Mile Auto: A Firsthand Review – Technologist

Mile Auto is one of the more widely known companies specializing in pay-per-mile car insurance. The company compares their insurance to an electric bill, stating that, “Just as your electric bill is based on how much electricity you use, your Mile Auto insurance bill is based on how many miles you drive.”

And unlike other pay-per-mile insurance companies, one of Mile Auto’s selling points is that they don’t require any devices to live in your vehicle while you drive. This is major since many people are skeptical that more than their miles will be tracked by the devices typically required for pay-per-mile coverage.

I switched to Mile Auto this year to find out exactly how their pay-per-mile insurance works. Want to know what I’ve learned? This article shares my firsthand experience with the company, including insight on:

How Much Does Mile Auto Insurance Cost?

According to Mile Auto, “customers can save 30-40% off of their standard insurance rates,” by switching from traditional insurance to a pay-per-mile with the company. So far, my payments have fallen right in the middle of their estimate. On average, I’ve saved around 35% per month on car insurance since enrolling with Mile Auto.

To get an idea of what I’m paying, my most recent monthly bill was $98.49. And this was a higher-mileage-than-usual month for me! In addition to my base rate and per-mile rate (which I explain here), this total includes the following Mile Auto monthly fees:

• $3.00 Convenience Fee
• $5.00 Policy Administration Fee
• $5.00 Mileage Data Capture Fee

Want to know how much Mile Auto will cost you? Well, predicting just how much auto insurance costs from person-to-person is tricky because every driver is different. And every insurance company has their own way of rating drivers. Mile Auto says they base driver rates on the following variables:

• Age
• Credit history
• Driving history
• Gender
• Location
• Vehicle type and use
• Years of driving experience

In addition, your rate will also be impacted by the coverages and deductibles you select. Each of these factors is taken into consideration when calculating your base rate and per-mile (or variable) rate.

How Your Monthly Rate Is Calculated

Here’s how these rates work: Your base rate is the flat monthly rate you pay for coverage, even if you don’t drive your car at all. In addition to a base rate, you’ll have a per-mile rate. Every month, you’ll multiply the total number of miles you drove by your per-mile rate. Then, add this number to your base rate to determine the cost of your insurance for the month.

The formula for calculating the cost of pay-per-mile insurance looks like this:

Again though, with Mile Auto this math alone won’t get you to your final monthly bill. You also need to add the monthly policy fee, credit card fee and mileage monitoring fee. The company is transparent about their fees though! When I was getting quotes and before I committed to enrolling, Mile Auto presented the following message:

“We are committed to providing you with great service and 100% transparent pricing. Your initial payment includes a monthly Policy Fee of $5.00 and a monthly Credit Card Fee of $3.00. Future monthly payments will also include a Mileage Monitoring Fee of $5.00.”

Altogether, you’ll need to add $13 per month on top of your base rate and per-mile charge to get your final bill.

How Does Mile Auto Track Your Mileage?

When it comes to pay-per-mile insurance, many drivers are skeptical of how insurance companies track their mileage. Typically, pay-per-mile policies require you to either install a device directly into your car or utilize an app that tracks your driving whenever you’re on the road.

What’s the big deal? Well, as pay-per-mile policies become more popular, many insurance companies have started to offer usage-based insurance (UBI) policies to compete. But, unlike pay-per-mile policies, usage-based insurance doesn’t just track how much you drive. UBI also relies on the quality of your driving, which means factors like your speed, braking habits and times you drive are monitored too.

If you’re afraid your insurer will track your driving habits, rest assured that Mile Auto will not. The company states:

“At Mile we don’t require you to plug a ‘black box’ tracking device into your car. We don’t like the thought of your car ‘spying’ on you.”

Instead, Mile Auto uses a system called MVerity to keep track of your mileage. The system sends monthly email and text reminders for you to submit your odometer reading. From these reminders, you can click a link to submit a photo of your odometer. And that’s it. The photo is analyzed by MVerity, which validates its authenticity and your mileage.

To date, I haven’t had any issues or disputes with my submitted photos or reported mileage.

How To Submit Your Mileage to Mile Auto

When I first signed up for Mile Auto, I received a welcome text and email. These messages let me know I had three days to submit my initial odometer reading to finish activating my policy, and both communications included a link that walked me through the process.

I find it more convenient to have my cell phone in hand when I go to my car to take the picture, so I’ve only submitted my odometer readings via text. But the process is very simple and takes less than two minutes to complete.

Here’s what it looks like when I submit mileage to Mile Auto:

1. Click the link included in my monthly text message reminder.

2. Click the button with my vehicle make/model and VIN.

3. Click “Take a photo” button.

4. Take a photo of my odometer. Then, manually enter the odometer reading that my photo shows.

5. Click “Done.”

6. Wait for confirmation of my odometer reading. Like my reminders, I get a text and email once the reading is verified.

Mile Auto gives you three days to submit your odometer reading every month. And the window will fall on the same dates from month-to-month. For me, I get my text request on the 9th of each month and need to submit my photo by the 12th.

Must Read: Mileage Tracking Tips

It’s important you don’t miss the odometer reading submission window. Otherwise, Mile Auto will charge you as if you drove 75-miles-per-day for the month in question! In a 30-day period, that’s 2,250 miles. Imagine that your per-mile rate is only $0.05. That still adds up to $112.50 before you add the base rate and monthly fees.

This info wasn’t provided when I signed up online. But I called customer service after signing up online to ask a few questions. The rep I spoke with made sure to share this info with me before we disconnected, which I appreciated. I also found the info in a document titled GA Policy Contract, which was emailed to me along with other policy documents. Depending on where you live, Mile Auto might handle unreported mileage differently.

