Insurance question

[deva link]

gilbertd said:

I regularly drive both of their cars, covered third party only by my own policy.

I think the word 'regularly' could get you into trouble there (in the event of a very serious accident and your type of use becoming known). DOC cover was never meant to be used like that.


Also, today's Motley Fool had the following:
uk.biz.yahoo.com/050926/35/ft02f.html
"Sure You're Insured To Drive Someone Else's Car?
By Jane Mack
If you insure your car through Norwich Union, Asda or the RAC , then watch out because the terms of your policy will change at the end of the year. You will no longer be insured to drive someone else's car.
At the moment, most comprehensive car insurance policies allow you to drive cars that you don't own as long as you have the owner's permission. Driving other cars (DOC) is designed for emergency use only and cover is limited to third party only. It can't be used abroad and usually it doesn't cover vans or lorries.

But insurers say policyholders are abusing the system and that it doesn't help police to catch the 5% of drivers who aren't insured at all. Norwich Union, Asda and the RAC plan to remove the benefit from its policies by the end of the year while others such as AXA , Cornhill Direct and Royal & SunAlliance are considering it."

>> Edited by deva link on Monday 26th September 20:16

[wiggy001]

pdV6 said:

bigdods said: You might be surprised here - but having your spouse on the policy can make it cheaper. Dont ask me why maybe someone can explain ? AFAIK the thinking goes that if you have your spouse / GF on the policy you're somehow going to be magically more careful and thus a lower risk etc. In reality, they probably have a huge database of facts & figures somewhere and somebody's run the stats and discovered a slightly lower %age of claims from people with a spouse added to the policy...

Adding my sister as a named driver to my policy reduced my premium by £500 (down to £800ish). I assume the theory here is that she is considered lower risk (older, full NCB etc) compared to me (1 year's ncb, 26 etc). As she'll be driving the car some of the time (yeah right ), the overall risk to the insurer will be less?

I've only come across the Elephant/Admiral group that do this though...

[kevinday]

gilbertd said:

Been there. It may well be cheaper to have insured and spouse as sole drivers. However, as we've never actually got married, she isn't classed as a spouse (merely a lodger I assume?) and it would be more expensive.

Not so, if you are living together long-term she will be regarded as your 'common-law wife'.

[trax]

Driving Other Car extension was meant for emergency use only, but the clauses in the schedules and policies (ones that I have seen) dont mention this, just the fact and restrictions of its inclusion.

As for not being able to use it for spouses, who owns the car is shown on the V5, so can be used depending on that.

[Jay GTi]

Autocar did a story on this a couple of months ago, saying it's a loophole open for abuse and cited several cases of rich kids buying and insuring rusty old Fiestas etc. and using the 'Drive Any Car 3rd Party' part of their policy to cover them on their Ferraris, Porkers and the like.

[gilbertd]

This is beginning to get far more complicated than I thought. My current policy is with Norwich Union and I'm a bit suspicious of what they are up to anyway. For the last few years I've had cover on a Norwich Union Club policy and that had a clause giving me TP cover on any other motor VEHICLE not belonging, etc. Note it was any vehicle and not any other car, so I have driven vans and motorcycles covered by this clause.

Norwich Union are no longer selling the Club policy and they are transferring me to Norwich Union Direct as of the end of this month. Previously I could never get insurance with any of the direct companies because my car (Matra Murena) doesn't exist in their list of vehicles. Checking the papers Norwich Union Direct have sent me, I notice that it now says I'm covered to drive any other CAR, not vehicle. This is going to be a problem.

In the past, I've tried to get some sort of trader policy that would allow me to drive anything but, as I'm not a trader, I haven't been able to. Anyone got any ideas?