Adding Temporary Insurance cover to your Car Insurance

Dear Kath
Thankyou for your response - a few updates/bits of new information

- the insurer that I was having problems with is Morethan (part of Royal/Sun Alliance I think) and they told me that they have the same underwriting condition of 'Confirming that any additional driver has had more than 6 months driving in the UK in the last 5 years' (whether or not they were being asked to add a named UK driver and UK resident, a UK resident living overseas, or an EU resident, or a non EU resident).

I went to a brokers(Swinton) to ask them to see what other insurers would do. According to them, some insurers adopt a much more reasonable approach by allowing 'up to 28 days a year cover for any additional driver' (or drivers), however, as adding a driver consitutes a change of contract with the insurer, they would have to consider each driver circumstances individually before adding them, and work out the additional premium cost accordingly. I asked to see these policy terms in writing before making a move to this alternative insurer but they (& they suggested, any company) did not have this in writing as it was 'a temporary and negotiated contract change', nor could this company 'Broker Direct' guarantee whether or not at the time of the exchange (in our case July) that their underwriters would still adopt the same approach. The expected annual additional cost compared to my existing insurance was about another £40-£50 a year (on top of which would be the additional fee for adding a driver at the time (to be confirmed). Therefore I was recommended to stay with my cheaper insurer for the time being, and seek to reinsure at the end of June to find someone who was at that time willing to add named driver(s) as above!!

It is a catch 22 therefore. It may be that some swappers have company cars which may allow more comprehensive cover, but I don't know. As I imagine that most people like us are planning swaps Jan/March (or even before) for a summer swap, I am intrigued that anybody can make a hard & fast assurance that a car swap will be acceptable because their insurer may not until only a few weeks before, be able to confirm that they will do this.

Phew!

Anyway I will be telling my swappers that we should still go ahead with a planned car swap as part of our exchange but that I will ensure that I arrange this in the month prior to the swap as I do not think that I can do anything else.

The worst case scenario is of course that both or one party has to hire a car and book this a few weeks before and it may be that I am trying to confirm all possible arrangements too early....

Anyway. I hope that this helps. If there are any other more friendly (and cheap!!) insurers out there who are more in tune with house swapping, I would be pleased to hear from them!!
Neil