Cycling UK Forum

Thought I'd share this little gem with you, just in case, like me, you've got a youngster about to start driving.
My eldest daughter got her provisional licence last September and began to take driving lessons. As neither my insurers, nor the wife's (BUDGET - remember that name!) would add any driver under 21 to the policy, dad bought her a car of her own - a tidy Vauxhall Corsa 1.2.
Having asked the local brokers (far too expensive) I ended up speaking to a meerkat - TPFT for a 17 yr old prov lic holder was just over £600 - with BUDGET. It could be expected to rise once she was driving unsupervised of course - that's the norm, but at least she'd be accruing a bit of no claims bonus for next year (or so I thought).
Last Tuesday she passed her test at the first attempt and that's when the blood pressure went up.
I dutifully contacted BUDGET and spoke to their South African office They weren't able to tell me the new premium, so promised to ring me back in a couple of days. I got the return call on Thursday - they couldn't continue the policy now she'd passed her test as the underwriter (SABRE) weren't prepared to cover the risk. I would have to cancel the policy (no I wouldn't - they'd effectively cancelled it by refusing the risk) and take out a new one for the next 12 months (again with SABRE ) for £1580. I would get a refund of £360 though, despite the fact that she had lost the 5-6 months NCB. I wasn't prepared to be pressured into the decision there and then as was implied and made other enquiries. I manged to get her cover with another broker (advertised by a sailor with a parrot ) for the next year for a smidge over £750).
Back to South Africa - now, because I'd gone elsewhere, they regard me as having cancelled the policy and intend to refund only £102 I was not able to get the individual to understand that I did not cancel and had not wanted to. I wanted to continue and pay the difference - is that too much to ask?
Needless to say - it is all now being passed to the Insurance Ombudsman and the Financial Services watchdog for their comments. Has anyone else heard of a policy being issued to a learner driver with an unwritten and unmentioned clause that they must never pass a test or their insurance is void It seems to me like a clear case of sharp practice and simply reinforces the level of contempt that such companies are held in.
In the meantime, I'll let as many people as possible know about the situation so that they can avoid falling into the cunningly laid trap....

I'm going for a lie down now
Steve

Greybeard

What strikes me about this is that usually insurance companies are very keen to avoid 'fronting' - an established policyholder adding a young / inexperienced driver to their own policy as an additional driver so they can insure a car of their own more cheaply.

It's what they're good at - shafting people.

Those prices sound hideous to me, but probably the norm I imagine. Not entirely sure I'd like to be dad to a teenager needing car insurance. or a car. Or breakdown cover. Or new frocks. Or....... What will daughter No2 do when you're retired? Pensions only stretch to bicycles these days

Sounds like you were very unlucky to me.

We're with Churchill, and they added our daughter to our premium on our 1.3 Fiesta for £600 per annum. They won't insure a 17 year old on their own - they have to be on the parents' insurance. There was no bother or quibble about it - the only downside is that our excess went up quite steeply - I suppose it would be very easy for the experienced driver with full no claims (as I have) to say they were driving if there was a minor accident and not lose their no claims bonus (we have protected no claims on our other car - she's definately not allowed to drive that!)

Premiun went down to £540 when she passed her test.

Jan

They sound a right bunch. You can console yourself with the thought that if your daughter had been a son it would have been a lot more expensive. Several years ago my eldest son insured his first car TPFT for £1200 with an excess three times his monthly income! The car was worth far less then either figure. This was the cheapest policy by around £500.

My 19 year old drives my car as a named driver (insuring a young bloke in their own car is off the scale)

We use the Red Telephone as they give him a NCB even as a named driver, so hopefully in a couple of years time he'll have a full NCB and the premiums should be less eye-watering

I think the situation described in the OP, where nobody at the insurer anticipates the next stage and advises apprpriately, is a result of cutting out the people who used to do the advising - insurance brokers or trained salespeople. When costs are minimised part of the service goes. Another trend is cherrypicking - insurers compete at giving the best prices to the best risks and it's the crumbs for anybody else.

Having a son or daughter as a named driver is only for the situation where they are truly not the main driver. Insurers will happlily accept the premiums until there is a claim and that's when their investigators step in. If the additional driver turns out to be the main user of that car, then they will void the policy. Although the regulators have tried to ensure that insurers' terms are explicit, there is still a lot decided on their long-standing practices.

As a driving instructor this is a question I get asked frequently.

There are specialist short term (shouldn't be a problem if they have a decent instructor) policies that are available to learners only to enable them to practice in ANY car providing it is less than group 15 and valued at less than £20K one such company is http://www.collingwoodlearners.co.uk/

Could work well as it does not affect your own policy or no claims discount.

It should be noted that the policy ends once the learner passes their test.

DOH - just re read your first post and realised that your daughter has already passed

Try NFU mutual though as they are usually quite good in rural areas and also give a discount for Pass Plus.

tooley92 wrote:It should be noted that the policy ends once the learner passes their test.

This sounds like the stunt that BUDGET have pulled - only they never mentioned it at the start and have produced no documentation highlighting it It wouldn't have been an issue if that had been made clear at the outset.
I wish I'd known about this company in September - they may well have covered her for driving the wife's car - Skoda Fabia diesel estate and poor old dad wouldn't have had to spend precious toy money on a Corsa .

Sreve

Bizarrely, we found it cheaper to add my daughter as well as her (older) brother, because the youngest driver was no longer a young male. Hard to see how adding a driver reduces the risk

In the event, she has passed and he has not got around to it.

I would recommend that everyone avoids Zurich. I have no experience of them for car insurance, but I'm just about on the verge of a breakdown over their behaviour regarding a claim on my home insurance.

Well, it seems like my 'persuasive' letter has had some effect on the British branch of Budget . My daughter got a telephone call this morning from them. They are going to refund £380 to my account. Looks like they've accepted that they're responsible for what they sell after all, eh?

I'll not count my chickens just yet though - although that money would go towards a nice veteran cycle

Steve

When I were a lad, I don't know what my parents paid to add me to my Mum's insurance (probably far too much - when I introduced them to confused.com a few years later I cut their premium in half), but when I got my own car it was, for some reason I still don't understand, 10% cheaper to add my Mum to my insurance, giving me an £80 discount. Admiral's 10 month bonus accelerator was handy too. The last insurance premium I paid, 2 years ago, was £160 fully comp.

Now I don't own a car, so I don't pay insurance. Interestingly, the few times I have really needed a motor vehicle, like when I hired a van to move home, I paid less to hire the vehicles than I did to insure my own. And I bought a new Brompton for less than the cost of a year's fuel. Sorry if I sound smug, it's just that I am.

rbrian wrote:Now I don't own a car, so I don't pay insurance. Interestingly, the few times I have really needed a motor vehicle, like when I hired a van to move home, I paid less to hire the vehicles than I did to insure my own. And I bought a new Brompton for less than the cost of a year's fuel. Sorry if I sound smug, it's just that I am.

I'd love to not own a car again I actually miss not owning a car