Short term insurance for an 18 year old

lushl61

I was wondering if anyone has there car insured with a company which allows them to add a young driver aged 18 at short notice? My daughter is just about to start at university and has been insured for the past year as a named driver on my policy but as she will only be at home to use the car now when she is on holiday from university I am reluctant to insure her for a full year. If anyone is at present in this situation I would be interested to know which insurance company you are with and how much approx it costs.

Thanks for any help

forgotmyname

Adding & removing her may add charges each time, It maybe cheaper to just leave her name on and she may earn
some no claims towards her own insurance in the future making it cheaper.

anewman

lushl61 wrote: »

and has been insured for the past year as a named driver on my policy

This is known as "fronting" and is considered insurance fraud, which can get yourself and daughter into some trouble. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jul/12/car-insurance-fraud among other links available via google. Don't intend this to be a telling off, more a warning that there are potential consequences, particularly in the event of an accident.

IMO just cancel the existing policy (will probably get a pro rata refund minus an admin fee) and start from fresh with a new policy with all the correct details. You may however add yourself as a named driver to her policy, even if you will never drive the car, as this can bring the cost down. Another insurer will no doubt be cheaper than changing the details on the current policy. See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/compare-cheap-car-insurance?dd

ehlo

anewman wrote: »

This is known as "fronting" and is considered insurance fraud, which can get yourself and daughter into some trouble. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jul/12/car-insurance-fraud among other links available via google. Don't intend this to be a telling off, more a warning that there are potential consequences, particularly in the event of an accident.

IMO just cancel the existing policy (will probably get a pro rata refund minus an admin fee) and start from fresh with a new policy with all the correct details. You may however add yourself as a named driver to her policy, even if you will never drive the car, as this can bring the cost down. Another insurer will no doubt be cheaper than changing the details on the current policy. See http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/insurance/compare-cheap-car-insurance?dd

It is only fronting if the parent isn't actually the main driver. The op never stated if this was actually the case or not, so it looks to me like you're jumping to conclusions!?

anewman

ehlo wrote: »

It is only fronting if the parent isn't actually the main driver. The op never stated if this was actually the case or not, so it looks to me like you're jumping to conclusions!?

lushl61 wrote: »

has been insured for the past year as a named driver on my policy

I think the decision will clearly be that they are the main driver if the policy holder has a car of their own, and the daughter drives to work/college rather than the odd jaunt around to friends. The other thing that sometimes pops up is personalised registrations in the name of the son/daughter.

If I am jumping to conclusions then I am wrong of course, but sadly many people do do this not realising it is wrong, it is fraud and does increase the cost for everyone else in the end. It helps to be informed either way which was my primary aim.

eilidh_s

when I was a student my parents were insured with Direct Line and every time I came home I was plonked onto the insurance for a couple of weeks and the same thing with my brother. Now i'm insured with Elephant and if I'm feeling generous I will put my brother onto my car for a couple of weeks if he needs it. Never had any problems with it at all.

eddddy

Hi lushl

I do exactly as you describe for my son who is now 19 and at University.

(I think anewman has mis-read/mis-understood your question. As long as you are the main driver, there is no problem.)

I have done this with both Bell Insurance when he was 17, and I have now changed to Privilege Insurance, who also allow it.

Both companies will offer immediate cover over the phone. (I have often phoned 5 mins before he needs to use the car.) Bell only offered it blocks of full weeks, Privilege allow any period of time from 1 day upwards.

But it's quite expensive - Bell charged a flat rate of £45 per week for my son (fully comp, insurance group 16), but insuring girls is often cheaper than boys.

Privilege have recently charged me just over £100 for 24 days cover for him (again fully comp, group 16), which covers him til he goes back to University.

However, Priviliege apply a £17.50 admin charge - whether it's cover for 1 day or 300 days - so it works out quite expensive, if you only want 1 or 2 days cover.

Adding him as a named driver on the policy for a full year would have increased the premium by £1500 - so for me, it's cheaper to just insure him as required during the holidays.

Privilege also mentioned that different cars have different driver age limits - group 16 is fine for a 19 year old, but I didn't enquire about other insurance groups and ages (as they weren't relevant to me).

I also discussed this with esure when my son was 17. But they said that they do not insure 17 year old drivers under any circumstances - temporarily or permanantly (which is why I changed to Bell). I then changed to Privilege, because Bell increased my premium by 51% for no apparent reason. I got the Privelege quote from a comparison website, but phoned them before accepting it to make sure they offered temporary insurance to 19 year olds.

I hope this helps.