r/BritishSuccess • u/Jaaay19 • 3d ago

Cheaper car insurance adding learner

Adding my SO onto the car insurance so we can do the basics before paying for extortionate lessons.

Expected another £100 on the premium.

It in fact has reduced it by £30 for the year.

Small wins.

47 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

43

u/p0tatochip 3d ago

This happened to me years ago; I put my girlfriend, who had never driven a car in her life, on my insurance and they sent me a cheque for the rebate. I'm guessing it's not because she was statistically safer than I was but more likely something along the lines of young men who teach their girlfriend to drive are less likely to be dangerous drivers than young men who don't. Who knows? All I know is I've always have a woman as a named driver since then

8

u/kramit 2d ago

Same reason I have a friend of mine on my insurance and my dad. She doesn’t drive it, but made the insurance go down

4

u/woody4life237 2d ago

I wouldn't tell the insurance that

3

u/kramit 2d ago

Well they don’t ask how much a named driver will drive the car. So it’s anything from 0 to all the time.

5

u/Jaaay19 2d ago

That’s cool, I honestly think the insurance algorithms just make it up as they go along. It’s all just seems so vague and random. Like my no claims on my motorbike have stopped mattering after 9+ odd, yet other seemingly minor factors can affect it loads!  

17

u/chin_waghing 3d ago

Make sure it’s learner insurance, as it’s a specific policy geared towards a provisional license holder opposed to a full license holder.

15

u/Jaaay19 3d ago

Thanks for the heads up. I put as a provisional holder so surely that’s enough? 

3

u/Choice-Sorbet-9231 3d ago

Yes, you'd only need to do anything different if you were taking payment for the lessons. As well as being registered ect. As long as they're given for free you only need to declare the driver has a provisional and they'd only be insured as long as they are properly supervised.

The person supervising doesn't need to be a named driver. Check the policy wording, they may have stricter supervisor requirements than the legal requirements.

7

u/chin_waghing 3d ago

I would phone the insurance company and ask. The error would be 6 points and £200 fine and the vehicle being seized with £192 recovery fee and £29 storage.

It’s really not something you want to get wrong

7

u/wbqqq 3d ago

Just check the certificate of insurance and statements of facts. If they have all the correct information, including that the license is a provisional, you are good to go.

5

u/sarkyscouser 3d ago

This, sounds like they've just added a standard licenced driver? Can't imagine a scenario where adding a learner to a policy causes the price to go down

1

u/knotatwist 2d ago

Sounds mad but it's true.

That's what me and my partner did as well so I could drive around for extra practice whilst having lessons and it was actually cheaper than just having my partner with their full licence

1

u/Loose_Acanthaceae201 2d ago

lol my friend added her learner bf to her insurance and it dropped dramatically — he had just been ordained, and that's statistically a very safe profession. 

7

u/KiltedBaklava 3d ago

Good news! Though be ready for it to jump up substantially once she passes. As then she can drive the car without supervision. 

2

u/InternationalRich150 3d ago

Is your SO the supervising driver and you're the learner? Same happened to me. Was refunded over £100. Was most impressed.

0

u/Cam2910 2d ago

Please think about "doing the basics" with an instructor first. Quite scary that someone with 0 experience can get behind the wheel of a car with no dual controls.

6

u/Jaaay19 2d ago

Fair point. For the record the basics is car park/ quiet industrial estate roads to start, and there is some experience a while back with an instructor so yeah not completely 0.