Put your dad on your insurance-even if he doesn't drive your car!

Molanole

I added my OH (male, 28, very nervous driver when he ever gets behind the wheel, drives about 10 miles a year but therefore no accidents or convictions) to my policy and it reduced by £90. I think the rationale was that if it's only me driving (90,000 miles in the last five years, two claims, one SP30) then I stand more of a chance of claiming. If the driving is shared, which it never is, then the probability of me claiming as reduced proportionally to the amount of time behing the wheel.

Not sure if this would have worked as well if it had been him adding me to his policy though!!

jiblets1

My OH has put both his parents and myself on, even though I will rarely drive his car , and his parents never will. It has taken a decent bit off the premium for him - even though he has a car that several companies wouldn't even insure him on until he's 30!

Astaroth

Of cause doing this is fraud so does have potential repercussions if they catch you

escroooge

I have OH on car insurance and saved £60. Handy when you go to the pub, toss her the keys and neck 6 pints...

southernscouser

Astaroth wrote:

Of cause doing this is fraud so does have potential repercussions if they catch you

Why is this fraudulent?

They are insured to drive your car. Doesn't mean they have to!

Astaroth

A named driver is someone who potentially intends to drive the vehicle - in the same way that the policyholder is to be the main driver. The OP stated that they were putting people on the policy who would never drive the vehicle and therefore this is fraud (falsifying details to obtain a lower quote)

Of cause this is even harder for an insurer to prove that there was no intent than it is to prove the "traditional" fronted policy (parent takes policy with child as ND but child is the main user of the vehicle) but this does not change the reality of what it is and of cause if you are caught out the consequences are fairly sever - not so much for the immediate effect but more the fact you are loaded to national fraud registries for first party fraud and so this would be taken into consideration for any future loans/ mortgages etc you apply for in the future.

jiblets1

Astaroth wrote:

A named driver is someone who potentially intends to drive the vehicle - in the same way that the policyholder is to be the main driver. The OP stated that they were putting people on the policy who would never drive the vehicle and therefore this is fraud (falsifying details to obtain a lower quote)

Of cause this is even harder for an insurer to prove that there was no intent than it is to prove the "traditional" fronted policy (parent takes policy with child as ND but child is the main user of the vehicle) but this does not change the reality of what it is and of cause if you are caught out the consequences are fairly sever - not so much for the immediate effect but more the fact you are loaded to national fraud registries for first party fraud and so this would be taken into consideration for any future loans/ mortgages etc you apply for in the future.

I think plenty of people put family members on their insurance on the off chance that they may wish to drive the car. I had never thought of it as being fraudulent before. I have stated that I wish my family member to be insured on the car. I haven't promised that they WILL drive it.

anniecave

jiblets1 wrote:

I think plenty of people put family members on their insurance on the off chance that they may wish to drive the car. I had never thought of it as being fraudulent before. I have stated that I wish my family member to be insured on the car. I haven't promised that they WILL drive it.

I quite agree with this. I recall a while ago when a group of us were out walking somewhere, someone got injured so couldn't drive home as he'd injured his ankle, but fortunately his sister was insured on their policy (didn't normally drive his car, lived several hundred miles away, but was insured on his policy) so she was able to drive the car back home. Having people insured on your car who might need to drive it in an emergency is a good thing.

If the insurance companies were bothered, they could ask you to declare what % of the time any named drivers were likely to be driving out of the total, but that would be quite difficult to manage, as it would be a bit unprovable, and would you then have to phone up with an amendment if the %'s shifted significantly?

The whole concept of insurance risk goes both ways. If I take out an insurance policy and say I'm planning to do 10000 miles a year, but I actually only do 9000 miles in the year then I'm not going to phone up and get it altered once it gets to the time in the year when I work that out because it will only go down a bit and it's not worth it. The insurance company has benefitted because I have overestimated my mileage (therefore on standard insurance overestimated my risk as more miles means more risk).

Ditto I could take out a policy and pay extra for insuring my car for use in connection with my work, and not actually have to use it for my work.

If on the other hand my mileage went up significantly during the year (because I changed jobs for example) then I would declare it. However if it was just a little bit over I wouldn't bother.

Astaroth

jiblets1 wrote:

I haven't promised that they WILL drive it.

As I did say, there has to be a real intention/ possibility that they may want to drive the vehicle in the policy year.... the classic examples of where people are caught out is when they say that it isnt their Mum that was driving at the time, she hasnt even been in the UK for 5 years, the person is their neighbour who moved away 2 years ago etc.

As to emergencies... for the majority of people who have their own vehicle they will have Driving Other Cars on their own insurance which is exactly what this is for though a growing number of insurers have removed the DOC cover from their policies.

At the end of the day it all comes down to risk, people who commit this type of fraud are rarely caught but when they are they have their insurance cancelled (something they have to declare ever more) and get loaded to the fraud registeries so your current and any future lenders (eg mortgage, loans, credit cards, growingly employers etc) will see that you have committed first party fraud and take this into consideration when deciding if they should trust you with their money or not.

Gingham_Ribbon

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