Ignore Direct Line Car Insurance

[Davewarren21]

Awful customer service. Multiple agents on the line not knowing what the answer to things. They make is very difficult to add additional drivers to policies and all they want is more money. We call up asking to me to my Father-in-law’s policy in order for me to drive my wife and expectant new born around on a temporary basis. It is my Father-in-law’s car and they expected me to take out a brand new year long policy costing £££ in my name and make my Father-in-law a secondary driver. It took 2hrs on the phone for someone to say they needed to listen to the phone calls in order to get to the bottom of things. This is ridiculous and felt that they took advantage of our situation in wanting to use my Father-in-law’s car because we can’t afford a new/2nd hand one and with my wife being pregnant. Car Insurance is supposed to give peace of mind and not create stress.

Does anyone know of any car insurance we can use that enables us to use relatives’ cars?

I've always found direct line fantastic as it happens. I price compare every year before renewing but they have always been able to give me a good deal since I started with them 3 years ago.

What you are looking for though is temporay car insurance. Both of the main price comparison sites will look for it for you.

www.confused.com/car-insurance/temporary

www.moneysupermarket.com/short-term-car-insurance/?btnSEOCallToAction;origin=content-managed-page

Thank you! I’ll check them out now.

I’ve just looked at both of these and the max they offer is 30 days cover. We are wanting 3-4 months cover. But thank you for suggesting.

I think the idea is you renew it each month...

Direct Line, Churchill and Green Flag are all owned by the Direct Line Group plc, and share a data base, which I found out recently when I was renewing my car insurance and they seemed to know all about me. <a class="break-all" href="//meen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Line_Group" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Check them out here

You could also check out some short term app based "on demand" providers like Cuvva and Veygo (Admiral)

If you are going to be the main or only driver for that period of time you can't add yourself as a named driver so they are correct.

Direct line put me on my parents insurance every summer.
It's usually only a few quid for DH, who us in the UK for less than a month, and significantly more for me to go on for 9 weeks (I was only there for 3 weeks this summer, and it dropped back to a token amount, so its not my risk profile changing prices).
I suspect the length of time you are wanting the car for is causing an issue.

Stupid question - shouldn’t your FIL be making the call if it’s his policy?

I've had nothing but excellent customer service from Direct Line. I would highly recommend them.

I had an accident - hit from behind by two large vans not my fault - direct line were brilliant handled the whole thing for me, dealt with the two other insurers to pursue my no fault claim and drivers, gave me advice about what to do and say and a suitable replacement car whilst they whisked mine away for repair. Very responsive and intelligent people on the phone.

For that peace of mind alone I would be loathe to change after having had car insurance with several rubbish companies over the decades

Regularly add my daughters onto my Direct Line car insurance policy and have always been very happy with their customer service. It costs just a few pounds to do this and is one of the main reasons I stay with them. As others have suggested I think you are asking for something that is not possible. I always remain the main driver and I imagine their is a limit to the length of time they can be added.