Many people are not aware that there is more than one way to get insurance for driving. You do not have to stick with the most common approach of buying an annual policy that covers you for all the driving you do over the course of a year. For many people this is not an economic or viable way of getting insurance and it would work out much more expensive to do it that way. The main alternative is some form of temporary cover and the most interesting option for many is pay as you go car insurance.
What happens with pay as you go cover is that you just pay for the driving you actually do. You may well wonder why you would want to do that. Well, many people do not have regular patterns of driving where they take their car to work five days a week and do some running around at weekends. Some people do not work full time or do not always need a car to get to work or do their jobs. One group in particular who often fall into this category are young people.
For young drivers car insurance can be extremely expensive. Particularly if you are looking for an annual policy to cover what the insurer perceives as average driving patterns. Many young people live with parents and perhaps only work part time or sporadically. The result is that they may need to do quite a bit of driving one month but nothing at all the next. Pay as you go cover is a way or just paying for the driving you do each month.
The cost of premiums for any auto cover is worked out based on many factors. As well as obvious ones like the age and size or car you drive, they will consider where you live and perhaps how much mileage you are likely to do over the year. It stands to reason that the more you drive and the more time you spend on the roads, the greater your chance of having an accident and making a claim, statistically at least. Certain roads present a higher risk to insurers than others and driving at certain times of day compared to others can be more risky too. These are all things that are considered by insurers and by using pay as you go cover you can bring down the cost of premiums if your driving habits are relatively low risk.
The basic principle behind this option is that you are provided with a satellite device by the insurance company. They arrange for this to be fitted into your car, at no cost to you, and it enables the organisation to record exactly how much mileage you do and where and when you are doing it. You then get a monthly bill based on this actual activity, rather than some estimated average that you may or may not do.
Pay as you go car insurance can be a highly cost effective and sensible solution for young people or other drivers who have irregular needs when it comes to how much driving they do. It is totally flexible and allows you to only pay in proportion to the amount of driving you need to do.
Find out where to get the best value pay as you go car insurance on the author's website. K D Garrow has several websites providing free advice on a range of finance related issues, including advice on car insurance for a day and his Insurance Young Drivers website.