Friend asking to use my address

[mallamloll]

To get her car insured to as it costs too much at her house.

How do I reply to this?

Car insurance with a black box

'No, I don't feel comfortable with that '

Good. Because as the others have said, that's insurance fraud!

She could look into black box schemes to reduce insurance. My brother had insurance that was cheaper if he didn't use the car between 11pm and 5am or something like that. He could use it if he needed to but it would be recorded and he Would be charged extra.

Apart from the fraud, which is obviously the most important point, it's not a good idea to let other people use your address if you're on tax credits/housing benefit etc.

I volunteer for a charity and we get people being investigated by HMRC and having tax credits/benefits suspended, because some ex or other person is using their address. If you're on Housing Benefit you could have non-dependent deductions taken out if they find out someone else is "living" at your address.

Not sure if it affects me because I let you use it so I'm not sure if we should.

FFS.

Perhaps suggest she does a Pass Plus course. That brings down your insurance by up to a third at some insurers, depending on how long ago you passed your test. www.gov.uk/pass-plus/car-insurance-discounts

If you don't want to use the fraud excuse.

If she is in any debt with her car and stops paying, you will get the letters and the bailiffs coming round and it is up to you to prove they don't live there.

If you receive any benefits it might affect those, as again you would have to prove to whichever one that she doesn't live there.

And if she did get into an accident, she will have been paying for nothing

just say no it's fraud. sometimes you have to be firm with friends.

She was rude to ask in the first place.

One of my closest friends asked me to be a guarantor for a rather large loan. All she got was a no. No reason, no gumf to pad out why so as not to hurt her feelings. Being that forward just deserves a no.

I've heard that the black box gives cheaper insurance.

It's fraud, dont agree to it, you don't want it linked to your address

She's got over the idea now she's just annoyed insurance is so high for her first time but I explained everyone's is that high the first year and cars are expensive.

Did your friend not think to look into all of the costs of driving before she bought a car? Also how old is she? This sounds like something a teenager would ask!

www.moneysavingexpert.com/car-insurance/young-drivers

get her to look here - suggestions from a reputable source for keeping insurance costs down.

If the friend is in an accident, it is likely that the insurance company will find out and won't pay.

Last year I witnessed an accident that turned into a horrible mess (no injuries just money/paperwork etc) because the person who had caused the accident had lied about both his occupation and address so his insurance company were refusing to pay out and he had no money or assets to pay the costs himself. He was actually a building labourer who lived in a large city in northern England with a particular reputation for having high insurance costs but he told his insurance company that he was a librarian who lived with his grandmother in rural Scotland so you can imagine the difference in premiums those factors would generate.

It still may not be resolved today - even as a witness I've been contacted multiple times by both inusrance companies.

You could suggest that she puts one or both of her parents on her insurance as named drivers. I have been driving for nearly 20 years and have no claims in the last 5 years and no endorsements but putting my mum and dad on still lowered it for some reason.

I'm glad you've said no OP. As with any insurance, if you don't tell the truth when you purchase the policy then the policy isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

I am not the kind of person that plays life by the book, I would take the chance for a good friend.

But as pp have said she'd be paying every month for not having any insurance then!

Someone once thought she'd ask me if she could use my house as her address as it was in the catchment area for a school she liked. Unbelievable - don't these people think anything ever gets checked???

You can follow it up by saying you've realised how pointless it would be - if she needed to make a claim, they'd be checking her details against her address fully - eg driving licence, any police involvement - and it would so quickly be seen that it was fraud that it would invalidate the insurance anyway PLUS she'd be in trouble for fraud. So simply no point to it whatsoever.

Yes, it's fraud, and at the very worst you could be implicated in it if it all went tits up.

Having had to arrange all insurance since my DH died, I was put through series of questions before I could get any of them. One of them was about fraud.

This Australia, though I'd be amazed if the UK was different.

And yes I was asked my address as they correlate it to crime rates, just as they asked where I parked my car (for car insurance), i.e. street, drive, carport, garage.

She's 27 and hasn't got a car yet she's still doing her lessons

but putting my mum and dad on still lowered it for some reason

Older more experienced drivers are considered to be lower risk. If they are driving the car some of the time it reduces the amount of time you are driving the car.

You've handled this well OP, but in future a flat no is best - any additional reasons can be a reason for the cheeky requester to start up a conversation!

If she is discovered to have used your address with your consent then you will be seen as complicit in fraud, could have a huge and very negative effect on both your own credit rating and insurance credibility.

She can get her quotes down by other means, a smaller cheaper car, a larger excess, taking advanced driving tests, all perfectly legal.

Nelliefivebellies I live in the country and she lives in the city so yes it's quite a lot cheaper to be insured at my house than her own.