Adding a friend to insurance for a short Euro trip.

Rallydriver

I phoned up the broker I got my insurance through yesterday to add a friend on as we are going on a short foreign trip to watch a bit of cycling in France at the end of July. Since there is a bit of distance to cover, I really don't want to drive it all on my own.

I told the broker what I wanted and he said he'd go off to the (Swiss) underwriter and get back to me with a price.
Friend is a year and a bit younger than me, no claims or convictions but one non-fault bump over a year ago (someone rolled into the back of him but it didn't damage either car but it still got reported ). The car is a completely standard Y-reg Impreza turbo (group 17).
Anyway, the additional price they came back with was £128 (£25 of which is the broker's admin fee) leaving £103 as the effective premium for 14 days, or an annual equivalence of £2678.

Looking on the underwriter's resource site for brokers and found http://www.zurich.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/AC9B4267-254B-43A4-8BBD-6D60017FB15E/0/TemporaryAdditionalDriversandVehicles.pdf

Suggesting that the max for 2 weeks would be £70, plus the admin fee, £95. Assuming the car term code relates to the insurance group roughly?

My questions are for any insurance experts, is this the way its worked out? Is the broker 'adding a bit on' and is there anything I can do to bring it down?
Or is it completely reasonable and I should shut up and buy a sensible car?

Thanks.
B. :cool:

vaio

It’s the old story, if you are a new customer like at renewal time it’s a competitive world so prices are keen, once you have a policy and want to change something they can screw you and, being part of the financial services cabal, they do.

raskazz

Vehicle terms are not the same as vehicle groups. Insurers will set 'terms' for different types of vehicles which mean that the insurer will only offer cover for those who satisfy certain criteria.

For example, 'C' terms could mean that all drivers must be over 25, held a Full licence for over 1 year, and the policyholder has a minimum of 1 year NCD.

For a Subaru Impreza Turbo I doubt that any of the listed vehicle terms in the link would apply as in my experience insurers are usually very reluctant to cover those under 30 on Impreza Turbo's and WRX's. Hence why the broker had to call the underwriter and refer the details so as to see whether the underwriter would quote for it - because the details were not contained in the document in the link (which is a document for brokers, not underwriters).

As temporary charges go, and as a motor insurance underwriter myself, I think £50 per week is not bad for a performance car, driven overseas by a driver who is unfamiliar with the car!

dacouch

I agree withy Raskazz, these types of vehicles are not popular with Insurers as they get a lot of claims from people who are not familiar with the car which is after all an extremely high performance vehicle