Car Insurance - Commuting or SPD

vsah09

I think I might have put this in the wrong section before so apologies.

I'm hoping someone is a lot clearer on this than I am.

I have never needed my car for commuting as I walk to the station and travel into London by train however now I have moved house and work from home 98% of the time meaning my car is hardly used. When I do go in to the office I walk to the station and then go in my train. As I'm not using my car much during the week other than very small trips across town to see family, I take it to a family member once a week who is the other named driver on the policy who gives it a run around mainly shopping trips to stop the battery from dying. If I drove to the family member's house which is a short distance from mine and left my car with the other named driver for them to use and then walked to the station later to go to the office in London would this be classed as commuting? My instinct is no as my purpose for driving my car is to take it to the other named driver which I regularly do and who is then solely using it for leisure trips but I just wanted to check that I'm definitely covered even if I then go to work afterwards. Sorry if this is a silly question, I don't want to find myself in trouble for misinterpreting the cover. 

Aretnap

Sounds like a grey area. First question is have you checked whether adding commuting to your cover would actually adds anything to your premium? Often the difference is zero or pennies. In which case it makes sense to add it if there's any possibility at all that you might need it - it doesn't seem like something worth risking a tricky conversation with your insurer over...

vsah09

It's definitely a grey area which is why I'm starting to think ahead to the New Year when I can see this exact situation occurring especially if I need to go into the office more. I'm definitely going to add it on as I would like the peace of mind and even if it's slightly more I'd rather have the protection. I know if I went to park my car at the station or just with the intention of going to work it would clearly be commuting but when giving my car to my relative is part of my normal leisure routine if I were to then walk to the station as I do from my own home already for me that's when my commute begins. 

Carrot007

Aretnap said:

First question is have you checked whether adding commuting to your cover would actually adds anything to your premium? Often the difference is zero or pennies.

Very much this. Even having business use added nothing for me. I keep it there just in case I want to go to another site. I have not been in over 3 years though ;-)

TELLIT01

The only way to get certainty is to speak to your insurer.  I noticed that my policy no longer mentioned commuting so called the insurer.  They no longer have commuting as a separate item on their policies.  They only need to know if you will be going to more than one location.

[Deleted User]

Aretnap said:

Sounds like a grey area. First question is have you checked whether adding commuting to your cover would actually adds anything to your premium? Often the difference is zero or pennies. In which case it makes sense to add it if there's any possibility at all that you might need it - it doesn't seem like something worth risking a tricky conversation with your insurer over...

Mine had a decent saving when I removed commuting 4 years ago as I cycle to work, but of course mileage may vary