Insurance

[Tobeman]

First off - say hello to Gordon...



My first car! Been saving for a while and finally took the plunge - an almost pristine condition 1999 Mini 40 Limited Edition (#103 of 250 )

Various quotes from searches and specialist insurers (MiniWorld Insurance, Adrian Flux etc.) are coming out approx £1150 - £1350 for a year, with me down as main driver and Mother Tobeman as named driver (hoping it would reduces prices...)

When adding myself as the named driver, and mummy as the main driver, the cheapest quote I can find is £430ish with Zurich. Obviously I am warming to the idea of paying some £900 less.

My query is, short of not accruing a NCD, what difference does myself going down as a named driver make? The only reason I ask is because I have heard horror stories of insurance firms not paying out in the event of an incident occurring when a named driver (rather than main driver) behind the wheel.

Oh, one other thing... I have been quoting the use for social, domestic and pleasure only. The real usage is likely to include driving to the train station, which I then commute onwards using. Should select social, domestic, pleasure + commute usage in this instance?

Thanks folks

[Mblaster]

My query is, short of not accruing a NCD, what difference does myself going down as a named driver make? The only reason I ask is because I have heard horror stories of insurance firms not paying out in the event of an incident occurring when a named driver (rather than main driver) behind the wheel.

Well, if you are going to be the 'main driver' but you have your mum as the main driver on the insurance then officially that's not allowed. In most situations the insurance company aren't going to go to the effort to try and check out if you are actually the main driver or not, but if you end up in a situation where the insurance company has a very large payment to pay out then they're going to check every part of the insurance for a way out of paying it.

In normal circumstances there won't be any problems, but it's whether or not you want to take that risk. Also, something to note is that if your mum is insured on another car with X years NCB, you can't use that NCB when insuring another car on a different policy.

[eshrules]

First off - say hello to Gordon...



My first car! Been saving for a while and finally took the plunge - an almost pristine condition 1999 Mini 40 Limited Edition (#103 of 250 )

Various quotes from searches and specialist insurers (MiniWorld Insurance, Adrian Flux etc.) are coming out approx £1150 - £1350 for a year, with me down as main driver and Mother Tobeman as named driver (hoping it would reduces prices...)

When adding myself as the named driver, and mummy as the main driver, the cheapest quote I can find is £430ish with Zurich. Obviously I am warming to the idea of paying some £900 less.

My query is, short of not accruing a NCD, what difference does myself going down as a named driver make? The only reason I ask is because I have heard horror stories of insurance firms not paying out in the event of an incident occurring when a named driver (rather than main driver) behind the wheel.

Oh, one other thing... I have been quoting the use for social, domestic and pleasure only. The real usage is likely to include driving to the train station, which I then commute onwards using. Should select social, domestic, pleasure + commute usage in this instance?

Thanks folks

first of all, most insurance firms have now got wise to the practice of young kid + old adult as named/main driver, I do know through personal experience that certain firms will revoke the insurance once they realise this, it happend to my gf and sister-in-law, after their mum tried a similar thing.

commuting is the commuting to and from a place of work, strictly speaking the train station is not your place of work, so you shouldn't need to. I'd get quotes anyway to cover it, I shouldn't imagine it'll affect it much anyhow.

[mmh]

it is called fronting, and is illegal... if you have an accident and the insurance investigate it, they will revoke the insurance, not pay out, and you can be done for driving without valid insurance...

[mmh]

nice mini btw

[PeteSmith]

You should start saving your NCD, otherwise your going to get robbed each and every time you come to renew your insurance. (Robbed is the polite way of putting it). In time your premium will come down and stop costing silly money.

[schmunk]

Oh, one other thing... I have been quoting the use for social, domestic and pleasure only. The real usage is likely to include driving to the train station, which I then commute onwards using. Should select social, domestic, pleasure + commute usage in this instance?

Yes.

[Tobeman]

So what does being a named driver allow you to do? I can't quite see the benefit... apologies for being ignorant - named drivers are essentially on the policy but... can't drive for fear of having an accident?

Is this just a massive grey area, or am I missing something?

[mycarsavw]

My wife is a named driver on my policy. I drive my car 99.9999% of the time. Should something happen to me and I wasn't able to drive my car home (or whatever) my wife would be able to drive it for me.

Last time we had to do this was when my appendix burst and she had to drive me, in my car, to hospital.

[Mblaster]

So what does being a named driver allow you to do? I can't quite see the benefit... apologies for being ignorant - named drivers are essentially on the policy but... can't drive for fear of having an accident?

Is this just a massive grey area, or am I missing something?

No, the named driver has full insurance exactly the same as the main driver. The problem is when the person doing 90% of the driving in the car is listed as the named driver while there is someone else as the main driver (usually older and female to keep the insurance cost down) who is barely using the car.

[schmunk]

No, the named driver has full insurance exactly the same as the main driver. The problem is when the person doing 90% of the driving in the car is listed as the named driver while there is someone else as the main driver (usually older and female to keep the insurance cost down) who is barely using the car.

Exactly - the main driver should be the main driver.

[J4MES]

The owner of the vehicle (on the V5C) is assumed to be the main driver, a named driver doesn't own the car but has (some) use of it. Adding a driver with either more age or experience will almost always reduce the premium, but you will be asked when setting up the policy who is the registered owner/keeper of the car and ipso facto the main driver...

nice wheels!

[Barakka]

I have known couples where they had two cars, both cars insured in the womans name with the bloke as the named driver on both policies. In both cases though they really did drive the cars 50/50 so neither was a main driver of each car and the insurers were fine about it. But if they'd checked they wouldn't have been able to prove otherwise as they literally took it in turns driving the cars.

The thing is insurance companies will do anything to get out of sizeable claims when they can, including interviewing your neighbours to find out who drives which car etc.

The other consideration is if your mum already has a car, in which case she can't use her NCB from that car on another car with a different insurer, and if she tries to do it through her existing insurer it will be pretty obvious what she's doing.

You need to build up your NCB as soon as possible because that expensive first year doesn't really go away, all you'll end up doing is waiting another xx years before getting your own insurance and find you can still only afford to insure a 15 year old mini, and it will still cost you about £900

My wife was 22 (so past the mystical 21 insurers go on about) when she got her first car, which was a Fiat Cinquecento 900cc, and her first years insurance, with 4 years driving experience, was about £800.

[kalniel]

Yup - get as old as you can before needing a car, then ask them about limited milage/time of use schemes, anything to make them thing you're less risk than the average young driver.

[Vimeous]

Did you ask for a straight quote without Mother Tobeman?
I'd expect that your original quotes with her as named driver will still be lower than you on your lonesome.

My dearest was a named driver for over ten years until she stopped borrowing her Dads company motor. In her case it would have been easy to prove he was the main driver so it was well worth doing.
I was in your situation when I started driving and there were three things that swayed me:
1. As discussed the risk of being discovered when my parents never drove the car was not worth it.
2. A NCB is very helpful towards making better cars affordable to insure later. A protected NCB (usually at 5yrs NCB) should mean you insurance premium stays low. It's well worth having.
3. Most people have an accident in the first few years of driving, me included. If my parents had been the main driver on my car then the premium on their other two cars would have also gone up. Frankly I had no wish to come home one day and tell them they'd be shelling out for my accident!

Someone usually mentions this and I havn't noticed it yet so have you thought of Pass Plus?
No idea what the cost of the test is but a pass should bring your premium down.