Pay as You Drive Insurance

July 6, 2009

Annual car insurance policies are costly for car owners who only drive occasionally. Learn how Pay As You Drive insurance (PAYD) can save you money.

Pay as you drive insurance, or PAYD, is a great option for allowing drivers to scale their insurance costs according to how much they use a vehicle. Many different insurers are offering this service to American households and drivers to help fit good auto coverage into a budget. There are several different options for PAYD that drivers can take advantage of to really help keep auto insurance costs under control.

Pay as You Drive Insurance Options

  • Choose specific mileage amounts. Drivers can calculate the specific number of miles that they drive in a given time period (say, in weekly commuting) and cover those miles with a specialized pay as you drive insurance policy.
  • Choose miles or time. Some insurers offer the option of covering auto use by time (hours) instead of miles. This is good for when commuting is long-distance.
  • Choose odometer readings or installed technology. Drivers with pay as you drive insurance policies can often choose whether to install GPS technology in their vehicle to record miles, or whether to submit odometer readings at a dedicated reading station.
  • Choose which vehicles should be covered. Drivers can insure one or multiple vehicles with pay as you drive insurance coverage to save a lot of money on the fiscal budget.
  • Choose scalable options. Some pay as you drive insurance options can be expanded to fit more miles when necessary. Talk to reps about how these kinds of systems can work in your favor if you do have some fluctuating mileage necessities.

These are some of the basic considerations for getting this new and popular type of insurance.

Saving Money with Pay as You Drive Insurance

Car insurance can be expensive depending on the driving record, the car and the age of the person who is looking for the insurance, but pay as you drive insurance can be a way to keep this cost down. For some, pay as you drive car insurance can be an attractive alternative to more costly policies. Much like a regular insurance policy, there are a few ways to save money with pay as you drive car insurance.

  • Keeping a Low Mileage. Keeping mileage low is the biggest way to save money with pay as you drive car insurance. By limiting your mileage, you are not driving your car as much, or as often; this is what drives the car insurance rates down. Insurance companies will often install GPS devices that can take information about how many miles you have driven.
  • Short Driving Spans. Some companies will use the GPS device to track how long you drive in one sitting. By only driving in short spans, and for short distances, you can save money with pay as you drive car insurance.
  • Driving Safely. As with any other type of car insurance, driving safely will help to keep your pay as you drive insurance rates down. Just like other types of insurance, any problems on your driving record will often increase the rates.

Pay as you drive insurance can offer a less-costly option to some people. Use the information found here to help you when considering whether a pay as you drive insurance policy is right for you.

How to Get Pay as You Drive Insurance

Many thrifty Americans are flocking to a new kind of auto insurance policy called pay as you drive insurance or PAYD. Pay as you drive insurance is pretty much what it sounds like: drivers pay to insure only the mileage that they use. This is definitely a good option for those who don't spend a lot of time in their vehicles, or for those who can plan their driving schedules well. Those signing onto PAYD agreements that fit their actual usage can see significant savings.

  • Find a PAYD insurer. Lots of the big insurers, like Progressive and National, now offer some kind of pay as you drive insurance to their customers. Locate an insurer that you like and find out if they offer these kinds of options for minimizing car use and combining savings with environmentally friendly gas conservation
  • Work out a "technology arrangement". One of the biggest stumbling blocks to a pay as you drive insurance policy is the requirement for monitoring mileage. Many drivers do not like the GPS equipment that insurers want to place in their vehicles. The other option is to routinely visit "mileage checkpoint stations" where the insurer can record what kind of mileage is put on a vehicle. These aspects of a PAYD arrangement can be deal breakers, so it's best to discuss them early.
  • Settle on a "mileage figure". First, get quotes from your insurer for specific mileage benchmarks. Then, decide which one best fits your actual use. Communicate this to your insurer and build a policy.
  • Stick to your agreement. After the pay as you drive policy is written, there still one major hurdle: limiting your actual use. Although it might seem great in theory, the PAYD option breaks down for many drivers when they actually get behind the wheel. Try a "trial period" for your pay as you drive insurance policy to make sure you're getting what you need without excessively restricting your driving options.

Avoiding Surcharges with Pay as You Drive Insurance

Some companies will lump you with a rental charge for the monitoring device, and any service they provide with regard to it. If you set your annual mileage to 9000 per year, and you exceed that amount, you could end up with a huge bill for pay as you drive insurance surcharges to cover the extra miles. It's kind of like bank charges that you pay for going overdrawn without a previous agreement.

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