17 year old learner driver/ insurance queries!

[allo2101]

Sorry if this is in the wrong section! My dd is 17 on Saturday and has saved up for a car which she now has sitting on the drive. She will be having lessons but wants to be able to practice with me at other times as well (help!)

Anyway the problem is I have a motability car so don't have my own insurance policy any more. The learner driver plans only insure for the learner which means we can't do things like she drives to college and then me drive the car home, on that basis.

If I get an ordinary insurance policy in her name with me as a named driver, then when she passes I know it will increase dramatically. The companies that do cheap insurance for provisional seem to go even higher once they pass the test. Conversely, the ones who are cheaper for full driving licence holders charge a fortune whilst they are on provisional. I hope this all makes sense!

Just looking for some advice really on the best way around this as I am a single parent, have said I'll insure her car for a year until she leaves college and hopefully gets a job, but some of the quotes are just plain ridiculous (£4,000!!!!) She doesn't mind having a black box fitted as long as it's not curfew restricted as she sometimes doesn't finish at her part-time job until 11 or after. I'm wasting hours on comparison websites when I should be working!

A question about black boxes?

I have used Direct Line as they offer a named driver NCD. This means that when DC get their own cars they will allow a notional NCD of up to 5 years.

I now have a quote to add DS2 as a learner driver on my car. It works out at an extra £530 a year or £260 if I have a telematics box (no curfew). Apparently they now offer a black box to anyone. They then calculate a discount on renewal based on your driving. Of course it could also go up.

Given that I am the main driver, DH is the second driver, DS1 an intermittent driver (uni holidays only) and DS2 will be the kangaroo hopping learner driver, the person most measured by the black box will be me.
Does anyone have experience of this? None of us are boy racers, I am a sedate middle aged woman driver - what exactly is this box going to judge me on?

No, I know three teenagers who have had accidents and the insurance companies have failed to pay up because they claimed that the parent being named on the policy was a ruse. I would say that it is probably worth to just pay up the first year to avoid issues like this. After the first year the price drops considerably so it is just an additional cost to factor in to get your child driving.

Feellikescrooge I could sort of understand it if the parent had an accident, and they were covered under their own policy to drive other cars third party. Then possibly they are double covered in a third party accident, so insurance may insist on the parents claiming on their own policy or splitting? But my policy, only allows cover to drive other vehicles in an emergency, so if I want to drive DDs car, must be named on her policy.
The only other thing I can think of is if the parent was named as the main driver on DCs policy?

Maybe somehow get proof that parent has driven the car. Ie. If they have taken it to garage for a service, driven with a passenger that can witness etc?

Check out Quinn Direct. Here

I have just taken out a policy with them and to add my 17 year old DD as a named provisional driver to the policy was an extra £100.

I paid £319 total for all three of us and that included protected no claims, legal cover and home start insurance cover and its for an Audi (03).
They specialise in young drivers.

Feellkescrooge, you must have got the wrong end of the stick with the 3 incidents you quote.

If the teenagers who had the accidents were specified as the main driver on their policy, with a parent as named driver, then there's no possible fraud.

BUT if the parent was specified as the main driver, with the teenager as named driver, that's 'fronting' & is fraudulent

Thanks for all the replies. I got admitted to hospital the day after I posted this and have only just come out! I'm going to sit and read through them all very carefully later tonight. Still waiting for her provisional licence to come through so have a few more days before I take the plunge :)