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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

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Original poster

Insuring new nanny in our car!

25 replies

Page62 · 09/08/2013 15:15

Help! We have a new nanny starting in a few weeks time. She's 22 and has been driving for 2 years and has a clean licence. We just found out that our insurance company will not insure her on either one of our cars. We have 3 children (9,7,2) so car seats still, loads of activity so need relatively big car (one of the kids plays the cello for example, which won't fit in the boot of a VW polo). Do you guys know what type of car we can get so that she can be insured for it? is there a minimum age the car has to be /type/engine so she can actually be insured for it? Our house and school is very much in country roads but open to suggestions that are not 4x4s and just put snow tyres on car if need be.

Thanks!!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

nannynick · 09/08/2013 16:02

Have you tried other insurers? I think someone on here mentioned that Tesco provided insurance for their aupair.

Lots of factors affect insurance so probably hard to say what cars are cheap to ensure. Smaller the engine size and lower the book cost of vehicle probably helps.

Original poster

Page62 · 09/08/2013 16:10

Hi Nannynick
thanks for that. I think it will be impossible to insure her (i am now being led to believe this) as the two cars are insured with 2 different providers. We don't want to make a change and find out she also can't be insured on that car! And we need to sort it out in next few weeks. Ack!

OP posts:

Cindy34 · 09/08/2013 16:59

Which of your cars has the smallest engine size? Is that car big enough to fit the children plus chello?

Try contacting other insurers, use a broker to do the shopping around for you.

If the nanny already drives, then who is their current insurer - would that insurer quote for insuring driver on an additional vehicle.

GoAndAskDaddy · 09/08/2013 19:02

I wouldn't think it is impossible! Our Nanny had to be a named driver on our car ( 4x4) until she was 25. We use a broker so not sure who the actual insurer is. It wasn't particularly more expensive to put her on. Like you, we are rural so it's useful to have her able to drive our car if she needs to. Can you tell insurer it may be 'occasional' and get her to use her own when possible?

Blondeshavemorefun · 09/08/2013 19:26

'waves' cant believe bubs in now 2 !!!!

im surprised that they wont insure, normally they do but with say a £1k excess if an accident and lots to insure her on iyswim

probably anything over 1.6 will be high for her, i insured my oh dd (20) for a moonth and was about £100 and i have a 1.6i

Original poster

Page62 · 09/08/2013 23:17

Thanks for replies (waves to blondes)
We will keep trying over the weekend. It was a definite you can't insure (believe it was direct line ). She will definitely be driving our car everyday as she will do all school runs.
Thanks for all the ideas though. Am a bit useless, wouldn't know what engines are in the cars (I only passed my driving test last year myself!)

OP posts:

Original poster

Page62 · 09/08/2013 23:26

Right, I just googled things. If engine size is a number with a decimal place, then I think both cars are 2.0. Does that make sense? So maybe this is a bit impossible and will have to make a change.
Thanks again all

OP posts:

ComposHat · 10/08/2013 01:59

A two litre engine is fairly meaty and is likely to push up the price for younger drivers. (Presuming it is petrol and not diesel.)

Would it be possible to buy a cheap older car with a smaller engine for her exclusive use? Insure it third party, fire and theft only. The Skoda Fabia estate comes with plenty of rear space and they have small engines. They are also as cheap as chips to buy second hand and very reliable.

Skoda Fabia 1.4 estate with group 2 insurance. To see how much it would cost to insure something like this. Use the reg plate and enter your Nanny's details into comparethemarket or a similar website (tick class A business use if the option comes up)

Isatdownandwept · 10/08/2013 08:15

Direct line were useless when we added our au pair. In end we went with Tesco value (which is different from normal Tesco insurance). Recently we switched to admiral multi car but not sure if they do larger insurance groups as we have au pair in smaller car.

