Student (age 20) at my work place has bought an old car for his mother as a present, he already owns a car but now wants to drive the gift car to scotland from cornwall. However he keeps getting told by several insurance companies that as he is under 21 they will not give him temp cover on a second car. His only option seems to be insure the car as his own (second car) then cancel the insurance when the car is delivered....which seems rather stupid (from insurace company point of view) and not sure if insurance companies will let him do this anyway without a penalty.
Any suggestions?
thanks
S.
As it is a surprise his mother must know nothing about it...so difficult to insure under her name...
Edited by Saltrampen on 19/11/2007 at 12:43
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>>As it is a surprise his mother must know nothing about it...>>
So if there are any Scottish mothers reading this thread, it could be you.
Maybe the car has broken down and requires recovery to the destination of his choice?
Does he know anyone with cover for driving other cars who might like a free one-way trip to Scotland?
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Presumably his mother will need to buy insurance so, go online and get quotes for his mum, with him as a named driver.
If there is someone else (dad?) at his mother's address, get them to intercept the post until the certificate arrives.
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can he not take this car up on his roofrack?
oh the tangled webs some people embroil themselves in
when i was a student all i could afford was a bus pass
pah...........humbug
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Car broken down - I think you have to either the premium breakdown cover or they take you home if it is closer...then he has to create a breakdown the recovery people cannot fix, doesn't look suspicious and doesn't damage the car long term...
Don't think father is about...but would have thought that someone has to confirm in writing or on the phone they are the "insured person" so either mum finds out or someone has to lie to insurance company (very risky).
Roofrack - can you put a volvo on top of a 106?
As an extra "top gear" type stunt - car is under £300 and will be driven to Scotland on its first trip with student driving it...however it has 12 months MOT...
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If I understand correctly the student just wishes to make one journey from Cornwall to Scotland.
Assuming this to be the case then "Short Term Insurance" may well be the answer, providing he meets the required criteria.
I know that Norwich Union offer this type of insurance but I'm quite sure it must be available from other companies, too.
Have a look at: www.norwichunion.com/short-term-insurance/index.htm
Can get an online quote and also purchase online if suitable.
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'Roofrack - can you put a volvo on top of a 106?'
loads in my scrappy ;-)
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id just take out a normal policy then cancel it within 14 days, ive done this several different times for various reasons, just don't tell them thats your intentions, only penalty you pay is the cost of insurance cover for those 14 days(or less if you cancel before) when ive done it they've just refunded the premium less the 14 days no problems.
chris
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Give the 106 to his mother and keep the Volvo?
Question: Does his mother want something like an old big Volvo? Flowers and chocolates are quite well received ;-) I'll get my coat.
I actually I would have thought a car would have been cheaper to buy in Scotland than to sort out getting it there. The trouble with taking out insurance and cancelling it quickly is you will lose a fair chunk of the premium. Even if only a month then that's not inconsiderable.
I'd say better options if insurance not dirt cheap:
- Find someone else to drive it somehow - but they need insurance
- Look at transporting it
- Sell it and buy another car in Scotland
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Thanks for the link Galaxy - but in the small print says "driver must be over 21"...
He is 20...
This is his problem, all companies so far say over 21 only..
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At that age, it would probably be cheaper getting it delivered on a transporter than insuring it and filling it with fuel.
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But depending on how much "and old Volvo" cost it might not be worth transporting it. Then again temp insurance for say 14 days + fuel + bus/train back might not be worth it either.
Maybe this was an idea that was well intended but not cost effective. Sell the Volvo and buy one when in Scotland.
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How did he get the car (legally) to his current address or is it still at the seller's address?
If he could find someone over 21 to drive it for him (and take out the insurance in their name) then that might be an option. But if someone had an incident in the Volvo, even if on the other policy, that would affect their own insurance in the immediate future.
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I think the seller dropped it off.
