A very popular question lately has been,”what are the eligibility requirements for the low mileage discount?” With several people still working from home, traffic on the road is less. In general, everyone is logging fewer miles in their vehicle than normal. Even weekend driving has flucuated with places being closed and capacity reduced. So, when is the right time to call the insurance company and inquire about changing your policy?
What are the qualification for the low mileage discount?
The low mileage discount is based entirely on the amount of miles you log annually. It is not broken down weekly, during commute hours, or even seasonally. Typically the magic number with most carriers is around 7,000 miles per year. Broken into weeks, that’s 135 miles per week.
How can I track this?
There are two decent ways to give yourself an idea. Both take a little bit of time to figure up, but it will help you know where you stand with the discount option.
First, you can google maps the mileage to the places you go, and estimate how often you go. This can include work, school, sports, shopping, visiting friends, church, volunteer organizations, and more. Sometimes, when you stop and think about how many trips you make running back and forth to things outside of work, you find you’re driving more than you thought.
The second thing you can do is watch your odometer in your vehicle. Start on September first by writing down your mileage, and on October first check to see how many miles you logged. Multiply that number by twelve and that’s a close guess at your annual miles.
Other things to consider.
Be sure that you take into account if you’re working from home permanently or temporarily. Also, what seasons your kids play sports and the distance to their away games. If you take an annual road trip. And any holiday travel you normally do.
For most people, even those who work from home, they are logging more than 135 miles per week on average. Since this is an annual discount, it can not be added and removed several times through out the term based on different months. You submit your trip reading once per year to maintain the discount.
If you find that you are continually staying under 135 miles, give me a call and we can talk about getting it added on for you.
