Well, today I came across a new experience. Never have I come across this before… I was left a bit stunned!
It started with a mum and dad who bought a private number plate as a 21st birthday present for their son. The registration number reflected their son’s initials. Not that unusual, you might say. And you’d be right.
The registration number was to be transfered to the mum’s car for a while, a car used occasionally by their son. To be transfered at some point in the future, when their son bought his own car. Again, not that unusual. So far so good.
So, the registration number was assigned to the car. And all was good.
The mum then called her insurance company to inform them that the registration number had been changed. Unfortunately, this particular insurance company saw things in a different light. They insisted that, as the new private number plate reflected their son’s initials, that the car must actually be his. And that it must therefore be insured as him being the main driver (instead of a named driver on his Mum’s policy). Pushing the cost of the insurance policy up from around £1000… to over £2500! Ouch.
They also (very helpfully) advised that, if they removed the private number plate, they would accept that it wasn’t their son’s car and their insurance would be unaffected.
Nuts!
So, now mum and dad are now applying to put the private number plate on retention to be used at a later date.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kiran, CompareNumberPlates. CompareNumberPlates said: Private number plate impacts insurance? http://ow.ly/19LKme [...]
So what we’re saying is that even though it’s the mother’s car, the son’s initials are on the car. A legal obligation of insurance is that the main driver is honestly the main driver, so the insurance company are forcing them to break the law? That sounds highly dodgy to me – perhaps they need to head to a different insurance company…
That would be about the gist of it, yes. Apparently, the insurance company insisted that, because the son’s initials are on the car number plate… then the car must be his. And they concluded that he was therefore the main driver.
But…. if they take the private number plate off the car, then they would accept that Mum was the main driver.
I’ve never come across this scenario before… so I can only assume that it’s not a common occurrence at the mo.
I’m in agreement with you… change insurance companies..!