Yes we've told him about giving his mother the 106 or buying a car in Scotland, but he likes his 106 and since he is probably not going to scotland until 2 weeks before Christmas, it will be risky trying to find a cheap car in that period with a year's ticket.
I think the sensible thing would have been to fly to scotland (£30? each way from Cornwall) and look around a few weeks before and then ask seller to keep car with a deposit...slightly risky but doable maybe with a garage and trade ins...then do the thing with the insurance cancellation...but then he has paid out an extra £60+ to do this...
At the moment looks like the insurance 14 days thing is the best option...
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Could he not change his current policy to cover the new car only?
I did this a few weeks ago when changing cars for a week. Put my car in the garage, and changed the policy completely to the new car. They charged a small fee (as the temp car was a higher insurance group), then rang them again when I wanted to change back and got most of the fee refunded again. Don't tell them it's only temporary.
The only issue is that it leaves the original car with no cover at all (not even fire + theft) which may or may not be a problem depending on where he can leave it.
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Changing his policy - possible. But unless the car is garaged in secure place like you mention then it is risky. I guess being a student it is either on a drive or on the road.
I think this is option 2 if the 14 days thing doesn't work (some have said at work that for young drivers they may have to pay a minimum of 2 months non refundable for any sort of insurance - but we are not sure on this).
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Daft one, but has he asked his existing company properly? Quite a few will sell short term cover for keeping and selling the old car when you buy a new one. On the face of it, not that much different. This is where if he has used a broker it may help as some of them are very good with odder stuff.
As for buying an English older car rather than a Scottish one, it's a simple reason in some places. The salt and dampness of some Scottish locations considerably shortens the life of a car, so a well chosen English car can be quite sensible.
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Will find out if he asked existing company.
Saltiness - not much to choose between Scotland and Cornwall - one is cold and salty, the other is warm, damp and salty. But I guess the Scottish car may have been strained a little more with more cold starts from below freezing than the Cornish one.
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His mother won't appreciate a gas-guzzling old tank. If it's an old Volvo he could give it to me instead.
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long distance selling rules mean insurance company have to give a full refund within 14 days less the days they actually insured him for.
chris
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Apparently he asked his own insurance company about temp insurance and they said he was too young.
We've told him to do the 14 days thing, but check the small print on cancellation very carefully.
A £300 old Volvo may be a gas guzzler, but depreciation is zero. It aslo seems that many of these old late 80's , early 90's volvos refuse to die.
Thanks for all comments - I ve told him about everyone's suggestions and he was very grateful.
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UPDATE
The 1994 2 litre Volvo bought for under £300 (98K, 1 yr MOT) drove all the way to scotland from Cornwall (9hrs) with no problems, no excessive oil consumption and 28 - 30 mpg at errr 80ish mph, no faults noticed...
Student was almost reluctant to part with it. We were all impressed. Just shows with some luck, there are old cars out there with no faults for bargain basement prices - just a lottery trying to get one!
In the end he just told insurance company he had changed cars, the changed back again, no problem. Other car was kept off road.
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I'd do some research on the RAC website - I'm sure they (at least used to) give free insurance for a week when you bought a car.
Same was true for breakdown cover for 3 months, until everyone overloaded it.
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Norwich Union do a free week's policy if you buy through eBay (or at least they did - helped me when I bought mine before I'd sold the last one). Of course that only works if he hasn't bought it yet.
Another possibilty is to find an insurance company that lets you cancel within 14 days and will reimburse the premium in full if you do so, presuming of course that the car is in his name (but one extra keeper on the V5 will be meaningless) and he doesn't stack it, at which point the whole premium will be forfeit.
Otherwise I see nothing wrong in his mother insuring it in her name with him as a named driver: it's not fronting because she'll still be doing the bulk of the mileage once it is delivered, although it may be difficult to persuade the insurer of that if he has to make a claim during the first journey so I'd make full disclosure at the point of quoting to be sure.
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