If you know you won’t be in town to report your mileage at any point, you should contact Mile Auto — ideally before you miss your window — to see what options are available for you.

If you’re worried about missing the submission window, set recurring reminders in devices/apps you use often, like a Google calendar or iPhone Reminders. It’s helpful that the dates are the same every month, and you can give yourself more notice than Mile Auto’s three-day window if you’re someone who needs more time.

Additionally reset your trip odometer (if your car has this feature) each month after you take your picture to easily keep up with how many miles you’re logging between billing cycles! You can also simply take a picture for yourself to refer back to throughout the month. But Mile Auto will always text you to confirm they’ve received your mileage each month. So, if you don’t want to do anything else, you can always refer back to their last text between bills to know where you started. This is what I do when I want to know how many miles I’ve driven between bills.

How Do You Pay for Mile Auto Insurance?

When you sign up for Mile Auto, you’re required to provide card information for your initial payment. The card you use for this payment is stored for future payments, which Mile Auto will charge on the same date each month. Here’s what my payment schedule looks like each month:

I can generally expect to have my final bill emailed to me by the 13th of each month. The sooner you submit your odometer reading, however, the sooner you can see your final bill. If you don’t want to wait for the email, just call Mile Auto and request an early invoice once you get the text confirming your odometer reading. I tried this and a customer service rep sent me my invoice within seconds.

Need to pay with a card other than the one you signed up with? You can always call to change your payment method if you want to use a different card than what’s currently on file.

What Types of Coverage Does Mile Auto Offer?

Mile Auto advertises offering “full coverage” insurance. There’s no standard industry definition of what full coverage includes. But typically, full coverage means — in addition to liability insurance, which pays for damages you cause to another person and/or their property — you have some combo of other coverages to protect you and your property after an accident.

A Mile Auto policy will automatically include the minimum liability coverages required by your state. You can use our guide for calculating how much car insurance you need to decide if you wish to purchase more than the minimums. And you can also get the following add-ons from Mile Auto:

• Comprehensive
• Collision
• Rental Reimbursement
• Roadside Assistance
• Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist

You can read all about the standard auto insurance coverages and what car insurance protects here. And while money expert Clark Howard isn’t a fan of buying Roadside Assistance insurance from your insurer, he does recommend uninsured/underinsured motorist protection.

Which States Offer Mile Auto Car Insurance?

Currently, Mile Auto offers insurance coverage in the following states:

• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Wisconsin

Mile Auto says that they’ll be expanding to other states. If you’re interested in their insurance but your state isn’t currently served, the company recommends signing up for their newsletter to be notified as new states are added. If you’re interested, you can do so from the Mile Auto homepage.

You can contact Mile Auto by calling 888-645-3001. Their line is open Monday through Friday from 9AM to 6PM (across the continental United States). When calling, select option #1 for the Customer Care team or option #2 for the Claims team. And while I haven’t tried it yet, a customer service rep also told me I could text the 888 number for support.

You can email the company at: [email protected].

There’s also a Contact Form on the Mile Auto website, which you can use to have a representative get in touch with you. The form requires your name, email address, message subject and body. Once submitted, expect someone to contact you within 24 business hours.

My Experience with Mile Auto’s Customer Service

I’ve contacted customer service several times since enrolling with Mile Auto, and each experience has been informative and pleasant. Wait times have ranged from less than a minute to 11 minutes.

The first time I called was to get support immediately after enrolling online. Unfortunately, I took a break between generating my quote and paying for the policy. When I came back to pay, I was charged less than I expected but also learned that my policy was set for lower coverage limits than I selected earlier. I was able to connect with someone within five minutes and they walked me through the process of adjusting my policy coverage limits.

The rep went out of her way to welcome me to Mile Auto, explain my payment schedule and how I’d be charged, and give me tips on how to keep up with my mileage. She also made sure to tell me about what happens if I fail to submit my odometer reading on time! This was helpful because a lot of the info she shared isn’t available online, and I honestly wasn’t planning to dig through the documents to find out right away.

Every rep I’ve spoken with since then has been very friendly and able to answer my questions.

Final Thoughts

As car insurance rates continue to rise, now is a great time to consider a pay-per-mile policy. Even knowing this, I admit I was nervous about a few things before signing up. I didn’t want to feel like my insurer had access to all my driving info, I didn’t want any surprise bills, and I didn’t want to feel like I had to be stingy or restrict myself if I suddenly needed to drive more than usual.

Mile Auto has eased each of these concerns for me. I love how easy it is to submit my odometer readings and that my insurer doesn’t have 24/7 access to my driving. I know exactly how to calculate my rate from month-to-month, so there’s no such thing as a surprise bill. There are no mileage restrictions with Mile Auto either. And even when I drive more than is typical for me, I’ve still paid significantly less than I was paying for a standard car insurance policy.

That said, if you’re someone who doesn’t want to feel like you have to do any “work” for your insurance, Mile Auto might not be for you. For example — from keeping up with the odometer submission dates to going to their car for an odometer picture — some people might feel inconvenienced by the monthly odometer reading process.

In my experience, Mile Auto has been great for my lifestyle and pockets so far. The best way to see how much you’ll save is to get a quote from Mile Auto. Before you do, check out our guide on how to shop for lower car insurance. That way you know what documents you’ll need to have ready and what to look out for when considering your coverage options.

Have you tried Mile Auto or pay-per-mile insurance? Share your experience in our free Clark.com Community!