Car ins.due for renewal, should I add my learner driver son (prov. licence) as named driver?

johnnyboyz

I'm guessing it will increase my premium from 400 up to 600 or 700 but I am paying £50 a month to Veygo at the moment for insurance and it will probably be 4/5 months before he does his test.

I'm guessing that if I add him when he passes his test that they will charge an admin fee of £50+ just for changing the policy and I suspect they will also increase the premium then.

Any thoughts?

Ayr_Rage

You can guess as much as you like but you won't know until you contact your insurer.

They may not insure your son on that particular vehicle, either as a learner or as a newly qualified driver.

Don't assume anything, read your policy regarding changes and relevant charges then call and confirm with the insurer.

Car_54

As above, and they will increase the premium HUGELY when or if he passes. 

forgotmyname

When he passes his test you will still need to pay an admin fee when you inform them he has now passed and possibly a recalculation
of the premium in a steep upwards direction.

Northern_Wanderer

Best to call insurer and ask the situation. This is because they may have rules on minimum age or length of time they have held a licence for. You may not be able to add them at all to current policy with current insurer.

CliveOfIndia

As per previous comments, you really do need to give them a call and ask.

As a very general rule of thumb, adding a leaner to your policy is not usually too expensive - since, by definition, they will be supervised at all times.  But when your son passes his test, brace yourself for a pretty hefty increase in premiums.

Having said that, there are some companies who tend not to like insuring learners (Direct Line always used to be one, though it's been quite a few years since I was with them).  And quite a few will not insure newly-qualified drivers - so it's possible that when your son passes his test, you'll find you need to switch insurers anyway (or else get him his own policy).

But without knowing your particular insurer's policies and procedures, it would be pure guesswork to speculate.

johnnyboyz

I phoned my current insurer, AXA, and they won't insure under 21 drivers, although I may still go with them as their renewal quote is surprisingly good, and then cancel for £50 admin fee.
At least then I can compare the whole market.
But still not sure what to do...

cw8825

how test ready is he?
with the backlog of test it might not be till early next year
and thats assuming he passes straight away

Northern_Wanderer

I think Aviva do not insure under 19s, just so you know. 

mgfvvc

johnnyboyz said:

I phoned my current insurer, AXA, and they won't insure under 21 drivers, although I may still go with them as their renewal quote is surprisingly good, and then cancel for £50 admin fee.
At least then I can compare the whole market.
But still not sure what to do...

Also possible to buy him add on insurance with Marmalade. It's not cheap, but may, or may not, prove cheaper than the alternatives. It's what we did when LV said they wouldn't insure our daughter until she'd been driving for a year. It was around £1500 for us. After year it was "computer sez no", so we cancelled and LV and we were able to buy a Ford Insure policy with her as a named driver for £500.