One Car to Two - Best Way to Insure

pinkteapot

I have been driving 11 years and have never had a claim. Husband has been driving 6 years and never had a claim.

We currently share a car which is owned and insured in my name with hubby as an additional driver. I have 4 years NCD from insuring this car. Currently insured with Admiral, renewal May 2012.

We are now buying a second car and need to decide whose name to own/insure it in. We will share both cars - we'll both use each of them, so the other person will be an additional driver on the second car.

First option will be to change our Admiral policy to a multi-car policy and I'll phone them for a quote on this. In this case, car would be in my name as it'll be added to my policy.

Second option is to own it in hubby's name so he has his own insurance policy and builds up his own NCD. If he phones for a quote he can try getting a discount for having been on the other policy, but he doesn't have NCD proof as we don't currently have a renewal notice.

We'll get quotes for both options and it'll largely come down to cost, but are there any other considerations? I'm trying to think about whether it's better for him to have his own NCD instead of always being an additional driver. Also, the implications if one of us crashes in the future and we want to go down to one driver (the other person) to keep insurance costs down.

Can't get my head around it!

keith1950

Hi, as your hubby doesn't have any actual written proof of NCD your best bet might be to add the 2nd car to your Admiral policy they will work it out so that it runs out on the same date as the 1st car.

If you go elsewhere then normally the problems come when you have to state 'who is the main driver' for each car and ' do you own/have access to any other car/how many cars are there in the household.'

If you are going elsewhere and you want to insure both cars with you as main driver then you can only use your NCD on one of them.
If your hubby is going to be the main driver the best you can hope for is a good introductory discount.

Another issue might be that you have used your last renewal notice to send to Admiral so it is not available to send to a different insurer ?.

There isn't really an option to put down that you are both sharing both cars. Someone has to be down as main driver.

So it may be best to try Admiral 1st.!!

Named driver discounts are usually only any good with the company they were earned with. !!

bouncydog1

As you are both going to use each vehicle, you should also check that you are both covered for personal business use and commuting (if you are going to use the vehicles for driving to work).

vaio

"mirroring ncb" is common where two people sharing a car go to two people with a car each. you'll probably only get it if you place both cars with the same insurer but come renewal time you'll be able to change insurers.

If admiral won't play ball then a traditional broker will sort it out for you. I'd go for each having a car & policy rather than one person with two cars & policies

pinkteapot

Thanks for the input all.

Hubby is starting a new job this week and has no time to ring round insurers etc so that doesn't help. As a result, I was leaning towards just doing it in my name on the Admiral policy. But I wondered if there were downsides. vaio - why would you go for separate names/policies?

Neither of us drive to work. We both currently commute by train so the existing car is social/domestic/pleasure only and the new one will be the same. One or both of us may change to local work in the future at which point we'd be commuting by car and we'd change the usage then (and will remember to check who's insured for which usage).

I know that the policy(ies) need a main and an additional driver - I only mentioned that we'll both use both cars fairly equally as I know that the main policy holder is meant to be the main user of the car. Just making clear there was no fronting going on.

dacouch

Viao is recommending separate policies as you will both have your own no claims bonus then which can have it's advantages.

vaio

6.30? way too early for me (unless I’m on the way home from a night out!)

dacouch is right, the other advantage is you both get DOC cover and any other benefits that accrue to a policy holder

OP……. I often cba with phoning round but an hour on the web/phone will save you ££, try the comparison sites and then phone the cheap ones and see if they will mirror although I still suspect Admiral might well be you best bet at least for the first year. They do a multi car policy which might seem a good idea but there have been reports of significant costs if you want to move one car away (say because they’ve got uncompetitive on that particular car).

OH & I have a car & policy each and generally shop around each year and I can’t remember a year when the same company has been best for both cars. Doesn’t apply now but in the old days when we had a mortgage and money was tighter there are also budgeting advantages in having separate policies with different renewal dates which is another reason for avoiding multi car. We used to aim to spread mot, tax and insurance renewals over the year so we didn’t get hit with multiple bills in the same month.

Finally, generally commuting to a single place of work costs bug ger all extra if you get it at inception so it’s might be worth getting if there is any chance that you will ever need it (upcoming rail strikes/job change?) If you add it once the policy has started you will likely pay a admin fee (£30-50) plus some extra premium as you will be a captive customer

pinkteapot

Thanks for the advice... What does DOC stand for?

EDIT: Just thought of it - driving other cars?

vaio

yep, one of those things you only need once in a blue moon but generally when you do need it you really need it

pinkteapot

Thanks for the advice all...

I phoned Admiral for a multi-car quote for the new car it was £589.

We then did quotes for a single-car policy in hubby's name and Admiral was the cheapest at £619. Wayne from Admiral, who I'd spoken to for the multi-car quote, phoned to see if I wanted the policy. I explained that we'd rather do a single car policy but Admiral were still cheapest for that so we were happy to buy it through him so he'd get his commission (Admiral don't offer cashback through any sites so no benefit to buying online). Hubby explained that he had no NCD himself but had been a named driver on my policy for a couple of years, and lovelly Wayne gave him an introductory named driver discount which took the price down to £587.

So, after shopping around and haggling, we got the single-car policy for the same price as the multi-car policy.