FAQs

Please see the Learner section above for full details.

In a nutshell you can take out short-term cover in your own name whilst you drive, or you can arrange to be added as a Named Driver to the annual insurance on the vehicle.

NO! Insurers will always add restrictions/caveats to the DOC cover they provide – it’s not designed to cover a Bugatti Veyron!

As well as the Insurance Certificate, there are 3 other places you can look to see what cover is being provided under the DOC extension :

• The IPID (Insurance Product Information Document). This is a useful 2-page summary of the main covers and exclusions your policy provides, and insurers are required to make it available to you before, during and after you buy their policy.
• Here’s an example of what you should be looking for in the IPID :

• The Schedule. This is a document that accompanies your Certificate of Insurance and explains your cover in a bit more detail (they’re usually 2-4 pages long).
• Here’s how the same wording from the IPID above appeared in the Schedule :

• The 3rd place is the Policy Wording. This one’s not for the faint-hearted – they’re usually 20-30 pages long – but it is where you’ll find the most detailed explanation of the cover.
• Here’s the same example :

The Insurance Certificate is an important legal document that must follow a prescribed lay-out.

Look under Point 5, “Persons or classes of persons entitled to drive”.

Here’s an example :

This is where you need to check your documents very carefully, as some insurers provide DOC cover but others don’t.

And even if your insurer does provide DOC cover, there are always differences in the rules and restrictions that each insurer applies to the cover.

So it’s a minefield and you must check your own position carefully before getting into a borrowed vehicle.

As a general rule though, the restrictions around DOC cover (if it’s provided at all) are as follows :

• it applies to the main Policyholder only (ie NOT to Named Drivers)
• it is Third Party Only cover (ie no cover is provided for damage to the vehicle being driven)
• it only applies if the Policyholder is aged 25 and over
• it does not appear in Temporary Motor Insurance policies
• the cover does not operate outside the UK
• there will usually be restrictions about the vehicle that can be borrowed (such as cars and vans with a Gross Vehicle Weight of less than 3.5 tonnes)
• and about the ownership of the vehicle (must not be a hire or rental vehicle)
• and sometimes about your occupation (you must not be involved in the motor trade or any of its ancillaries)

That depends on your individual circumstances.

Generally though, the pro’s and cons of the 2 options are as follows :

Named Driver on Annual Policy

• Inflexible : for example if you want to borrow the car say once every 3 months
• Could be expensive : some insurers charge a hefty admin fee every time they make an alteration to an annual policy
• On the other hand though for regular borrowing, may be the most cost effective method
• May not be feasible : the annual insurer may refuse to add an additional driver, say if it’s an Over 50 policy or a company car
• The annual insurer may be difficult to contact, especially out of office hours
• Consider the Claims angle : any claim you make as a Named Driver will affect the No Claims Discount of the vehicle owner
• As the annual policyholder controls the insurance, they can be certain that their asset is fully protected when they lend you their car

Temporary Insurance

• Most likely cheaper for one-off borrowing, not such good value for regularly repeated borrowing
• Easy to arrange and administer – no need to contact the annual insurer of the vehicle
• Available online 24/7, 365 days a year
• Claims on the temporary policy usually have no impact on the vehicle owner’s NCD
• Some of the additional service options available on the annual policy may not be available on the temporary policy – such as provision of a Courtesy Car in the event the borrowed vehicle is damaged
• Temporary insurance may be difficult/very expensive to source for certain drivers, for example young drivers in mnajor city centre postcodes looking to borrow a relatively powerful vehicle

You have 2 main options :

1. Arrange for the registered keeper/main user of the vehicle to add you to as a Named Driver on to the annual insurance policy, or
2. Arrange temporary insurance in your own name to cover you just for the period for which you intend to borrow the car.

If you intend for someone such as your partner or other family member to drive your car reasonably regularly (ie more than a couple of times a year) then your best bet is to add them as a Named Driver at inception or renewal of the policy.

NB. Don’t be tempted to distort the truth about the extent of the additional driver’s use though, especially if they are a young driver. This is known as Fronting and can result in the insurer refusing to pay for any damage to your vehicle!

If the Named Driver is a similar age to you and has a similar driving history, the chances are that adding them as a Named Driver will not be significantly more expensive than just insuring yourself to drive. However, if you choose to add several Named Drivers then the insurers are likely to be much less receptive, particularly if the additional drivers are of varying ages/experience.

Away from planned/regular additional drivers, what about emergency situations, or occasional lending of your vehicle?

The best advice is to tread very carefully – it is an offence to drive uninsured, so if you intend to lend you car to someone other than a Named Driver on your own policy, you will need to satisfy yourself that they have adequate insurance in place. They may well say “It’s ok, I’ve got my own Comprehensive policy and that means I can drive any vehicle” – but as we’ll examine in the FAQs that follow, this is rarely the case.

Rather than taking their word for it, a better solution might be to direct them to one of the short-term insurance providers. There they will usually be able to buy a policy in their own name which will last for as long as they choose. It will be uploaded to the Motor Insurance Database (see later section on MID) and, best of all, you can rest assured that the No Claims Discount that you’ve earned on your own policy will not be jeopardised by any accident the borrower may have!

Generally the answer to this is NO, your annual insurance policy covers you (and any Named Drivers you may have added) to drive your own car only.

However there are 2 scenarios where the answer might be YES

1. Some policies provide cover whilst your own vehicle is being serviced or repaired in a garage and the garage provide you with a temporary courtesy car.

• Here’s an example of how this cover will appear on your Certificate of Insurance : Section 1a) is the registration mark of the insured vehicle, section 1b) adds in the courtesy car cover :

2. Some policies include the Driving Other Cars (DOC) extension : more detail on this is provided in the following FAQs…

This is a common question, and the answer is either “Both” or “Neither” depending on how you look at it!

To explain in a bit more detail, most UK car insurance policies cover a Named Driver in a Specified Vehicle. So in other words, your insurance covers you while you drive your car.

But that raises 2 important further questions :

1. does your insurance cover you while you drive another car? and

2. does your insurance cover someone else to drive your car?

The answer to the first question is “Sometimes” and we’ll go into this in more detail in the further FAQs on Driving Other Cars.

The answer to the second question is usually “No”, but there are a couple of exceptions where the answer might be “Yes”. These exceptions are :

a) if you have added the other driver as a Named Driver on your policy

b) if you have an Any Driver policy (these are very rare in the UK but you might have one if you have a motor policy linked to a High Net Worth household insurance contract)

The comments above apply to privately-owned cars in the UK – different rules apply to company cars which are owned by businesses. These are usually insured under Motor Fleet policies, so if you have the use of a Company Car be sure to check your company’s fleet policy to see who is allowed to drive the vehicle.