Isatdownandwept · 10/08/2013 08:15

Also,much cheaper to add as named driver than main driver

Blondeshavemorefun · 10/08/2013 08:56

Yah. You passed :)

Seems you can either downgrade one car to a lower engine size. Yes your cars sound like 2litres - or buy a 3rd car with a lower engine but large chello sized boot

NannyGR · 10/08/2013 09:38

I'm a nanny aged 22, insured of my bosses car recently which is a ford smax (7 seater) not sure who the provider is there, x

MairyHoles · 10/08/2013 19:09

I tried to insure my 22year old cousin to drive my 1.8 car, direct line told me that they do not insure people that young for my type of car. Not even for a very high premium. I changed insurer recently and enquired about it again. It would have added 2 grand to my premium so I politely declined. My cousin now owns a car and pays 1500 for a 500 quid 1.2 car, I believe the law recently changed so that the premium is based on the younger party being the main driver if there is more than one car in the household, due to my generation's boy racers having their mum as policyholder to save money then promptly driving their souped up corsa right iinto the back of someone. I think it will be expensive but my cousin mentioned its a women's only insurer that gave the best price.

Original poster

Page62 · 11/08/2013 21:25

Thanks so much for all the additional suggestions. I suspect a change in one of the cars will be the right course of action - just need to figure out what that should be and still be happy with safety/comfort/ cello fitting boot features! Thanks again

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Blondeshavemorefun · 11/08/2013 22:07

When I worked up the hill from you page I had a s max - was lovely to drive as park - safe - 7 seats or large boot so chello may fit in there?

Being ford should be cheap ish insurance

2plus1 · 12/08/2013 08:17

Before changing your car I would also check exactly why the insurance company won't insure her. We have now come across this issue with our nanny who is over 25, many years of driving with a clean license. We have had her insured on our car policy as a named driver as it allowed 'domestic employees' to be covered as long as they were just using the car for our family use, ie taking our children out for trips/school runs etc. However, they have now changed this. We have not found another insurer who will cover her as a named driver as she is an employee. Then we looked at business insurance cover for our car but they won't cover a named driver at business level unless they are my spouse/partner. So we are unable to insure our nanny on our car which is a ford MPV so not exactly a luxurious car! So nanny is not happy. She could use her car for mileage allowance but apparently she cannot get business cover on her car insurance so our children have to walk now.

iloveshortshorts · 12/08/2013 08:21

maybe try bell black box insurance there good for younger drivers plus thers no curfew time

Blondeshavemorefun · 12/08/2013 13:41

I don't get why insurers won't insure people - that their job - to insure people on cars

Understandably if young then be a huge premium/excess but surely they can get insured

ComposHat · 12/08/2013 15:09

because the insurance company decide that the risks involved in insuring a certain driver aren't worth the reward of the premium.

littlemisswise · 12/08/2013 15:16

We managed to insure DS1(18) on both our Renault Scenic 1.5dci and VW Polo 1.4 diesel through Admiral. We went through Compare the Market.

Blondeshavemorefun · 12/08/2013 16:05

your cars are 1.6 and under

pages are 2litres-makes a huge difference for younger drivers

Isatdownandwept · 12/08/2013 22:01

Just noticed that it was you, p62. I'm a name changer, but our dog Chaos cured your child of dog phobia years ago, so you'll be able work out whoi am..Im just in from an evening in town with strix...

Well done on passing test at last. Hope kids enjoying school. We are in process of upgrading our au pair car so DH is out checking on insurance etc for 5door hatchbacks this week. Will FB you with any info we glean that will be of use. He's muttering good grunts about the VW T1 (or something) at moment but he is going through a whole list...

If you are back in city lets make time for 3-way beers with strix after work?

L x

Isatdownandwept · 12/08/2013 22:15

Touran, not T1 (grunted my husband).

Original poster

Page62 · 12/08/2013 22:42

Waves to L!
Yes, I think we'll have to change cars - we were thinking of doing this anyway, this would have just precipitated things quicker. Yes, back in City, hols for a couple if weeks but let's find date in sept?
To everyone else who has posted helpful ideas, thank you! I think we will exchange car and try a whole host of other car insurers!

OP posts:

k8thegr8 · 18/08/2013 20:27

If this helps, I'm a nanny (24 years old) been driving 3 years and have 1 claim on my insurance. I've been insured on my bosses top spec golf. Not sure how much she pays etc can imagine its a lot more than my pug 206 but it can fit 3 car seats in the back and a booster in the front safely.

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