Car Insurance - Too Cheap?

andyo

Last Year I joined the countless others on this forum trying to find reasonably priced insurance to include our 19 year old daughter as a named driver. We eventually got a 'good' quote from Admiral which added around £600 to our usual husband/wife insurance.
Renewal time is here again and I have been trawling the comparison sites and those companies which do not subscribe to them.
The results generally ranged from the not great to the ridiculous (does anyone actually take policies from these companies?)
Anyway the exceptions to the rule were Direct Line and Swinton who quoted prices of £334 and £378 respectively, very much below the average quotations from others. I even made two requests in case I had stated I had a 49 year old daughter in my original but got the same results.
Now I know that Direct Line have a '2 months free' deal and Swinton include £40 cashback, but even so the prices seem to cheap to be real. Am I being too cynical or am I likely to be hit by 'hidden charges' when I take out a policy?
This must be a first, someone moaning about insurance that seems too cheap - lol.

huckster

Don't bother with Swinton unless you have read other posts on here and wish to take a chance. Go for Direct Line, but check all the information very carefully to make sure you have entered all the information correctly. You might be able to call them and they can run through the internet information you have entered to make sure correct. You can then arrange the policy at the internet price.

paddedjohn

Ive been with Swinton for a few years now with no problems whatsoever.

gordonquinn

I'm guessing your daughter just passed her test? And is now 20?

It would mean another years no claims above last year, and her having her drivers license that bit longer, which makes her a level of risk less as she has more driving experience.

Overall, no the quotes sound correct, they are very good, but they will be correct.

The company runs through all the details over the phone and verifies everything anyway, so any mistakes will come up.

cjgoodsell

Do Direct Line still do that "named drivers ncb"? if they still do it might be worth going to them... What that means is when your daughter gets her own car and insurance as long as she tells them she was on on your policy they will give her the amount of years she has been claim free as a discount. Its not an actual NCB when the time comes but can help her out - My bro was on my dad's policy a few years back with them and helped him out!

hareng

How does that work when the policy is not in the daughters name?

Costs my son well over £2600 third party fire and theft on a 16 year old car on limited mileage.

Direct line aint bad just read through the fine print before you submit.
Often when doing online you input data you know is correct but check whether its still the same before you submit the order. This cost me around an extra £85 a couple of months ago as i had to manually add voiding the original quotes.
Dearer when phoning the order through as well.

keith1950

Hi hareng, what you describe, putting in your details and ending up with different cover, usually happens when using comparison sites, which is why I would never purchase through them.


Do the comparison sites to find the two or three cheapest and then try those insurers directly to accurate cover, remembering to check on quidco/topcashback to see if theres are cashback available with those insurers.



Hi andyo, are you saying that the total premium , including your daughter was £334/£378, or was that the extra above your normal husband/wife premium????

andyo

keith1950 wrote: »

Hi hareng, what you describe, putting in your details and ending up with different cover, usually happens when using comparison sites, which is why I would never purchase through them.


Do the comparison sites to find the two or three cheapest and then try those insurers directly to accurate cover, remembering to check on quidco/topcashback to see if theres are cashback available with those insurers.



Hi andyo, are you saying that the total premium , including your daughter was £334/£378, or was that the extra above your normal husband/wife premium????

Keith1950, the prices quoted were the total premiums for all 3 of us.

Wakey2008

Does your daughter just use your car now and then? Or does she have her own car and you're just on your insurance to keep the costs down?

If it is a case of her being the main driver then that would invalidate the policy and is illegal.

More info here: http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance-tips/named-driver-car-insurance-tips.html

andyo

Wakey2008 wrote: »

Does your daughter just use your car now and then? Or does she have her own car and you're just on your insurance to keep the costs down?

If it is a case of her being the main driver then that would invalidate the policy and is illegal.

More info here: http://www.carinsuranceexplained.com/car-insurance-tips/named-driver-car-insurance-tips.html

Thanks for your advice Wakey2008, but I am well aware of the legal aspects and she is genuinely a named, infrequent driver.
Anyway, just a wee update - As my renewal date is fast approaching, I decided to phone up both companies to make sure I was getting the correct cover. Being the cheapest, Direct Line were first and basically they didn't want to know after I told them my daughter would have to be covered for 'commuting' as she may have to drive to university on the very odd occasion (she has done so once in the past year). She would have to be the policyholder, I was told and they obviously felt that she was going to be the main driver. That would have raised their quotation price dramatically and the phone was promptly put down.
Swinton, on the other hand were true to their quoted price and were not fazed at all with covering my daughter for commuting. I went over the cover at length with a very pleasant and knowledgeable advisor and was happy that I was buying adequate cover and that they were aware of my circumstances.
I suppose it pays to check these things out as I was tempted to buy the Direct Line policy online and could have discovered later that I was not fully covered.

vax2002

Its the womans touch, I added my wife on as a named driver and saved £170