tempory car insurance for foreign drivers

bongobec

HAve just been looking into this for my parents (who are Australian) and it's a nightmare! Until recently I was simply able to add them as temporary drivers to my policy with Tesco, but Tesco has recently changed underwriters and will no longer add non UK residents. Have been looking around for a temporary driver policy. Finally found one through DayInsure (not allowed to post a link as I'm a new user, but if you google them you'll find it) but it's prohibitively expensive (£478 to add the 2 of them for 28 days, whereas it used to cost about £40 to add them for a month to my insurance policy). Interestingly this policy is underwritten by Aviva but Aviva don't seem to offer it directly themselves.

My parents also tried enquiring from their Australian insurer and a broker in Australia but no luck (probably because most countires don't make as difficult as the UK and include temporary drivers as standard in a car insurance policy).

Am now going to try to find a new insurer and change my insurance policy as we have Australian visitors quire regularly. Am hoping that if I can find someone that uses the same underwriter that Tesco used to use (UK Insurance Ltd) then they will be able to do it.

bongobec

Have finally more-or-less sorted out my insurance woes. Found an insurance policy with Direct Line for a similar amount to my Tesco policy (about £250) so have swapped over. Direct Line will add foreign residents as temporary drivers (for up to 90 days in a year), the only catch is that they've recently changed their policy to limit this to people with no more than one traffic offence in the past 5 years. So I was able to add my mum, who has a clean record, but not my dad, who has had 3 very minor speeding fines (for doing a few miles over the limit, by amounts that you'd be very unlikely to be fined for in the UK). It only cost £24 to add Mum for a month, so much much cheaper than the only seperate temporary driver I could find.

Other companies I found which will add foreign temp drivers were Churchill, Royal Bank of Scotland (these and Direct Line are all underwritten by RBOS/UK Insurance so think they must have similar policies) and Aviva, but for me their policies were all more expensive. But it's hard to do a proper price comparison because none of them can tell you how much it will cost to add the temporary drivers until after you've taken out a policy!

cambo_3

Still relevant I hope as the above helped me out. Direct line still won't quote for additional temp driver unless you buy policy first. I did then cancelled. Expensive policy for me and 21.50 per week for 68 year old Aussie dad with no marks on license. 90 days total he could be added per year.

Admiral came out cheaper for me plus up to 120 days per year for temp additional drivers - 22.50 per week for my dad. Will quote you without the need to have first paid for policy.

valernelaverne

Soo...changed car insurance recently from Zurich to TESCO after discussion with them than once the policy was effective in September, that I be able to add my Australian partner who has an Australian license and is a resident of Australia (obviously). No problem they said , they couldn't tell me how much but after the policy started I could add him. Four weeks later we phone up, we tell them again he has Aussie license and Aussie resident. They go through all the questions, then decline the temporary insurance saying that the underwriters won't insure a non-EU drivers license. Had I known in advance I would not have change insurances Made a complaint to Tesco as I believe we have been mis-sold the car insurance. I've asked them to honour what they said in the phone conversation when they quoted and took my money. Any comments would be very much appreciated.

billyonemate

This thread was really helpful, I have sorted this out by cancelling my existing insurance and taking out a new policy with Aviva ... and by adding my brother from Australia as a named driver from the start of the policy it has only cost me an extra £25 to cover him for the entire year.

robbond55

I have a similar issue. My father in law is visiting from South America for three months, UK born ex-pat and has been out of the UK for nearly 20 years and according to DVLA his UK licence will then be invalid.
We are buying a car for his own use in the UK I have been looking around but have been unable to find an insurance company to meet his requirements as he only has a Colombian licence.
Any help or advice would be gratefully received