Should I become a named driver on my son's policy

csgohan4

interestingly, when I add my spouse who has no NCB as a second driver, while I have 14 years+ NCB and no claims/points, it actually reduces my premiums by 20-30%.

Odd as I am the main driver as well. I can understand it if she had loads of NCB years as well

bigpat

csgohan4 said:

interestingly, when I add my spouse who has no NCB as a second driver, while I have 14 years+ NCB and no claims/points, it actually reduces my premiums by 20-30%.

Odd as I am the main driver as well. I can understand it if she had loads of NCB years as well

Maybe females are just seen as a lower risk, though it does seem odd given you have 14 years to her 0.

Or maybe just having two people on the policy somehow reduces the risk in the actuarial calculations..

bigpat

Something else just occurred to me. How do you decide who is the main driver? Would you base it on number of occasions or mileage?

If I drive the car 10 times a month, and do a total of 100 miles, whereas my son drives it twice a month but does 200 miles, which of us is the main driver?

csgohan4

bigpat said:

csgohan4 said:

interestingly, when I add my spouse who has no NCB as a second driver, while I have 14 years+ NCB and no claims/points, it actually reduces my premiums by 20-30%.

Odd as I am the main driver as well. I can understand it if she had loads of NCB years as well

Maybe females are just seen as a lower risk, though it does seem odd given you have 14 years to her 0.

Or maybe just having two people on the policy somehow reduces the risk in the actuarial calculations..

I remember they can longer price discriminate on gender now, so everyone's prices were harmonised as a result. 

Insurance costs to soar as judges ban gender discrimination (moneysavingexpert.com)

I guess must be just adding your spouse somehow make you a statistically safer driver

[Deleted User]

csgohan4 said:

interestingly, when I add my spouse who has no NCB as a second driver, while I have 14 years+ NCB and no claims/points, it actually reduces my premiums by 20-30%.

Odd as I am the main driver as well. I can understand it if she had loads of NCB years as well

My other half had an accident (not her fault, other driver went through a give way into the side of her) and had to declare it of course to my insurance as she's named on mine which put the premium up, I joked with the agent I should ask her to pay and the insurer amusingly pointed out mine would be higher without her on it regardless!

chrisw

Deleted_User said:

If you are clearly the main driver, you have to be the main person on the policy with him as a named driver. It's technically fronting, though of course it's normally done the other way around. As such, he will lose the no claims bonus after 2 years, not you (if you do, illegally, put yourself as a named driver but are the main driver, he will keep his no claims and you will lose yours).

You can keep the no claims provided you were a main driver again after a year

This is incorrect and was discussed with examples in this other thread recently.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6306670/car-inshurance/p1

The key thing is to ensure all the details are recorded correctly - owner, registered keeper, main driver, address the vehicles kept at, etc. and there can then be no come back.

[Deleted User]

chrisw said:

Deleted_User said:

If you are clearly the main driver, you have to be the main person on the policy with him as a named driver. It's technically fronting, though of course it's normally done the other way around. As such, he will lose the no claims bonus after 2 years, not you (if you do, illegally, put yourself as a named driver but are the main driver, he will keep his no claims and you will lose yours).

You can keep the no claims provided you were a main driver again after a year

This is incorrect and was discussed with examples in this other thread recently.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6306670/car-inshurance/p1

The key thing is to ensure all the details are recorded correctly - owner, registered keeper, main driver, address the vehicles kept at, etc. and there can then be no come back.

What are you on about? Literally nothing in that post is incorrect. OP said that her son's car would be kept at her address and she would be the main driver as he wouldn't be driving it, having him as the main driver and her as a named driver, when she will be doing all the driving is fronting (albeit not the normal way it's done). The thread you linked confirmed that insurers ask who the main driver is. You lose your no claims bonus history if you are not the main driver for 2 years (some insurers will consider 3). The rest of your comment is literally stating what I said, as if I had said the opposite

chrisw

Deleted_User said:

If you are clearly the main driver, you have to be the main person on the policy with him as a named driver. It's technically fronting, though of course it's normally done the other way around. As such, he will lose the no claims bonus after 2 years, not you (if you do, illegally, put yourself as a named driver but are the main driver, he will keep his no claims and you will lose yours).

This is wrong. Maybe you are confusing the terms. 

There is nothing wrong with the son being the 'main policyholder' (the 'main person on the policy') with his mother still being a 'named driver' and being the 'main driver' of the car as long as the insurance company are aware. This is not illegal as discussed in the thread I linked to.

You lose your no claims bonus after 2 years of not being a policyholder, not from not being a main driver. As such, he would not lose his no claim bonus at all but his mother might, as named driver rather than policyholder, after 2 years.

Brie

where is he in his current insurance policy term?  It may be cheapest for now to simply amend the current policy.  If he cancels is he's unlikely to get much of a refund, if any.  He'll need to ring the insurance company to find out what's possible.