Company car Driver-Soon To Get Own car

Beancounter

My company may soon be changing their car policy which means I will have to purchase my own car soon. Looking at the insurance situation it sees to be a bit of a minefield at the moment.

As I had an accident nearly 3 years aog I wouldn't have the full NCD, only 2 years at the moment. Looking at Direct Line, I could insure the car in my wifes name with me as a named driver and then I would earn NCD on her policy although of course it would take me years to build up the max NCD.

I also have a job as a presenter at a radio station at weekends ( 7 hours per week) and this sort of job seems to be excluded from many insurers lists. Should I keep quiet about this?

The other spanner in the works could be my mileage, I estimate I have done an average of 28,000 since I got the current car, many insurers seem to bump up the premium for above 25,000. I am only looking at a cheap car, a Punto or Fiesta, that sort of class but even the Direct Line are quoting £350 for me but only £220 for my wife.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Astaroth

The rated driver has to me the main driver of the vehicle. Online quoting systems dont generally have the capability to have the policyholder as one person and the main driver as another so you would have to resort to the phone and lose the online discount.

A number of the things you are potentially suggesting constitute fraud - if you were caught (which insurers are getting increasingly good at) you would find your insurance is cancelled and you would have great difficulty in finding insurance in the future. Your bank/ credit card companies/ mortgage provider would all be told you are a fraudster and they may well decide to close your accounts. Ultimately you could risk police prosecution too but this is probably unlikely.

If your wife is realistically ever going to drive the vehicle then certainly add her as a named driver which will almost certainly reduce the cost of the quote as Insured and Spouse policies for "mature" drivers is less than Insured Only Driver.

Your wife cannot use the NCD she has on her own vehicle on yours too so unless she owns 2 vehicles at the moment then I cannot see how a legitimately setup policy would be cheaper with her as the PH and you as a ND but you as the rated driver with 0 NCD than with you as the PH and rated driver and wife as ND with the 2 years NCD you already have.

Beancounter

Thanks, I didn't think that getting the wifes name as the main driver would be a problem. She doesn't actually have a car now (sold it a few months ago) but has full NCB from the past 15 years. She would drive the vehicle quite often but I would still be the main driver by a long way.

Maybe in the long run anyway I would be better for me to take the hit for a few years so to speak. Don't want to be breaking the law!

Astaroth

If it is done over the phone then she can be the policyholder (so you get to use her NCD) but you have to tell them that you are the main driver so that the rating is done on you rather than her. If you go with Direct Line as you suggest then you would over time build up your own NCD for if you ever get back to having 2 vehicles.

Beancounter

Still looking into this just now, the insurance situation seems to be a bit of a minefield. I have however decided to just insure it with me as the main driver and my wife as other driver.

Trying to find cover that includes business use is tricky as not all insurers seem to state what you are covered for outwith the normal social/domestic/pleasure sort of thing. Any recommendations? Again Direct Line seem to insure for business use as standard but would like to know any others I shuld try.

My other dillema is the NCD. I currently have 2 years accident free driving, this changes to 3 years in mid September. As the change of car could happen in the next 2 weeks, would I be better insuring for the year when I buy the car (and always be 1 year behind on NCD till I reach the max again) or taking out a short term policy to plug the gap for the 5-6 weeks? Are these kind of policies quite cheap?

Astaroth

Short term policies tend to be more expensive on a per day basis because of the administration costs (including all the IT aspects and not just the paperwork) can only be spread over a short period - as to which is best, do a few quotes online and find out though remember that ratings change on an almost daily basis so even if it is cheaper to get short term now that doesnt mean it will be the case in Sept.

Most policies will have commuting added to social and domestic (though a few charge for this) but this is only to a single place of work and doesnt include other journies to other offices or "mid shift" work related driving. To include these extra journies you would need Class 1 business use added to the policy

Wyndham

Beancounter wrote:

I also have a job as a presenter at a radio station at weekends ( 7 hours per week) and this sort of job seems to be excluded from many insurers lists. Should I keep quiet about this?

