Car Insurance- is this right?

[LakelandLassie]

Can I ask you wise MNers who have been through divorce/separation if this is right?
I am trying to sort out car insurance in my own name and am told that because I have been a named driver on my husbands policy for the last 15yrs (since we were married); I have no 'no claims discount' in my own right.
This doesn't seem very fair and is almost doubling the cost of insuring a car!
Any advice gratefully received

Most providers will not let named drivers accrue no claims - the no claims is for the main driver only. Similarly, many don't recognise company car drivers as having accrues the no claims.

Some - e.g. Admiral - do, and focus on it in their advertising - because so many people find themselves in your situation... You probably need to ring round and find those companies that do, which will be time consuming but save you loads

Unfortunately its right. Most car insurances dont give the second driver a no claims bonus.

Some companys do like aviva and direct line.

Yes that's true. Only people who have policies in their own name can accrue NCD - although as PP says, some give you your own NCD.

However, it is also worth knowing that some policies give you a large discount anyway if your record is good (up to 75%) so although you haven't actually accrued the bonus, you are effectively still getting a discount.

Can I ask for clarification on this then please. My STBXH has always dealt with the insurance but I was always named as the MAIN driver. Will I be able to have any no claims?

Kitti, if you're the named driver, it's your policy and your no claims bonus.

Thanks both! Will try those insurers and see how I get on.

The owner of the NCB has to be the policyholder (the person in whose name the policy is) so if the policy was in STBXH's name but you were named as the main driver, you would not be entitled to it

Try your existing insurers for a quote too. We are with Churchill and they let the named second drivers accrue NCB but they can only be used on their policies and aren't transferable to other insurers like a normal NCB.

That's correct. You can transfer the no claims from one named driver to another named driver on same policy (not all insurers accept this) but I doubt your STBXH will accept it either. Maybe see if there's an insurer that would accept the transfer and see if he and the insurer would split it 50/50? NB: No clue if that's feasible or not.

Hopefully your credit card has always been in your sole name. My old credit card was a subsidiary card to XH's and even though I earned more than him when I got one in own name my credit limit was paltry and wouldn't see me through the normal month's expenses! I'm getting there slowly though!

Also, bear in mind you will need to PROVE the NCD exists with documents from your previous insurer so where there's been a relationship breakdown you might not have them or be able to get them.

Just for info: Direct Line let a second driver build up a NCD. We were with them for a year to allow me to get a year of my 'own' NCD before moving to having my own policy with DH as the second driver. (He has a specialist 4WD now so also has his 'own' policy and we are both second drivers on each other's).

Iirc the Direct Line policy was a bit dearer but overall it was worth it in terms of what I then saved in year #2. No help to op - sorry! But I thougt other posters would be interested.

Thank you FuckYouChrisAndThatHorse!

Kitti, the best way to be sure is to check your policy or give your insurance people a call. they'll tell you in about two minutes :) someone else has said it's the policy holder, so it's possible it's not you if that's the case, but call them and find out.

The difference between insurers is the biggest thing though. Check lots out. The most expensive quote I get for my 10+ years NCB is loads more than dh's cheapest quote with only 2 years.