OT Van insurance and No Claims Bonus

[GB]

How embarrassing. I'm nearly three years out of date!

[Syd Rumpo]

Is that not 'fronting', which is illegal?

Cheers

[Jonathan]

My insurer (NFU) told me that lowering the mileage could increase the premium.

Jonathan

[damduck-egg]

NFU generally have a good reputation but I got a very unrealistic quote from them, parents had been with them for years both for the farm and vehicles but that dwindled down to just Mothers present house and her Toyota Aygo. She decided to give up driving so I took over the car to chauffeur her around in , this was 3 years ago and they quoted me over £800 . A family friend actually worked in their local office and I rang her up to check they hadn't mistyped any details.Nope £800

• still. Sod that I was paying less than a third of that for a present generation Mini Cooper S for both me and the missus with a much higher agreed annual mileage. That would also cost a lot more to repair and has considerable more scope to get in to a fix with than in the Aygo.

G.Harman

[Fredxxx]

That depends on the nature of the policyholder and the disclosures made to the insurers.

It also depends on how many miles he does in their car, also what is "main user". If you take your mother to a supermarket in their car, who is actually using the car?

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Mine said otherwise and a quick Google agrees. I'm not in to posting links.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Do you do it when you're out?

[Syd Rumpo]

Well, I'd be driving, and that's what would count from the perspective of the insurer.

Cheers

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not so sure. A youngster might drive in a totally different way with his mum in the car.

[charles]

son of a friend of ours was driving his grannie somehwere and had an accident - she died as a result. not good.

[ARW]

Indeed. And I am not allowed to smoke in the car when my Mum is the passenger seat!

It is running them (my parents) around that ups the mileage I do in my Mums car. Say several trips to take them to the airport a year, a couple of shows with my Mum and then maybe a family wedding/funeral that is miles away etc and the mileage I do goes up. Combine that with the 20 miles a week my Mum actually drives herself and I soon am doing more miles per annum in the car than she is. She will not drive on the motorway or on roads she does not know.

As for car 2 - that's the gf's car. She does not like driving on motorways, so although I spend far less time behind the wheel of her car I do more miles in the car than she does.

[Syd Rumpo]

So, you are ipso facto the 'main driver' and are being 'fronted' by both your mother and your girlfriend.

That's not to say anything will ever come of it, but you should be aware that it's illegal.

Cheers

[T i m]

How would you expect to deal with those situations ITRW though?

When we had two cars one was in her name and she was the main driver and I was named and the reverse on the car I (nominally) owned and drove.

The insurance companies insisted that the main insured person was also the registered keeper. Now, whilst she might drive 'her' car more than she would drive 'mine', if we were going somewhere in hers, I'd typically drive. So whilst I'd probably clock up more miles in that car than her, she would be driving it more often than I (and would rarely drive mine).

So, ITRW a 'family car' could / would be driven by the various members on the policy and I have generally found that it doesn't matter (within reason) who is the nominated as the main driver because each driver will affect the loading accordingly.

And circumstances change. I change 'my' car and she then prefers to drive that rather than hers? Do I transfer it into her name and get the insurance company to put the policy in her name with me as a named driver, even though I would still be the one doing the longer trips and especially the one driving 'us' to 'unknown places' and at night?

Again, ITRW, how many people in the position of having access to a shared car could ever predict who is likely to be driving it the most (and is that 'most often', 'longest time' or 'greatest distance')?

'Of course' having a parent as the main insured driver (and registered keeper) and then kiddo (named driver) drives it all the time *could* be (once measured over what, a year) turn out to be 'fronting', but was that the *intention* or was it just how it turned out (because say the parent then got a company car)?

So, re AWR, what if the owners of the other vehicles he is named on the owners drive them every day but only up to the shops and back and he drives them twice a year to Scotland and back?

What about chauffeurs? Is the insurance in their name?

Cheers, T i m

[Syd Rumpo]

Mostly everything will be fine, particularly as, unlike fronting for a high-risk child, there's no obvious intent to defraud.

However, one thing we do know for sure is that insurance companies are weasels. In the event of a large claim, they may take more of an interest.

If I were an insurance weasel, I'd say he who drives furthest is the main driver, but I expect there are written definitions somewhere.

I don't know, I'll get the butler to ask mine.

Cheers

[Tim Lamb]

Small point of order... The main comprehensively insured driver is the only one entitled to 3rd party cover when driving someone else's vehicle. According to the NFU Mutual.

[Robin]

IME it varies from insurer to insurer. Some say the main driver is the person who'll drive the car the majority of the time. Some say the person who drives the most miles. I think I've seen one with "most often" which is ambiguous between total time and number of trips. And some give no real clue.

And to make matters more difficult, what they say about "main driver" when you apply ain't always accessible in the policy document and schedule.

[T i m]

And according to Saga. ;-)

That's partly why we insure (and dive) a car 'each', then we are both covered to drive any other *car* with the owners consent etc.

However, that wouldn't cover me to drive daughters Transit Connect as it's not 'a car'.

Cheers, T i m

[ARW]

And the reason I am a named driver on these two cars is that van insurance (even comprehensive insurance) never allows you 3rd party cover to drive someone else's vehicle.