When purchasing insurance for your car, it's important to understand exactly which factors can affect your premium rates and your coverage.
There are a number of widely-believed myths about car insurance which could be stopping you from finding the best deals, and more alarmingly, leaving you uninsured.
In this buying guide, we blow open eight car insurance myths to help you sort fact from fiction next time you go to renew your policy.
You can save money by putting your policy in a more experienced driver’s name
Insurance companies cottoned on to this idea, known as “fronting”, a long time ago and will ask how many cars are in each household and who is the main driver.
While you can add a more experience driver to your policy, getting the policy in another driver’s name and adding yourself is illegal and can invalidate your insurance. You can read more about fronting here.
You can claim back the full cost of personal items if your car is broken into
The majority of insurance companies will have a cap on how much they’ll pay out if your car gets broken into, the exact details of which should be outlined in your policy.
As a result, it pays to avoid leaving expensive items or equipment in your car unattended.
You don’t have to pay an excess if an accident isn’t your fault
This isn’t true either. An excess is an agreement with your insurance company which says that you’ll personally pay a specified amount of any claim cost.
The only time you might get your excess back is if your insurance company can recover all of its money back from the third party or from their own insurer, which is rare.
If you have comprehensive cover, you can drive any car if you have the owner’s permission
This is generally false as most policies don’t offer this and the few that do only offer it under certain circumstances.
Even if your policy does include this it’s only third party cover, so if you’re involved in an accident in somebody else’s car you could be liable for your own damage.
Charging a friend for petrol money will invalidate your insurance
Charging your mates a couple of quid for a lift is generally fine so long as you’re not making any kind of profit from providing transport.
Beware that if you’re giving work colleagues a lift, your insurance policy will have to cover commuting. Most policies cover social, domestic and pleasure, but if you’re using your car in connection to work you’ll need extra cover.
Your insurance is invalid if you don’t have a MoT certificate
While this can be true in some cases, it depends mostly on your insurer. Some will state that you need a valid MoT for your car, while others might just require that the car be roadworthy.
However, even if your policy insures your car, if you make a claim but can’t produce a valid MoT certificate the value of your vehicle will be severely diminished.
You can insure your car with more than one insurer
You should have your car insured only with a single insurer. Some companies offer special or temporary cover for things like motorsports events or travelling abroad, but this is generally offered only if your main insurer won’t cover the vehicle.
Owners of vehicles may also allow named drivers to be insured on their cars with different insurance companies, for example if the named driver is under 25 or deemed high-risk.
You don’t have to tell your insurer about claims while riding a motorcycle
Most insurance companies will expect you to disclose any and all previous claims or convictions, regardless of which vehicle you were driving at the time.
This counts for drivers who also ride motorcycles, as well as for anybody who has access to a company car or van that’s insured under a separate policy. Failing to fully disclose claims or convictions could invalidate your insurance if you try to make a claim in the future.
