Insuring cars for commuting.

[otherclive]

My grandson is going away for two weeks to the Sennybridge Training Area, spending time in the Beacons and Black Mountains. Given the amount of kit he has to take he asked for our Kia Rio for the duration. As he can claim a mileage rate the Army needed to confirm that the car's insurance covered him. He is insured on both of our cars for commuting to a place of work, as is our daughter. But the policy limitations does not seem to recognise that as consultant he works from home and will periodically go to a client's premises, or attend a company meeting which could be anywhere in UK. Similarly our daughter is a Mental Health Nurse actually based at home and her patients can be anywhere in Wiltshire. Clearly the LV policy limitations do not seem to reflect the changes in society that sees workers not necessarily fixed to one commuting location. When I added our daughter to the cars' policies I discussed her working arrangements with LV and they said she was covered. However, our grandson is not so sure wrt his situation since his job role has changed, so he has taken out a short term policy to cover him for the next two weeks away. When I was working it was Social, Domestic, Pleasure and Commuting to place of work. This could encompass visits to most places in UK, although I was appointed to a specific office as my permanent duty station as the basis for my T&Cs, but MoD would check that insurance policies covered the scope of the appointments.


I will be contacting LV to discuss the Business Commuting aspects as at present the combined insurance is nearly £900 and if it is not meeting our needs then changes will be required. My reading is that a single place of work does not necessarily need to be the same place every day. But on travelling to that place of work additional visits to sites or for business are excluded.In our daughters case can there be more than one "place of work in a day" being a community nurse? Here is the LV clause covering the topic:

"Commuting: This allows you to drive

to a single place of work but does not

allow you to drive to different sites or

offices or make any business visits on

your way to work or anytime during

your working week."

​

Looks like Dad/Grandad will take out Business Use. Less hassle to give the car to them. 😂

​

 

[GaryB]

I had similar with LV so switched to full Business use and now do the same through Sheila's Wheels (LV wouldn't insure the Audi when I swapped the Volvo for it). From memory the additional premium was negligible.

 

[otherclive]

I had similar with LV so switched to full Business use and now do the same through Sheila's Wheels (LV wouldn't insure the Audi when I swapped the Volvo for it). From memory the additional premium was negligible.

Thanks, it looks like that’s the way I will go. Having my daughter on the Kia Rio actually dropped the premium when I renewed last year. Despite the fact that she would never drive it being manual. She has the full licence but has never driven a manual car since the day she passed her driving test in 1991 !!

 

[Mr Plodd]

The ONLY person who can answer your question with 100% certainty is your insurance company. But looking at what you have quoted I feel the answer will be no UNLESS you upgrade to full business use, for an increased premium of course sir!

Might be worth a phone call as ALL calls are recorded, so in the event of any query you can quote the time and date of the call.

 

[otherclive]

The ONLY person who can answer your question with 100% certainty is your insurance company. But looking at what you have quoted I feel the answer will be no UNLESS you upgrade to full business use, for an increased premium of course sir!

Might be worth a phone call as ALL calls are recorded, so in the event of any query you can quote the time and date of the call.

Yes, I was planning to contact LV. My daughters MG is insured for Business, so I guess I will go that way as the aim is to provide them back up cars in the event their cars have a problem or grandson and his partner need cars on the same day. They only have one at present. Fortunately we have not transgressed because our daughter hasn't required a car, and grandson's use has been SD&P thus far. Strange how these things catch you up as initially when he went on insurance he did only commute to a single place of work. Then when he changed jobs. he's predominately WFH with occasional work trips. But he did those in their car. In retrospect it is good that the Army wanted to check insurance prior to the two weeks away.

 

[Woodentop]

We've been insured both car and house/contents with LV for many years. However last year the (72 plate) car went up from £366 to £533 with no changes. I talked them down to £506. This year it has gone up to £566, again with no changes. They could get it down to just under £540 but wouldn't go any further.
I went searching and eventually got pretty well the same cover with the AA for £353 plus £28 'arrangement fee.'

Now get this. I am the named insured, and my wife, son, and daughter are all on the insurance. All parties with clean records, over 40 year old, and the kids their own vehicles. LV is part of the Allianz organisation.
I searched through Uswitch and got a quote from Allianz for £314 - like £200+ less than LV. I went through the data and made a few small changes here and there and the quote went up to over £540! I went back and changed various things here and there until the figure dropped back to £314. My son is a drinking water field tech with the local water Co. For some reason the Uswitch form had him down as a Sewage Worker in the Water Industry. I changed this to Water Technician in the Water Industry (and also tried just plain Technician) and it was that simple term that stuffed the quote sky high. The AA never batted an eyelid.

Am I baffled? You bet.