Insuring 2 cars with only 1 driver

echos_mum

Has anyone experience of trying to get reasonable insurance for two cars they own? When you can only drive one at a time, is there not a way to reduce the premiums on the basis of a sort of shared policy covering the two cars, one joint mileage, and an average value? We estimate mileage for our policies anyway, so it maybe would just mean estimating the split between the two cars. Insurance companies are raking it in covering both cars on a full annual premium basis.

Sandtree

That’d be an almost certain no on joint value and mileage... imagine the guy with a Ferrari and corsa if it was all shared but in reality he uses the Ferrari 99% of the time.

Some multi car policies do price in a discount if there is only one driver for both/all the cars

forgotmyname

Classic car policies are very cheap if used as a 2nd car.

TELLIT01

Averaging the value would be disastrous if the more valuable vehicle was written off.  If one was worth 20k and other just 5k, you would only get a max of £12.5k in that situation.  Good news for the insurer but not the insured.

jimbo6977

Sandtree said:

That’d be an almost certain no on joint value and mileage... imagine the guy with a Ferrari and corsa if it was all shared but in reality he uses the Ferrari 99% of the time.

Some multi car policies do price in a discount if there is only one driver for both/all the cars

Had a neighbour back in the 80s who had a whale tail Porsche and a Lada Riva estate for trips to the tip. 

Insurers ask whether you have access to another car so as to generate a small discount per car, but not half price. 

John_

echos_mum said:

Has anyone experience of trying to get reasonable insurance for two cars they own? When you can only drive one at a time, is there not a way to reduce the premiums on the basis of a sort of shared policy covering the two cars, one joint mileage, and an average value? We estimate mileage for our policies anyway, so it maybe would just mean estimating the split between the two cars. Insurance companies are raking it in covering both cars on a full annual premium basis.

Yes, I have four insured on Admiral multi-car, who do indeed take account of the fact that you can’t drive them all at once,

Thrugelmir

I ran a TVR and an old Fiesta for a number of years. TVR was mileage limited. 

Sandtree

TELLIT01 said:

Averaging the value would be disastrous if the more valuable vehicle was written off.  If one was worth 20k and other just 5k, you would only get a max of £12.5k in that situation.  Good news for the insurer but not the insured.

Would depend on how it really worked in the T&Cs... good for the insurer if the £20k car is capped at £12.5k but bad for the insurer if they have to pay out £12.5k on the £5k car... give more extreme deviation in values and you'd have people leaving their old rust buckets in precarious situations hoping for it to be written off.

echos_mum

What I meant (sorry it wasn’t worded well!) is average the premium cost on the two car values based on a split of mileage, so if the more expensive car was used 60% of the total mileage, then the policy cost would be weighted towards that one at a greater extent. Don’t underestimate the ability of insurers to include all manner of variants into their calculations! Thats what actuaries do! I am also only talking about using these averages to get a more realistic premium, not to suggest that they pay out a fixed sum that would be too high for one car and too low for the other. Not that daft!! 

I am bemused at some comments that indicate a sense of support for insurance companies! Some of the richest companies in the world! 

echos_mum

John_ said:

echos_mum said:

Has anyone experience of trying to get reasonable insurance for two cars they own? When you can only drive one at a time, is there not a way to reduce the premiums on the basis of a sort of shared policy covering the two cars, one joint mileage, and an average value? We estimate mileage for our policies anyway, so it maybe would just mean estimating the split between the two cars. Insurance companies are raking it in covering both cars on a full annual premium basis.

Yes, I have four insured on Admiral multi-car, who do indeed take account of the fact that you can’t drive them all at once,

Sadly they only do that for 3 or more cars, not just 2. 

Sandtree

echos_mum said:

What I meant (sorry it wasn’t worded well!) is average the premium cost on the two car values based on a split of mileage, so if the more expensive car was used 60% of the total mileage, then the policy cost would be weighted towards that one at a greater extent. Don’t underestimate the ability of insurers to include all manner of variants into their calculations! Thats what actuaries do! I am also only talking about using these averages to get a more realistic premium, not to suggest that they pay out a fixed sum that would be too high for one car and too low for the other. Not that daft!! 

I am bemused at some comments that indicate a sense of support for insurance companies! Some of the richest companies in the world! 

So what is the difference between saying you do 10,000 miles a year and 60% is in car A -v- saying you do 6,000 miles in car A and 4,000 in car B?

Insurers can and do do multicar policies which include discount for single drivers but they just ask you to declare mileage for each one rather than a total mileage and a percentage for each one... both get to the same value anyway its just an input difference.

Insurance company valuation is  difficult... they trying to make themselves sound big by quoting how many assets under management they may have (particularly in the Life & Pensions space) but much of that is monies being held under the Best Estimate of Liabilities and Capital and so in reality the BEL will be going out the door in claims payments and the capital is there to cover if life doesnt go to plan.  It doesnt take too many catastrophic events to happen in sequence to make a massive dent in their finances hence Hiscox so far this year are circa £400m down on cat events and that doesnt include the £250m that they could have to pay out if the FCA test case goes against them.