Living Car Free - Car-lite insurance discount?

Has anyone ever managed to get a discount on their car insurance for being car-lite? My bike is my primary vehicle, and I've managed to insure my only car as 'for pleasure', since I put very few miles on it each year. I get a bit of a discount for that. However, I still pay more for insurance on it than any two-car family I know pays for THEIR second vehicle (multi-car discount, I guess, is better than the pleasure vehicle discount). It ticks me off a bit because they typically drive that second vehicle 10x further than I drive my car. I know I'll never pay a 'fair' rate for car insurance, but I'd just be interested in hearing your stories.

Has anyone ever managed to get a discount on their car insurance for being car-lite? My bike is my primary vehicle, and I've managed to insure my only car as 'for pleasure', since I put very few miles on it each year. I get a bit of a discount for that. However, I still pay more for insurance on it than any two-car family I know pays for THEIR second vehicle (multi-car discount, I guess, is better than the pleasure vehicle discount). It ticks me off a bit because they typically drive that second vehicle 10x further than I drive my car. I know I'll never pay a 'fair' rate for car insurance, but I'd just be interested in hearing your stories.

I called AllState just to see what they do, not that I own a car. I was told AllState would NOT give a discount but they would reduce your rates by 5% or 10%. So it is better than nothing but only if you're paying full coverage!

I got a discount a number of years ago when I explained that our family car typically went less than 6000 miles a year. IIRC, there was a discount at 6000, but nothing at a point below that. However, it was certainly worth checking out with the insurance company. For the first couple of years, I did have to send in a report of mileage, but haven't gotten such a request lately.

In Ontario, the pleasure use discount seems to run around 10%.

Yes, Ontario is where I got my discount, and that's what it was, 10%. I think your mileage had to be under 10000km/year (6000 miles). I don't exactly consider that to be light usage, and there was no further discount. Here is Saskatchewan, there's no discount based on mileage. It's too bad. Our insurance is provided by the province, so that would be an opportunity for the government to encourage bicycle use. It's not on the radar though. At least not yet... I heard something recently about Americans getting some tax incentives for bicycle use. Since Canada seems to perpetually copy American policies, I sure hope that's a lead we follow.

I put all my cars under pleasure discount years ago .. didn't really see much difference.

Wonder if there is any kind of insurance policy available specifically for cyclists?

This is a good thought, My grandpa, dad, and brother are all state farm agents so ill ask around and report back.

I posed the same question to the forum a little while ago. The holy grail - and would would really be fair - is called "pay-as-you-drive", where your rate is based on how many miles you drive. I suppose it would also be fair to add something to that though, considering theft/damage while your car is parked (if your plan includes such coverage), but this would absolutely be better than the unjust system most of us are stuck with now. Unfortunately pay as you drive seems to be limited to select large cities currently.

What I have done, and what I urge everyone in the same situation to do, is ask your agent for pay-as-you-drive. Tell them that if another carrier offers it you won't hesitate to switch. And ask carriers that do have it in at least some places to bring it to you.

I currently have Allstate and like others I get 10% or so off for being under 7000 miles/year. I haven't driven 700 miles in either of the last two years.

Because of high insurance rates here for car-lite use, when I first decided I would rarely need a car I decided to just sell the car and rent a car as needed. If the car rental part of the rental car (ie not the gas) costs say $60 for a weekend, renting once a month would cost $720. If basic insurance is over $1000, not to mention wear and tear and the capital costs of the car, its easy math. Also then I determined I needed to rent a car a lot less than I thought I would - often things that are far away I would do with others that would have a car and chip in with gas.

But the fail point I guess comes when there is something you really want to do and you can't rent a car - e.g. to go to a thanksgiving dinner in the countryside at the last minute, and no cars left available to rent. And of course when you own your own car you could drive somewhere for vacation, leave the car parked for 10 days, then drive back.. where with the rental you'll pay for 10 days of car when you only actually drove it on 2.

Before we replaced one of our last cars, Allstate gave us a ten-dollar-per-month discount, not for riding a bicycle per se, but for keeping the mileage of that car below 7,500 for the year, which I was able to do for a few years.

I rented a car for a month in 2005 and it cost $850.00. Rates are higher now. In my small town Hertz charges over $125.00 per day! I wonder how many people use it. The local Enterprise car rental place charges just over $60.00 per day for some cars. These prices seem insane. It is probably partly due to living in a small city with too few competitors in that business and fewer cars being rented per day.

Renting a car is still cheaper in the long run than owning one for less than 1000 miles of usage per year. Most of the time I take a taxi cab instead of renting a car. U-haul trucks are as little as $19.99 per day plus gas and mileage. That might be the cheapest vehicle to rent for hauling things around town.

I rented a car for a month in 2005 and it cost $850.00. Rates are higher now. In my small town Hertz charges over $125.00 per day! I wonder how many people use it. The local Enterprise car rental place charges just over $60.00 per day for some cars. These prices seem insane. It is probably partly due to living in a small city with too few competitors in that business and fewer cars being rented per day.

Renting a car is still cheaper in the long run than owning one for less than 1000 miles of usage per year. Most of the time I take a taxi cab instead of renting a car. U-haul trucks are as little as $19.99 per day plus gas and mileage. That might be the cheapest vehicle to rent for hauling things around town.

Last time I rented a car it was about $25 I think for the day for a compact car to pick up heavy tiles. I figured the cab ride from the location would have been about $20 (or more) but having the car allowed for some other distant errands that would have been very time consuming by bike.

That is expensive prices! Here there are a lot of chains but also a lot of car-free people, so enough rentals they always opt out of the chain-wide 9.99 a day (or whatnot) specials. $25 is never available during the summer. Another time I think it ended up being $50 for a day.

The rental companies usually charge about $20 on top of that for collision insurance (liability is automatically included) but I have a no-fee credit card that covers that.

Many cities have "rent-a-beater" services that provide older cars for less than the traditional rental companies charge for their newer models. And if you have flexcar in your area, you have it made.

Many cities have "rent-a-beater" services that provide older cars for less than the traditional rental companies charge for their newer models. And if you have flexcar in your area, you have it made.

Anyone have any idea how the insurance works on this? I was thinking of calling Geico to get a non-owner policy (do they have such things?) and not fretting about the rental insurance.