Learner insurance

[mjb]

It's the missus' birthday tomorrow, and given how we're up against the clock with her only a few months away from dropping a kid I've decided to get her insured on my 115bhp Golf TDI to augment her lessons... Very scary move, but it'll help us out a lot if she can pass her test before giving birth.

Does anyone have any pointers on getting learner insurance? I've found one site (http://www.collingwood.co.uk) which has quoted just under £100/month which doesn't seem bad compared with the £1500-£2000 year given by comparison sites I tried (just to get an idea). I don't really want to add her to my insurance on the Golf as I'm trying to build up the second lot of NCB since currently I'm paying almost twice as much for it as I am my V6 coupé...)

and no, she ain't getting behind the wheel of my coupé. Ever.

[Bailes1992]

Provisional Marmalade

[Doggy]

Be prepared for another shock when test is passed - my lad's quotes tripled or quadrupled.
(Might not be so bad in your case as they don't penalise young women as much as lads).

[mjb]

Mind you, she's not exactly a "young driver" so I can't see insurance getting too bad, especially as she'll probably end up with a car over the other end of the insurance groupings from mine

Bailes: Cheers. Going to use them I think. Seems there's only them and Collingwood who do short term learner insurance, and the excess is £250 with PM but £350 with C...

[waue1978]

You're going to have to either add her to your Golf insurance or end your policy to start hers anyway as you're not supposed to have more than one policy running on the same car.

She must be one hell of a woman though if she's going to do her test while pregnant. Mine just about squeezed behind the wheel of her little Saxo & when she did she said there was no way she was going to try to drive it.

That was the last time she got behind a steering wheel... Looks like I'm doomed to be a taxi for life.

[mjb]

You're going to have to either add her to your Golf insurance or end your policy to start hers anyway

While she's driving the car, she, me and the car are completely uncovered by my policy - she'll be driving entirely on hers.
http://www.provisionalmarmalade.co.uk/p ... stions.asp

as you're not supposed to have more than one policy running on the same car.

Says who? I get day insurance all the time to cover me for business use on my Golf, as that option adds a few hundred to my premium otherwise, but I only need business cover occasionally.

I just make sure I have the printed certificate with me in case I get pulled with a huge pile of servers in the back

[waue1978]

But the car itself would still be insured by 2 different companies.

I got told this by an insurance company a long while ago when I needed to insure a car as one of the questions they asked was whether it was currently insured by any other party. Managed to find a rather colourful forum debate on that subject here:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/show ... p?t=788237

But to be honest it seems like a fairly moot point as it will more than likely cost a lot more to have the 2 policies running on the same car than you would benefit by the extra bit of no claims you earn on the policy on the Golf.

Insurance companies like to use ANY excuse to get out of paying out & no doubt if you had an accident while loaded up with servers on a 1 day policy, that company would refuse to pay out as there was already another party insuring it & your main insurer would refuse on the grounds that they don't cover you for business use.

As far as your main insurer would be concerned, if you use your car for business use just 1 day out of the year it should be on your policy & they should get their pot of gold for it.

& the law of sod dictates that if you did use it for just that 1 day & didn't mention it, that would be the 1 day that you have your accident...

[waue1978]

Sorry, only just looked at the marmalade thing - that itself looks like a bloody good idea, but it is specifically designed to run alongside policy. The 1 day business use probably isn't though & you should probably be extra careful with it.

[jasper5]

I have my son insured with Collingwood Learners on my Nissan Micra, the Micra is insured on my Motor Trade policy as well, their policies are specially designed to allow a learner to drive another car which may already be insured (I asked them).
£96-50p for 28 days.

[mjb]

But the car itself would still be insured by 2 different companies.

So are my dad's and friends' cars when I completely legally drive them under the provision of one of my policies which both give me cover to drive any otherwise insured vehicle with the owner's permission as long as it's in compliance with the law...

But to be honest it seems like a fairly moot point as it will more than likely cost a lot more to have the 2 policies running on the same car than you would benefit by the extra bit of no claims you earn on the policy on the Golf.

Doubtful. The cost of getting a learner driver added to my insurance would probably be about £2000/year, plus the £600 excess per claim, plus the £250 I would have saved next year when having 1 year NCB on it

Versus £95/month for a couple of months

Insurance companies like to use ANY excuse to get out of paying out & no doubt if you had an accident while loaded up with servers on a 1 day policy, that company would refuse to pay out as there was already another party insuring it

Nope, the T&Cs are surprisingly clear on what is and isn't allowed... It would be a very easy court case if they didn't cough up - they'd WANT you to get your money otherwise their entire business would be rendered invalid.

Besides, if you can't have 2 lots of insurance running on any car, you can't test drive a car without the owner adding you to their insurance, and you can't drive it home until you've heard the owner cancelling their policy!

Heck, if that were the case I would be legally unable to drive any car I own because both of my policies (for the Golf and 406) say I can drive any otherwise insured car, which would also cover my own, so I'd always be driving under 2 sets of insurance...

You'd also prevent yourself from legally driving for a year if you accidentally managed to buy yourself 2 policies on the same car and didn't realise

As far as your main insurer would be concerned, if you use your car for business use just 1 day out of the year it should be on your policy & they should get their pot of gold for it.

It is on my policy. My day policy. Nothing to do with my annual policy. If I get into a crash while on business, my insurer is the day insurer, NOT my main insurer. If I have an accident my main insurer doesn't need to know about it because I'm not driving on their insurance. Likewise if I take a car on a race track and trash it or a third party, it's nothing to do with my insurers. Unless I bought a track policy.

EDIT:

(from another thread)

BTW, just tried a quote for my OH on that marmalade thing & it said £245 for 3 months! Don't know if they've done it cheaper because she's 40 or bumped it up because she's blonde AND Irish, but seems like a lot of money to me.

It's a flat rate based on postcode, and will still be a hell of a lot cheaper than mainstream insurance policy. The £1500-£2000/year quotes I put above were from the main comparison sites, and for a 30 year old on her provisional.