Do you have to own a car to have insurance on it in your own name? My GF wants to learn to drive but tagging her onto my insurance will be stupidly expensive. By brother has a cheapo vauxhall Nova that she could use whilst he's at uni, but can she have her own insurance so she can build up her no-claims?
Thanks in advance,
Toerag

Technically no you don't have to own the car but the original owner must be willing to supply all th details to the insurance company - however Im not sure if you can build up no claims this way.

I had 2 years with company pool cars and when getting insurance for my scoob no insurance co seemed to take these into consideration. Best thing speek to the companies cos i bet each one will give you a different answer!!

If the insurance policy is in the drivers name then it doesnt matter who owns the car as long as they have been given permission to drive by the owner. Yes this will build no claims.

I found out a while back that you can only have one valid policy on a car at a time.

Im not sure if that will affect you if she is not going to drive it but just build a little no claims.

Well Hung,

Sorry m8 - but that's b0ll0ck5 !!

If you were to borrow a mate's car and wanted to insure it then you would need to do the following before you could properly insure it -

1) Re-register it in your name
2) Make sure it wasn't insured elsewhere

An insurer cannot insure a vehicle that is covered elsewhere. They also should not offer to cover a vehicle that the proposer doesn't own. If you don't own a vehicle then you do not have any insureable interest in it. In other words, from an insurer's perspective - if you don't own the car, are you likely to give as much of a toss about it ?

Of course, most insurers will cover a vehicle that is registered in the name of a company (rather than in your name) and will note their interest on the policy as owners of the car.

Similarly, they may offer to cover lease vehicles too..

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Robyn,

You can insure as many vehicles in your name as you want as long as they are yours or a leased to you. However, each car you insure will earn its own individual no-claims bonus. If you have max NCB on a car then it can only be used on one car at once. You can't insure another car and then use your max NCB on that at the same time, it has to start from scratch. Some insurance companies may give you a introductory NCB on a second or third vehicle if your claims record is fairly clean.

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Toerag,

If your brother's Nova is still insured by him then your GF would need to be added to his policy to drive his car. It cannot be insured again in your GF's name unless he sells her it and cancels his insurance on it.

If you GF wants to earn her own no-claims, she will have to insure a vehicle (that she owns) in her own name - simple as that..

A lot depends on her age, if she's under 21 then insurance will be very expensive, even for an old banger.. these days its probably best to get her insured on someone else's policy until she gets some experience, and then look to insure her on a car in her own name once she's older and more experienced.

Hope this helps..

John
Schofield Insurance Brokers