Car Insurance for Additional Drivers when Main Drivers are abroad

Plans_all_plans

Hi all

Just wondering what we need to do in this up-coming situation. My in-laws are moving abroad for an initial 3 month period (which could be extended to 2 years if all goes well for them) and they are going to let us use their car while they're away.

Do we tell the insurance company that the main policy holder is abroad as soon as they go and we take over the policy ourselves straight away, or are we able to wait for the first 3 months to see how they get on out there before we transfer the policy into our sole names if they're due to stay abroad for longer than 3 months?

I don't want to do anything that could potentially get us in trouble for the sake of a few hundred pounds, but at the same time, if the insurers allow "a few months grace" if the main driver is away for a short period, I don't want to pay out unnecessarily!

Hope you can help.

Quentin

Plans_all_plans wrote: »

Do we tell the insurance company that the main policy holder is abroad .......

You won't be able to "tell" the insurers anything that is relevant to someone else's policy (they will only take instructions from the policyholder)

Get the policyholder to put you on as named driver(s) and tell them who is now to be the main driver.

Plans_all_plans

Thanks. When exactly does the policyholder need to tell them that they are abroad? Does it have to be as soon as they leave the country, or can they leave it 3 months to see if their contract is renewed?

Quentin

They don't really need to tell them. (As long as they still own the car - and have their uk address). They do need to tell them straight away about the car being at a different address overnight.

Plans_all_plans

Oh, well that's good news if that's the case, as it will work out massively cheaper for us. Are you totally sure of that? I thought it might have been fraudulent to not tell the insurer that they were abroad, as strictly speaking they would no longer be the main driver?

bryanb

Quentin wrote: »

They don't really need to tell them. (As long as they still own the car - and have their uk address). They do need to tell them straight away about the car being at a different address overnight.

My policy obliges me to inform them if the main driver changes.

Quentin

I already posted about that! See post #2.

bryanb

Quentin wrote: »

I already posted about that! See post #2.

Yes but OP seems not to understand ! See post 5

Plans_all_plans

Haha, thanks very much to the pair of you! I am with you now!