University student driving when home

carolann312

I have heard that it's possible to insure my son to drive when he is home from University in the holidays for a short period of time ie 2 or 3 weeks. Would I have to add him on to my insurance/car as a named driver for the duration of the holiday or could he be insured on his own car?

IamNotAllowedToUseMyName

You can flip people on and off your policy. There is often an admin charge but it is less than the cost of separate policy.

Having had our clutch through uni we did this. However, when eldest wanted car in uni for a few weeks, we had to change the insurance so she was main driver otherwise we were "fronting".

Ebe_Scrooge

carolann312 wrote: »

Would I have to add him on to my insurance/car as a named driver for the duration of the holiday or could he be insured on his own car?

Either. He *MAY* be able to drive on his own policy - you need to check. Years ago it was the norm for pretty much most Fully Comp policies to cover the driver to drive "Any other car not owned by the policy holder". These days it's often not included as standard, though some policies do include it. You must check his policy details carefully.

Even if he is covered to drive your car on his policy, it'll almost certainly provide third-party cover only. So if he has an accident, they'll pay for the other car to be fixed, but you'll have to pay for the repairs to your car.

Adding him as a named driver to your policy will give him the same level of cover as you've got. Admin fees will usually make it uneconomical to keep adding / removing him, but phone your insurance company up and ask them how much it'll be to add him as a permanent named driver.

Your third option is to look at the various companies that offer short-term policies. It is possible to buy insurance for just a week or a month at a time. However, I don't know how it works if the car is already insured under a different policy - you'd need to check that out.

InsideInsurance

How frequently is he coming home?

You can have a Temporary Additional Driver - an additional driver that you add for a set period of time. Pay an admin fee to add them but they drop off automatically, if you need to change the period they are on for its normally another admin fee

You could add them as a named driver and then remove them again after but then you are paying 2 admin fees each time.

It could be cheaper to simply have him as a named driver all year round rather than keep incurring fees if he is coming home several times a year.

The other alternatives tend to be standalone temporary policies, which are charged at a much higher day rate than annual policies but are not intended to be comparable or he may have a DOC extension on his own insurance. If he has is own insurance though why does he need to drive your car rather than his?

carolann312

If he has is own insurance though why does he need to drive your car rather than his?[/QUOTE]

That's the problem. He doesn't have his own insurance anymore, it ran out yesterday we didn't want to pay about £1000 when the car won't be used for the majority of the time. So that's why I was wondering if he could be insured on his own car for short periods of time ie when he is home on holiday or would it be cheaper just to add him to mine? Or is it even possible?

Quentin

It would be much cheaper to add him on to your policy for a few weeks (if your insurer is prepared to cover him) than for him to take out temporary insurance on his own car.


Though letting him use your car does risk your NCD!


Get some quotes for temp cover and ask your insurer what they would charge for (say) 4 weeks cover and take it from there.