance experts.
UPDATED: Oct 1, 2020
It’s all about you. We want to help you make the right coverage choices.
Advertiser Disclosure: We strive to help you make confident car insurance decisions. Comparison shopping should be easy. We are not affiliated with any one car insurance provider and cannot guarantee quotes from any single provider. Our partnerships don’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own. To compare quotes from many different companies please enter your ZIP code on this page to use the free quote tool. The more quotes you compare, the more chances to save.
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Typically, any drivers in a household have to be listed on a policy. If a driver only rarely drives one of the family cars to the store or some special event, it might seem like the cost of covering that individual outweighs the benefits. Since every driver has to have coverage, it’s best to find an insurer that has exclusive discounts for occasional drivers.
What Are Occasional Drivers?
Insurers don’t really care how often an individual operates a vehicle. They usually determine occasional drivers by the number of miles they drive in a given year.
A family member might take the car to a corner star every day, but because the store is nearby, they can still be considered occasional drivers. Because of this, some insurers will call them low-mileage drivers.
These are some ways that insurers might define occasional drivers, according to CNN Money:
A driver who operates a vehicle less than 25 percent of the total miles put on the car during a year might be considered a low-mileage driver.
Other companies may define low-mileage as less than 50 percent of the total miles put on the vehicle.
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Utilizing Low Mileage Car Insurance Discounts:
If you are interested in saving money and do not use your vehicle a great deal, you may qualify for low mileage car insurance discounts. With less than one-fifth of folks reporting a request for this type of savings, it is one of the most underutilized forms of saving on car insurance.
There are two types of discounts associated with usage. One of them monitors your usage and charges according to your driving habits. The other simply bases your premiums on the total mileage for the previous year. In some cases, insurance companies will require that drivers participate in both in order to receive the low mileage discounts.
The Mileage Cap:
Does your annual mileage total fall under 15,000? If so, you might qualify for this discount. The specifics vary from state to state and from company to company. Generally, 7,500 to 15,000 miles is the cap placed for this benefit. Allstate, State Farm, Geico and the other major companies all have policies available in states that allow for it.
There are several reasons that you might qualify. For instance, seniors often drive far less than when still commuting to work each day. People who carpool or work from home might use their car on a limited basis.
Likewise, if you have a second car that is solely for running errands, you might put limited mileage on it each year.
Parents might find the programs useful to monitor teen drivers even further.
Honest reporting is vital, or you can end up in legal hot water. Contact the major companies and find out about this and other discounts that you and the members of your household can qualify for. You might be able to shave a significant portion of your monthly insurance premiums by utilizing all of the tools available to you!
What If Low-Mileage Drivers Don’t Share Their Car?
Note that some insurers will use a set number of miles, like less than 12,000 miles a year. Even if nobody else uses the car or even lives in the household, some people could be considered low-mileage drivers under a system like this. This could offer a great advantage to retired people, folks who work at home, or even people who usually take other transportation to work and only use cars on the weekend for shopping.
How To Earn Occasional Driver Insurance Discounts?
Low-Mileage Drivers Often Qualify for Decent Discounts!
Some insurers might take the policy owner’s word about driving habits. If the discounted driver doesn’t cause claims, they are unlikely to pursue the matter. Of course, if the driver does have an accident, the insurer might examine driving habits more carefully.
In some cases, car insurance companies may ask discounted drivers to keep a log of miles that they drive in the course of a policy year. This is particularly true if one or two family members qualify, but other drivers in the household pay the full rate.
These days, some insurers even have electronic systems that they use to record mileage and other driving habits. Geico is one company that has a program like this. They use this data to set fair driving rates for everybody in the household. These systems might seem intrusive to some people, but they do offer users a way to qualify for a discount.
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Who Should Shop For Discounts For Occasional Drivers?
Retired senior citizens may keep a car for doctor’s appointments and shopping. College students might only use a family car when they are home on vacation. Work-at-home moms might only drive to take kids to weekend activities or for shopping at the grocery store.
These types of drivers would all benefit from getting lower rates because they don’t drive very often. It’s important to shop for an auto insurance company that offers the right discounts for the drivers in a household.
Occasional Driver Insurance Cost
This is quite hard to mention a price without applying quotes from some of the best auto insurance providers in the country. You don’t need to look elsewhere as you can obtain multiple free quotes to compare by clicking here.
Being a casual driver, you can expect a much lower rate as irregular drivers are less likely to cause an accident comparing to those who drive more and long.
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Tracey L. Wells
Licensed Insurance Agent & Agency Owner
Tracey L. Wells is a licensed insurance agent and Farmers insurance agency owner with 23 years of experience. He is proud to be a local Farmers agent serving Grayson, Georgia and surrounding areas. With experience as both an underwriter and agent, he provides his customers with insight that others agents may not have. His agency offers all lines of insurance including home, life, auto, RV, busi...
Licensed Insurance Agent & Agency Owner
Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about car insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything car insurance-related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by car insurance experts.