Car Insurance - 2nd driver a driving instructor, advice on declared accidents....

Big_Baldy

Hi there,

I'm struggling to locate this information, although I appreciate I might not be seeing the woods for the trees so to speak.

A friend of mine, a 23 year old female is looking to take out an insurance policy with zero NCB, and so far has no quotes under £1000. As a her mother could theretically use the car on a very occasional basis, I have suggested she adds her mother as a 2nd driver - as a responsible older driver with a good personal driving record added to the policy can often bring the price down a little.

Her mother runs her own driving school, with her own dual control car, with professional business insurance as a driving instructor. My friend is under the impression that her mother would have to declare on her private personal motor insurance - the accidents her pupils have under her instruction - as she is responsible for them under the driving instructor policy. As I know nothing about driving instructor insurance, I stand to be corrected here, but I would hazard an educated guess that accidents her pupils have while driving under driving instructors insurance have nothing to do with a private motor insurance policy.

My friend insists that when she adds her mother and gets to the point where it asks for "How many accidents has this person had?", that she'll have to add the 2, 3, 5, 10 (however many it is) accidents that her pupils have had.

I'm of the opinion that it's more likely that regardless of whether her mother is "responsible" for her pupils on her driving instructor policy - that this would have no impact on a private policy unless she was actually driving the car herself privately - otherwise how would driving instructors ever get personal insurance for their cars?

As stated above, I stand to be corrected, as I haven't a clue about driving instructors insurance.

Thanks folks

Katie-Kat-Kins

I'd suggest that she phones one of the insurers offering a competitive quote (or better still a decent broker) to see what they say.

Though my feeling, like yours, is that the question will be how many accidents have you had, and not how many claims have there been on policies of insurance you have irrespective of who was driving. Therefore she doesn't need to declare an accident.

Big_Baldy

Yes, I agree, normally I would advise ringing a broker myself. However she's not very confident and is very shy and quiet. It took some convincing on my behalf for her to believe that adding a 2nd driver can actually bring your insurance costs down if it's an older more experienced driver. I think she thought I was trying to pull some sort of scam like in the days of kids getting insurance in their dads name lol. I'll need to put some hard facts on the table before she's confident enough to enquire in person.

Quentin

Any additional driver doesn't actually have to ever drive the car, so instead of the driving instructor she could try adding on some other friend/relative, preferably a mature female with a good driving history and see if it reduces the premium.

Big_Baldy

Quentin wrote: »

Any additional driver doesn't actually have to ever drive the car, so instead of the driving instructor she could try adding on some other friend/relative, preferably a mature female with a good driving history and see if it reduces the premium.

Yes, I've mentioned this also, but I don't think she's comfortable with the idea of naming somebody who has very little chance of even backing the car off the drive. Again, I get the impression she thinks I'm somehow trying to get her to scam the insurance companies. :rotfl:

Quentin

Give up on trying to help her then - (adding a driving instructor won't reduce her premium).

Adding another in a less expensive job who may or may not drive is just moneysaving, not scamming!

lisyloo

Again, I get the impression she thinks I'm somehow trying to get her to scam the insurance companies.

If you knew that she would never ever drive the car then it would be a mis-representation of the risks.
However the fact is that some of us don't genuinely know for sure whether someone will or won't ever have the need to drive the car.

Will the driver get a headache and ask her mother to drive in the next year, who knows?

If there is some chance that she might, then it's perfectly legitimate.

Big_Baldy

lisyloo wrote: »

If you knew that she would never ever drive the car then it would be a mis-representation of the risks.
However the fact is that some of us don't genuinely know for sure whether someone will or won't ever have the need to drive the car.

Will the driver get a headache and ask her mother to drive in the next year, who knows?

If there is some chance that she might, then it's perfectly legitimate.

I'm in agreement, I wouldn't for example advise her to add the milkman - no chance of him driving....although technically you could do it - dodgy as hell.

Katie-Kat-Kins

Sounds like she isn't that interested in moneysaving if she isn't even prepared to ask a question. You can't force people to moneysave, it is easy to get evangelical about this site and the methods on here, but not everyone feels the same.

Big_Baldy

Quentin wrote: »

Give up on trying to help her then - (adding a driving instructor won't reduce her premium).

Adding another in a less expensive job who may or may not drive is just moneysaving, not scamming!

Well, her mother, the instructor won't be teaching people in the car, it would purely be for occasional use.

I haven't a clue how jobs affect insurance, I'm sure there's a list out there of which profession gets the cheapest insurance, but I would never advise anyone to add someone purely based on their profession - I would always add them based on their relationship to the person.

I for example have added my mother to my insurance. She is rarely ever allowed to drive my cars, but when she does it's usually because of illness, or because her car has suffered some major failure - and she isn't confident to try and nurse it home and rings me to drive her car for her. I'm sure I have aunties who would be a better risk - but as I don't see them, it would be a bit of a scam......well maybe.....perhaps I'm too honest lol.

Quentin

Honesty doesn't come into it. Nothing dishonest at all in this money saving tip.

If you add someone on as a named driver at the start of your policy just in case you might need them, not only can it reduce your premium, but doing it this way saves you more money should an emergency arise during the year when adding the driver would cost you the administration fee nearly all companies/brokers impose for making mid term changes on your policy.