provisional cover to full cover

ajbird

Hi there,
Son has bought a car and wants to insure it so he can practice leading up to his test (a month away) 
Is there a way to tell how much the hike will be in his insurance costs once he passes?
I cant find any info on this.
We are looking to put me as the main driver and him as an additional for the 1st year which seems to come up with cheaper quotes.
However, the cheaper quotes for him as a provisional are absolutely not the cheapest quotes once he passes (thousands more in some cases)
Can we cancel insurance once he passes and start again?

BarelySentientAI

ajbird said:

We are looking to put me as the main driver and him as an additional for the 1st year which seems to come up with cheaper quotes.

If you're not actually the main driver of the car which I'm guessing you are not ("son has bought a car"), then this is called 'fronting' and will get your insurance cancelled, make you liable for the cost of any incidents, and could even be counted as insurance fraud which is a criminal offence.

400ixl

Many provisional policies do not allow a conversion to a full license policy and you have to cancel them. So yes, you can cancel the policy part way through if it is going to be cheaper on a different policy once passed.

If this is your son's car and he will be the main driver then you should not put yourself as the main driver. This is fronting and insurance fraud. It has the consequence of having a policy cancelled on you which will increase premiums for a very long time. It is looked for and not worth the risk. Yes you may save a £k now but could cost you many more over the future years.

ajbird

I will literally be the main driver till he passes his test and 50-50 there after 

Emmia

ajbird said:

I will literally be the main driver till he passes his test and 50-50 there after 

There are different insurances for learners and drivers who have passed their test - the car can be insured for your son to practice in, and then when he passes, that policy will need to be cancelled (it won't be valid as he will have passed his test) and then a normal policy purchased.

There will undoubtedly be a huge jump in the cost of insurance once he passes, so I can see the temptation to save by declaring you as the main driver... As everyone else points out, don't fall for the temptation of fronting.
 

cw8825

ajbird said:

I will literally be the main driver till he passes his test and 50-50 there after 

Is it not 50:50 before then he becomes the main driver?

the fact  it his car is a giveaway 
there are a few options:

you can take out a policy just for him as a provisional driver but this will need to be cancelled once he passes

take out one that can be converted. They will give you an estimated price

take out once based on him as a provisional driver that will cover him when he passes with no additional cost - this will cost more upfront but you know exactly what the cost will be as opposed to the other 2 scenarios 

daveyjp

No age of son provided, but if he is under 21 expect any cover to be many thousands. 

A black box/app tracking policy may be cheaper but check the small print on restrictions, how extra costs are added and circumstances which can lead to a policy being cancelled.

electriccactus

ajbird said:

Hi there,
Son has bought a car and wants to insure it so he can practice leading up to his test (a month away) 
Is there a way to tell how much the hike will be in his insurance costs once he passes?
I cant find any info on this.
We are looking to put me as the main driver and him as an additional for the 1st year which seems to come up with cheaper quotes.
However, the cheaper quotes for him as a provisional are absolutely not the cheapest quotes once he passes (thousands more in some cases)
Can we cancel insurance once he passes and start again?

The only thing you can really do is create a fictional person and run through insurance comparison with their fictional details.

In my experience, having bought a car with a provisional late last September, insuring it then passing and insuring it in January, these are at best ballpark figures.

The quotes I was receiving as a dummy quote were probably 30% higher on a good day than what I ended up paying. Most quotes were probably 45%+ more. I suspect that as my fictional persona did not appear on a credit check and I could obviously not supply them with this person's driving licence number, that I took a considerable hit on the price due to risk.

I suppose you could always view them as an absolute worst-case scenario. Although if your son is young I think you'll be blown away by the quotes.

nadsat

Having gone through this with one of my kids the only benefit I can see is that insurers such as Hastings will accept no claims built up under a provisional licence when it's time to tell them he passed. But in our case it was 3 years before he passed and he was over 21 so the hike in his insurance wasn't huge and I'd also bought a very non-flash oldish car (Kia Rio). But location is a big issue - he got very reasonable quotes in Preston but moved to Birmingham, which is much more expensive.