driving girlfriends insured car-add my name to policy or not?

Sam1123

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I are going to be driving each others cars regularly. We are both fully insured with no convictions, points etc... I wasn't certain what the situation was with insurance and was hoping someone may be able to clue me in. I was going to add her name to my insurance and vice versa, but she pointed out her insurance already covers her to drive other insured cars(and mine too).

I've checked the wording on the certificates and it says: "the policyholder may also drive a car not belonging to her/him...". So is there any point in changing the certificates? My insurer told me it would be £65 to do so and I guess hers may be similar, which is money I'd rather not spend. I'm just worried I may be missing something and don't want to incur any larger fines or risks.

If anyone could advise on this I'd really appreciate it, thanks.

Sam

Quentin

When your insurance covers you for driving other cars you need to understand that irrespective of the policy being comprehensive, the cover for driving other cars is only third party.

As long as you are happy to pay for any damage done to each others cars yourselves if there is no one else to claim off then there are no problems using this cover.

Norman_Castle

Depending on the policies driving other cars on your insurance is normally third party only and I think named drivers have equal cover to the policyholder.
The £65 may be mainly admin fees. Get quotes for adding named drivers next time you renew.

vaio

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Depending on the policies driving other cars on your insurance is normally third party only and I think named drivers have equal cover to the policyholder........

Nah, every DOC cover I've seen limits it to policyholder and some are now excluding cars that don't have other insurance and/or excluding cars belonging to spouses/people who live at the same address. All will be revealed in the small print of the policy.

OP....check the policies (not just certificates) to make sure that there isn't an exclusion tucked away that can come back to bite. If there isn't then best bet is probably to wait until renewal where you could well find that having a named driver added will be free and might even reduce the premium. OH & I are 50+ and adding each other to the policies did give reduced premiums

scheming_gypsy

I think Norman meant that named drivers on the policy have the fully comp cover compared to the third party only DOC. So if the owner was a named driver on the policy they'd be insured fully comp.
Unless I miss-understood what i thought you thought Norman meant.

Quentin

All we can go on is what norm said.

What he said was at best (your thinking) ambiguous, at worse (what norm said) dangerous misinformation!

spacey2012

What you are covered to drive in respect to third party is on the actual policy document above the signature sealing the contract , anything else is discretionary .

Quentin

spacey2012 wrote: »

What you are covered to drive in respect to third party is on the actual policy document above the signature sealing the contract , anything else is discretionary .

No.

The certificate is the overriding document showing what cover there is, not the policy.

spacey2012

Yes, the certificate is the valid legal part, if it does not mention cover for driving other vehicles, you do not have any.
Notwithstanding, the police will seize it if you do not have your certificate on you giving cover for third party and instruct you to sort it out with the pound and county court if you don't like it.
This is 2013 not 1973.

Quentin

spacey2012 wrote: »

Yes, the certificate is the valid legal part, if it does not mention cover for driving other vehicles, you do not have any.
Notwithstanding, the police will seize it if you do not have your certificate on you giving cover for third party and instruct you to sort it out with the pound and county court if you don't like it.
This is 2013 not 1973.

More nonsense.

And what role does the county court have in dealing with motorists stopped and found to have left their certificate at home?

spacey2012

Firstly we are talking about a driver driving a vehicle on third party cover via their own insurance, please read all the thread.
County court is where you will have to re-claim any losses if you feel the vehicle was incorrectly seized by the police because you could not prove your insurance provided third party cover for the borrowed car.
We are not talking about anyone driving their own car who does not have their certificate with them, but somehow, I think you know this.
As I re-iterate, any driver who has insurance that provides third party cover for driving other cars will have this printed on the actual certificate of insurance, if not, you only have the cover mentioned on the certificate for purposes of the road traffic act.
Any other insurance extras may be in the policy or schedule, the certificate refers to a certain minimum level of cover required but it will specify any transferable third party cover that it provides.
If driving under this cover, always take your own certificate with you to produce if stopped.
Anything else I can help you with ?