Car insurance - for someone living abroad

Greta

Hi all - I would like to put a family member on my car insurance.  They are a British citizen, they currently live abroad but are in the UK a lot.  I would like to add them to my insurance.  Does anyone have any ideas which car insurnace companies (if any) permit this?  Thanks in advance.

huckster

Not sure many companies allows this.  This has been asked on forums quite a lot and people have reported giving up trying. And instead the relative has hired a car when they needed one or taken out temporary Insurance to cover themselves driving another owners car.

Try a large brokers like Adrian Flux or Towergate. They should be aware whether any Insurers have affordable policies that offer temporary named driver additions where a person is not UK resident.

I googled and found this.

Car Insurance for Non-UK Residents | Temporary & Annual (sterling-insurance.co.uk)

Greta

huckster said:

Not sure many companies allows this.  This has been asked on forums quite a lot and people have reported giving up trying. And instead the relative has hired a car when they needed one or taken out temporary Insurance to cover themselves driving another owners car.

Try a large brokers like Adrian Flux or Towergate. They should be aware whether any Insurers have affordable policies that offer temporary named driver additions where a person is not UK resident.

I googled and found this.

Car Insurance for Non-UK Residents | Temporary & Annual (sterling-insurance.co.uk)

Thank you for this and much appreciated.  The assumption, "Many insurance companies consider you a high-risk because you don’t have much experience driving on UK roads"  is annoying.  My relative was born in the UK, passed their driving test here, drove here for many years, etc.

MalMonroe

Greta said:

huckster said:

Not sure many companies allows this.  This has been asked on forums quite a lot and people have reported giving up trying. And instead the relative has hired a car when they needed one or taken out temporary Insurance to cover themselves driving another owners car.

Try a large brokers like Adrian Flux or Towergate. They should be aware whether any Insurers have affordable policies that offer temporary named driver additions where a person is not UK resident.

I googled and found this.

Car Insurance for Non-UK Residents | Temporary & Annual (sterling-insurance.co.uk)

Thank you for this and much appreciated.  The assumption, "Many insurance companies consider you a high-risk because you don’t have much experience driving on UK roads"  is annoying.  My relative was born in the UK, passed their driving test here, drove here for many years, etc.

Hi, I'd add that even though someone was born in the UK and passed their driving test here and drove here for many years, they may not be aware of the ever-changing driving rules and regulations here. You can be unaware of changes in the highway code and road usage, even if you've lived here all your life. So it's probably right that insurance companies may consider a non-resident to be high risk.

I think what huckster says sounds reasonable, hiring a car or getting the temporary insurance. When my friend, UK born and bred, now living in Canada, visits (annually) she just uses taxis as she used to hire cars but says that she doesn't want to tackle our weird roads any more. Of course we drive on the 'wrong' side of the road but still, I do think things change very quickly here. Smart motorways for example. First they are, then they're not - but the ones that are here are still to be used. I think they're awful and I drive quite regularly. 

Greta

MalMonroe said:

Hi, I'd add that even though someone was born in the UK and passed their driving test here and drove here for many years, they may not be aware of the ever-changing driving rules and regulations here. You can be unaware of changes in the highway code and road usage, even if you've lived here all your life. So it's probably right that insurance companies may consider a non-resident to be high risk.

I think what huckster says sounds reasonable, hiring a car or getting the temporary insurance. When my friend, UK born and bred, now living in Canada, visits (annually) she just uses taxis as she used to hire cars but says that she doesn't want to tackle our weird roads any more. Of course we drive on the 'wrong' side of the road but still, I do think things change very quickly here. Smart motorways for example. First they are, then they're not - but the ones that are here are still to be used. I think they're awful and I drive quite regularly. 

My family member is over here about four times a year, spends a few weeks in the UK and still consumes UK media daily.  So I still question the assumptions attached by the industry. If you live in the UK you are more likely to drive more frequently, being on the road more ups your probability of being involved in an accident surely?  Against someone who might be part of an annual policy but here for a few weeks each year.  We live in a very rural area, so taxis would end up being expensive.  My family member never complains about the roads or driving here.

As for smart motorways, etc I myself rarely drive on any form of motorway because there are none around here.  That will be true for many who live in this area.  So am I a risk too or is my risk actually less?  I know its the rules you are getting at, I am just questioning assumptions made by the industry even if there's nothing I am able to do about that.

Aretnap

Greta said:

MalMonroe said:

Hi, I'd add that even though someone was born in the UK and passed their driving test here and drove here for many years, they may not be aware of the ever-changing driving rules and regulations here. You can be unaware of changes in the highway code and road usage, even if you've lived here all your life. So it's probably right that insurance companies may consider a non-resident to be high risk.

I think what huckster says sounds reasonable, hiring a car or getting the temporary insurance. When my friend, UK born and bred, now living in Canada, visits (annually) she just uses taxis as she used to hire cars but says that she doesn't want to tackle our weird roads any more. Of course we drive on the 'wrong' side of the road but still, I do think things change very quickly here. Smart motorways for example. First they are, then they're not - but the ones that are here are still to be used. I think they're awful and I drive quite regularly. 

My family member is over here about four times a year, spends a few weeks in the UK and still consumes UK media daily.  So I still question the assumptions attached by the industry. If you live in the UK you are more likely to drive more frequently, being on the road more ups your probability of being involved in an accident surely?  Against someone who might be part of an annual policy but here for a few weeks each year.  We live in a very rural area, so taxis would end up being expensive.  My family member never complains about the roads or driving here.

As for smart motorways, etc I myself rarely drive on any form of motorway because there are none around here.  That will be true for many who live in this area.  So am I a risk too or is my risk actually less?  I know its the rules you are getting at, I am just questioning assumptions made by the industry even if there's nothing I am able to do about that.

It's not about assumptions though, it's about averages. Car insurance prices aren't based on a detailed profile of every individual customer. They're based on putting people into groups on the basis of a limited number of questions, and assessing the risk profile of those groups as a whole.

Foreign residents *on the whole* have less experience of UK driving than UK residents. It's also harder to check that the information you provide about their claims, driving history etc is correct as they don't tend to appear on UK databases. And after an accident they are more likely to disappear abroad and be unable to give evidence of what happened, meaning that the other driver is likely to win any court case by default. So there are a number of reasons why mainstream insurers are wary of non-UI resident drivers. Whether they apply to your particular relative isn't really the point, it's whether they apply to foreign residents as a group.

If you don't think it's fair to base prices in broad classifications, and you'd like a more personalised approach than a computer that says no on the basis of a few boxes that you tick in a website, you can always go to Lloyds of London, sit down for tea and biscuits with your underwriter, have a detailed chat with him about your relative's lifestyle and see if he thinks that your relative sounds like a risk. But inevitably you would have to pay extra - a lot extra - for that sort of personalised service, so short term policy or a broker like Adrian Flux that specialises in more unusual cases is going to be a better option.

k12479

Greta said:

 If you live in the UK you are more likely to drive more frequently, being on the road more ups your probability of being involved in an accident surely?

On a simple level, yes, being on the road more means there's more opportunity to be involved in an accident, but driving less means less proficiency. People driving 10k miles/year are not having 10x as many accidents as those only driving 1k miles/year.

Caz3121

my parents add my brother (UK born and passed test here, but lives overseas now) to their car insurance policy for his temp visits a couple of times a year. Strangely adding him for a week often results in them getting a refund!
Are you looking to have them on the policy all the time or to add them temporarily when they visit?