Additional drivers on car insurance

lisyloo

I can't see how anyone can prove that the additional driver hasn't used the car in the year the car is insured.

Dan is right.
You cannot be 100% sure what is going to happen a year ahead (same with anticipated mileages). You just have to be honest and let them know if things change significantly.

There are a few ways they could tell if you were being dis-honest but they are pretty extreme - an example would be putting down a relative that is in prison who could not have possibly driven the car.
It's pretty unlikely to get found out but I wouldn't advocate fraud as the consequences can be very bad.

mum2one

lisyloo wrote: »

The basic rule is that you need to be honest with insurance companies so that they can adequately consider the risk.
What you are doing slipp_digby sounds fine to me because you genuinely anticipate that your dad might drive (although he may end up never driving the car).

Deliberately adding people that you know will never drive the car to get the price down is mis-representing the risk to the insurer and technically would be illegal.

Although it has to be recognised that in practice it would be quite hard for an insurer to tell the difference between the two situations (unless it was something obvious like they resided in a different country).

My advice is to be honest, throughly read and understand your contract and get any importatn agreements in writing (in the meantime get names, times and dates).

Couldnt of said it better myself x

mum2one

Touser wrote: »

This is the thing I was trying to find out.

I can't see how anyone can prove that the additional driver hasn't used the car in the year the car is insured.

It has to be the driver who is ENTIRELY HONEST!

From the way I read your 1st post you were looking to put another driver on your policy just to reduce your premium - which would be illegal x

raskazz

There is nothing wrong with adding an extra driver to a policy in this way, as long as their details are given correctly. In adding a named driver to a policy you are not saying that that driver will ever necessarily drive the car, you are merely ensuring that they are covered to drive the car should they need to.

Many, many, people add a driver to their policy for emergencies only - in reality they will never drive the car.

No insurer would have a problem with this - most insurers will rate the premium on the highest risk driver anyway, with the addition of lesser risk named drivers resulting in the same premium. Adding a spouse can often reduce the premium however, if their details are similar to or better than the policyholder's.

thor

Also I don't think that insurers have anything in their t&cs saying that an additional driver has to drive the car at all. By default they just have to drive less than the main driver which can be zero miles per year.

jeanette251978

Its not illegal to do this at all, some brokers will suggest this to help reduce the premium, you might put your spouse on the policy and this too can reduce the premium, it doesnt mean it is illegal to do so!

No one can guarentee how often any named driver will drive the vehicle, you could say on a very infrequent basis, emergencies only - if you have no emergencies in that 12 month period the driver may not have had a need to drive it.

movilogo

I found that adding my wife on insurance actually reduced my premium, even though she is just a learner!

There is nothing wrong in adding extra driver(s). Even if he/they never drive the car!
As long as main driver's details are correct, one should not worry. How insurance cos calculate their risk it is their headache. If they give you any legal way of reducing your premium, you should always take that.