Letting car insurance run on despite change in circumstances.

okanem100

Hi all,
Quick version - My daughter (provisional license) wants to take out car insurance through Company A (circa £320) to allow her to continue to learn to drive (200 mile in the year at most), then when she passes her test, ignore cancelling that policy and simply take out R plate car insurance with mainstream Company B (circa £1,000) where she will probably do a lot more miles each year for Uni? Can two policies exist at the one time?  The cheap policy would tick the insurance box for learning (there are a few negative comments regarding this company so wouldn't want them when she gets on the road proper) and should she not get her driving test for another year, it would at least be another years NCB.

Detail if you are interested.  I am going to renew my daughter's car insurance, she has a provisional license and a small car in her own name.  She has no prospects in the coming few months of getting her driving test due to Covid.  Prob Nov at earliest.
I insured her in her own name last year when she turned 17 through the Post Office, circa £670 which I thought was good value.  One year on, she has her 1 year NCB and I still want her to be able to take the car out now and again.
I have the option of renewing her insurance through a couple of companies for circa £350.  They aren't mainstream but they will tick the box for saying she's insured while on a provisional license, during which time she will only do maybe 200 miles in the whole year.  I don't want to fork out £1,000 + for mainstream insurance when she is just doing a few miles with a parent in beside her.
If she does then pass the test, I want to ignore the cheaper insurance as there will likely be high cancellation charges, leave it to run but get a mainstream insurance for her which god forbid she ever had an accident, we would claim through it.
So the question is, can you be insured twice for a period of time?

Sandtree

You cannot use the NCD twice so if you are using it on the unknown brand learner insurance you would have to buy the branded just passed insurance with 0 NCD and the cost of doing that will probably be more than the cost of cancelling.

Being insured twice will make any claims more of a pain as technically both insurers will have a liability of 50% each but inevitably there is normally some discussion to make sure the T&Cs dont mean it should be different... you may find there is lax wording in the unknown brand and that they end up being the actual insurer liable but the deminished cover for the non-disclosure.

Obviously most of this is getting ahead of yourself. As soon as she has passed do the shopping around including price from the unbranded to change for the remaining few months.

Aretnap

The terms of the learner policy will almost certainly require you to inform them of the fact that she's passed her test - at which point they'd give you the choice of cancelling and paying the fee, or continuing at an increased premium (as she'll now likely be driving more, without supervision).

So to avoid the cancellation fee you would have to breach the terms by not telling them that she'd passed - and that could lead to problems up to and including a cancelled policy if they found out. You really don't want policy that was cancelled for non-disclosure on your record; it would make getting reasonably priced insurance difficult for a long time.

You might think "well they won't find out and if there's a claim I'll just put it through the other policy". However you might not have much choice in the event of a claim, for example if the third party decided to claim direct from her insurance and finds the learner policy first, or if your own insurer does a check at the point of claim to see if there are any other policies on the car.

Personally I wouldn't risk it for the sake of a few quid in cancellation fees.

okanem100

Thanks for the advice all, excellent points to consider. Thanks for taking the time to reply in such detail.
KR
OKANEM

Korkyb

Both my daughters were insured with Adrian Flux when they were learning to drive (was around the £300 mark for each of them too).

There was no cancellation fee when they passed the test - the insurance policy requires you to inform them immediately on passing their test at which point they advised what the premium would be to continue with them (it wasn't a competitive offer) or the policy ended without charge.

When she passes her test be sure to get Multicar quotes for all the cars in the family. It has saved us a fair amount of cash over the last few years compared to individual quotes - i.e my 18 year old currently at Uni, (1 year since test passed) was £600 vs around £1000 individual quotes this year.

We are with Admiral and they cover immediate family member on their multicar even if at different addresses. (So 18 yr old away at Uni & 21 year old living in her own flat are both covered).