The other spanner in the works could be my mileage, I estimate I have done an average of 28,000 since I got the current car, many insurers seem to bump up the premium for above 25,000. I am only looking at a cheap car, a Punto or Fiesta, that sort of class but even the Direct Line are quoting £350 for me but only £220 for my wife.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

The radio job could be an issue. The idea is that you are involved the the 'entertainment' industry - even if only in a marginal way. Their thinking (whether valid or not) is that you have a big name pop star visit the station, who you then end up driving round for whatever reason. If you are in an accident with them, and they are injured or even killed, then it could be very expensive for the insurer. However, I assume this is not your main job, but something part time? If so, it will have less bearing on the quote. Either way, you MUST declare it as your insurance will not be valid if you do not do so.

On the mileage, I know that with direct line this isn't quite so much of an issue. We've been with them for many years (always shop around, but can never beat them by more than about £10 and can't be bothered with the hassle of changing for such a small amount). At one point our yearly mileage reduced from about 20,000 to about 12,000, so I was looking for a nice discount. Their reply was that as we'd had the policy so long, they didn't mind how many miles we did.

Hope that helps!

Beancounter

Wyndham wrote:

The radio job could be an issue. The idea is that you are involved the the 'entertainment' industry - even if only in a marginal way. Their thinking (whether valid or not) is that you have a big name pop star visit the station, who you then end up driving round for whatever reason. If you are in an accident with them, and they are injured or even killed, then it could be very expensive for the insurer. However, I assume this is not your main job, but something part time? If so, it will have less bearing on the quote. Either way, you MUST declare it as your insurance will not be valid if you do not do so.

As i said in my first post,I work 7 hours a week at a very small station, I doubt any major star has even been in the same town let alone at the station and certainly not in my car! Just done some quotes on confused.com and the difference in cheapest quote adding my radio job is £100! Most companies won't even issue a quote. Unreal!!

Beancounter

Finally took the plunge and bought a car today. Got a quote from confused.com and I am confused!

When asking about NCD the drop down menu gives options including "company car 3 years , company car 4 years etc but no 2 year option as would be applicable to me.It then has the normal 1,2,3,4,5 years NCD. When choosing 3 year company car NCD most companies are quoting without any discount (except for 2 who seem very reasonable.) As I can't ask for 2 years company car NCD I entered 2 years standard NCD (hope you are following this!!!) and magically all the quotes drop like stones!

Obviously, I will now need to phone my chosen company for advise and to get a proper quote but will I be ok for discount for the 2 years claim free driving on my company car and are there any options for waiting till Sept 17th when my claim free period rises to 3 years.

Wyndham

Beancounter wrote:

As i said in my first post,I work 7 hours a week at a very small station, I doubt any major star has even been in the same town let alone at the station and certainly not in my car! Just done some quotes on confused.com and the difference in cheapest quote adding my radio job is £100! Most companies won't even issue a quote. Unreal!!

I know, I know. And I'm not saying it's a sensible rule, but unfortunately that is how it is. As a general rule, insurance companies assume the worst!

Wyndham

Beancounter wrote:

Finally took the plunge and bought a car today. Got a quote from confused.com and I am confused!

When asking about NCD the drop down menu gives options including "company car 3 years , company car 4 years etc but no 2 year option as would be applicable to me.It then has the normal 1,2,3,4,5 years NCD. When choosing 3 year company car NCD most companies are quoting without any discount (except for 2 who seem very reasonable.) As I can't ask for 2 years company car NCD I entered 2 years standard NCD (hope you are following this!!!) and magically all the quotes drop like stones!

Obviously, I will now need to phone my chosen company for advise and to get a proper quote but will I be ok for discount for the 2 years claim free driving on my company car and are there any options for waiting till Sept 17th when my claim free period rises to 3 years.

It will depend on the company. They may say no, but they may also say yes. If I were you, I'd stress the 'well it is nearly 3 years I'm only a month short' and see if it makes a difference. If the person you talk to can't do it, ask for a supervisor and see if they can. If your driving record was good before this as well, then stress that i.e. 'actually I've had the company policy for nearly 3 years, but I drove for 2 years before that without any claims as well' (assuming this is the case, of course!)