Car insurance change of address from home to uni and back for young driver with box

gailhall

Hi there, please could anyone give me some pointers here.....

My daughter (19) has recently passed her test, got a car and shopped around for insurance. She's paid £1300 for the year based at her home address, and a box was installed.

She's now driven it up to uni in Leeds and as requested notified the company that she's there. They've quoted an additional £1400 for the change of address. When re-comparing for an insurance quote, the Leeds address comes out cheaper than our home address.

She's sent them an email, with my input:

I recently contact you to inform you that my car would be parked up outside my university accommodation in Leeds. I was horrified to learn that you would expect an additional £1400 to cover this.
When I subsequently searched for car insurance, based on my Leeds address (LSxxxx) rather than my Warrington address (WAxxx) the quotation came out as £500 LESS than the quote that I accepted from yourselves.
I have read through my documentation, and there is no clear information that a temporary change of location would be penalised by such a ridiculous amount. Whilst I would obviously be spending a considerable amount of time at university, my home address – the car’s registered address – would remain as Warrington WAxxx.
As I am still within the statutory cooling off period of 14 days, I am considering cancelling this policy as I believe that the increase in premium is totally unacceptable.
I would be grateful if you could investigate my policy to see if there is any way round this, otherwise I would be forced to cancel the policy and change to a more reasonable insurance provider.

I'm just trying to work out where she stands with this - if she changes her address and pays the added premium, would she have to redo this every time she's back at home?

If she doesn't change her address, would she actually be covered if the box says she spends lots of time in Leeds?

If she cancels and goes with another company from her, would we be facing the same issue when she comes back home? Would she be likely to face a hefty cancellation admin fee as they've fitted a box?

At the moment she's only got 4 days left of the 14 day cooling off period, so I'm just trying to work out what to do for the best.

Very grateful for any advice you may have

lopsyfa

You just need to insure the car at one address - the one where your daughter will spend most time in a year. She doesn't need to change the address anytime she is home during the holiday.

And if you are still within the 14 days period (even if after it, they will only charge pro rata plus a 'small" admin fees) it is better to cancel the other insurance and re-book for the university address if she is going to spend more time there.

Car_54

Has she explained her situation to the insurer? There must be '000s of students in the same boat.

I'd suggest contacting Endsleigh, who specialise in students' insurance and are recommended by the NUS. https://www.endsleigh.co.uk/personal/motor-insurance/student-car-insurance/