Read about By Miles to see if their mileage-based car insurance might be suitable for you. Find out how By Miles features compare, how existing policyholders rate By Miles' customer service and why they won "Best Car Insurance Provider" 2021 and "Best Insurance App" 2019 at the Insurance Choice Awards.

In This Review

• By Miles Car Insurance: Overall Review
• Customer Reviews and Ratings
• Fees
• Phone numbers and policy documents
• FAQs

By Miles Car Insurance Overall Review

Is By Miles Car Insurance any good? By Miles car insurance gets 4.2 out of 5 stars from Trustpilot, which is a high rating for customer satisfaction. And the company has improved their cover with some sought-after features such as personal possessions cover and a guarantee on accident repairs.

By Miles is a unique car insurance brand, which can be particularly suitable for those who don't drive a lot, or for those who like tracking their usage and costs with an app (e.g., like watching how much electricity you used today on your smart meter). By Miles charges you according to your actual mileage each month—technically, you'll pay a fixed, annual premium according to where you normally park, and a per mileage amount on top of this which is charged monthly.

In newer cars, you can connect By Miles directly with your car's mileometer. In older cars you do plug a miles tracker into the OBD-II socket of your car (in all cars made after 2002, and normally located under your car's dashboard), this is not a typical "black box" policy. Most black box policies analyse your driving style (e.g., how aggressively you brake and accelerate) and may use this information to increase your premium, but the By Miles tracker only uses your mileage when determining your premium. They use this information to charge you for insurance.

While you don't need to install the app (or if you don't have a smartphone), doing so will let you see how many miles you've driven and, perhaps more interestingly, the cost of insurance for each trip. The app offers a few other features, such as the "find my car" function which is super useful if you've forgotten where you parked—or if your car is stolen.

By Miles policies are underwritten by a panel of insurers including UK Insurance Ltd (you may know them as the company behind Direct Line) and Covea.

Features

By Miles comprehensive plans have inmproved recently, and now offer more "must have" features as recommended by the Money Advice Service like personal possessions cover and an accident repair guarantee.

Below is a high-level summary for policies bought direct from By Miles through their website—remember, these are always subject to conditions and exclusions, which you can read about in the policy documents.

How Good is By Miles Car Insurance?	A Good Policy Includes	Does By Miles Deliver?	By Miles Comprehensive Coverage
"Must Have" Features
Windscreen	Full repair or replacement		If you use their approved repairers
Belongings	£200+		Up to £500
Keys	£300+		Included
Protected NCD	2 times in 3 years (standard or optional extra)		Optional
Car recovery after accident	Included		Included
Courtesy car (repairs)	Minimum 14 days		Included for duration of repairs if use approved repairer
Repairs guaranteed	12-month guarantee		3 years or until you sell the car
"Should Have" Features
New car replacement	Theft or damage at least 60% of list price; cars up to 12 months old		Included
Stereo and satellite nav	Market value for manufacturer fitted		Up to market value if permanently fitted and part of the manufacturer’s standard specification; up to £1,000 otherwise
Alternative transport & Hotel after accident	£250+		Up to £250
24-hour emergency helpline	Standard		Included
Courtesy car (total loss or theft)	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy 'Courtesy Car Plus'
Motor legal expenses	Standard or add-on extra		Included (can buy extra)
Breakdown cover	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy the add on
"Could Have" Features
Same cover in EU	Standard or add-on extra		Up to 90 days
Child car seat replacement after accident, theft, fire	Ideally replaced even if no visible damage		Included; need proof of purchase
Larger/premium courtesy car	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy 'Courtesy Car Plus'
Uninsured driver NCD protection	Standard		Included
Cancellation fee	No more than £50		£50, in addition to cancellation fees from insurance provider

By Miles Car Insurance Customer Service Reviews and Ratings

By Miles achieves solid customer service scores from existing policyholders, for instance their 4.3 out of 5 star rating by close to 9,000 customers at Trustpilot. We scoured online customer review sites to find out what customers are really saying, both positive and negative. Here's what we found:

By Miles Trustpilot

Over 8,000 existing customers have rated By Miles with an average of 4.2 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot—a pretty high rating for a car insurance company. In fact, 80% of customers on Trustpilot gave By Miles a 5-star "excellent" review.

Here are some comments by real customers to give a flavour of the By Miles experience. First, some positive customer comments—as you can tell, many people LOVE the concept of pay-as-you-go car insurance and love the company:

"By Miles car insurance been perfect for me as I don’t really drive my car that often, I should have looked for this type of insurance as I it’s perfect for my purposes. Since I have insured myself I have referred few of my friends and family to by miles."

"Pay by mile policy is one of the best for savings on insurance, and especially for short driving."

"It’s good to know I am only paying for the miles I am travelling."

"I had been searching for a new insurer after my premium almost doubled in year two - it was the big one that spends my hard earned £s advertising every fifteen minutes on almost every TV channel! So what a breath of fresh air to ‘PAYG’"

"This is a brilliant concept and very easy to use. This is like tailor made for me because my driving miles are not huge as I use my car only for social purposes."

"The staff were very helpful by phone, the app works well to show detail of every journey the monthly billing is clear. And over the year I will save roughly 25% compared with my previous policies. This seems like a much fairer way to finance car insurance."

"Sensible, competitive alternative for low mileage driving."

"Truly excellent. And the cheapest insurance."

The negative comments are few and far between. The most consistent issue we noticed was difficulty in contacting them. But only 7% of customers have given negative reviews. Here are a few:

"Tried to contact numerous times however can’t get through to anybody!"

"£50 CANCELLATION FEE, £50 RETAINER FOR A DEVICE I HAVE YET TO RECEIVE, POLICY NOT EVEN DUE TO START TILL A WEEK LATER, NO COOLING OFF PERIOD, CUSTOMER SERVICE AREN'T HUMAN THEY'RE ROBOTS KEEP SAYING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN QUOTING T&C'S AVOID!"

"The bit you need to connect to your car basically flattens your battery."

We should mention that a car alarm constantly use up power, and the Miles Tracker will occasionally use your car's battery when the engine is off, too. Cars that aren't driven often are more prone to the battery losing charge. Especially if your battery is older, it's cold out and you don't drive much, you should try to run your engine at least once a month or keep the battery on a trickle charger to avoid any issues.

Another 12,000+ customers have rated By Miles with 4.9 stars out of 5 at Smart Money People.

Cancellation & Administration Fees

By Miles cancellation fees are typically £50, even during the 14-day cooling off period. While this fee is around average for a car insurance cancellation fee AFTER the first 14 days, it is on the high side for cancellations DURING the first 14 days. However, keep in mind that By Miles has costs involved in setting up tracker-based policies, since they need to send them out[symbol[:m-dash]if your car is "connected" and doesn't need a tracker, you still pay the same cancellation fees, however.

On the plus side, you're not likely to pay admin fees for amendments like changing your address since you get 3 free administrative charges per year. Of course, if the computers say your admin changes are a higher risk (e.g., depending on their experience in your new neighborhood or the driving history of an additional driver) your premium may rise due to an admin change.

Important By Miles Car Insurance Phone Numbers

By Miles customer service is available over the phone on weekdays only, from 9am - 6pm—but their webchat is open 9-6 weekdays and also 10-6 on weekends.

Policy Documents

By Miles policy wording will explain the full terms, conditions and exclusions—we always recommend reading the policy documents before signing up.

FAQs

Other Car Insurance Reviews

If you'd like to compare By Miles to other car insurance companies, see our other car insurance reviews below: