Insurance question: Swap policy between 2 cars?

the_manchine

Is it possible to have own two cars and to switch your insurance policy between them as you need to?

Lets say I own a Micra and a Ferrari (I don't), I want to drive the Micra in and out of work during the week and the Ferrari at the weekend, assuming that I get insurance on one of them (say the Micra), can I then swap it over to the other car as and when I need? - and pay any extra then for the bigger car of course.
(assuming again that both cars are taxed etc...)

January

Nope, you need two seperate insurance policies for each car.

thewing

Most policies give you third party cover on any other car you drive, so you should be good to have policy on one (say fully comp) and then third party - it's they way I roll..

Top Dog

In a nutshell, no you can't. A car has to be properly insured to be taxed, so by the method you're mentioning above you'd only be able to tax one of the 2 cars.

And thewing - you're only covered third party on another car NOT registered to you. If its registered to you then it doesn't fall under the extension clause and as such you'd be driving the other car without insurance.

the_manchine

How does it work with courtesy cars then? I had my car in for repair a few months back and I had a courtesy car for a few days - when I was collecting it I had to ring up and swap my insurance over to it. The insurance people didn't seem too bothered.
Is this a special case?

Eoin

How do you mean they weren't bothered? I thought that cars in the motortrade were often specifically excluded from the 3rd party cover, so you do have to make sure you inform them.

@thewing - that sounds like a very dodgy way to get around insuring a high powered car, and I very much doubt you are covered at all.

Top Dog

Courtesy car would only be a rare occurence. What you've suggested above would be a weekly change over of policy and no insurance company would allow such carry on.

I've had to do the same when my car was in for repairs or when we moved (transferred insurance onto a van for 2 days) and this sort of infrequent transfer of policy is perfectly legal, though if my car had been stolen/damaged while the transfer was active then I wouldn't have been able to claim.

What you could do, if its a weekend toy you're thinking of getting, is get a specialist insurance policy with limited mileage for the second car. Then it wouldn't cost you quite as much and you'd be 100% legal and covered.

the_manchine

eoin_s wrote: »

How do you mean they weren't bothered? I thought that cars in the motortrade were often specifically excluded from the 3rd party cover, so you do have to make sure you inform them.

Sorry - what I meant was that the person at the other end treated it as if it was a standard procedure. Was all sorted within a minute or two.

galwaytt

adrieanne__x wrote: »

Nope, you need two seperate insurance policies for each car.

No, they'll happily change the policy on foot of a call every time......and charge you €40 ? - for the privelege.

That's 2k/hear if you do it every week.

Cheaper, to just buy a 2nd policy.

But I agree, it's all bollocks - you should be able to have more than one car on a policy - you can't drive more than one at a time anyway, so it's a complete con that you should have to buy 2 policies.

Top Dog

the_manchine wrote: »

Sorry - what I meant was that the person at the other end treated it as if it was a standard procedure. Was all sorted within a minute or two.

It is standard treatment when its only a rare and short-term transfer. All companies allow it as cars regularly need servicing and its very common for garages to offer courtesy cars.

Top Dog

galwaytt wrote: »

But I agree, it's all bollocks - you should be able to have more than one car on a policy - you can't drive more than one at a time anyway, so it's a complete con that you should have to buy 2 policies.

Unless car number 1 is stolen while you're off out driving car number 2. Then where would you be.

cashmni1

No you can't.
If the registerd owner of the car (car 2) is not the insurer, and has a accident, you are not covered.
As the registered owner of car 1 also, your car, has you as the primary driver.
The ins company will look at this and say, if car 1 is worth €1,000 and car 2 is worth €35,000, what is stopping the owner getting insurance on car 1, then driving car 2 under the policy of car 1. An accident happens to car 2, big payout under a policy of maybe €1000.
Anyway, they will charge you to transfer the insurance onto a car that you do not own. i.e. courtsey car, etc.

tin79

i have had to change over to another car a few times and the AA (insurance broker) didnt charge me at all.

Agree though you can only transfer onto another car that is owned, taxed and insured by another person.

Top Dog

tin79 wrote: »

i have had to change over to another car a few times and the AA (insurance broker) didnt charge me at all.

I think thats down to the discretion of the individual insurance company. I'm with Hibernian and if I need to do a transfer I can do it online for free, but if I ring them theres a €15 admin fee (or €50 when its a commercial vehicle).

Graham_B18C

I've had to change for a weekend here and there and with quinn it was free. Would a part time motor trade policy be an option? That might work out cheaper? And you'd be covered on anything up to 75k

Gregor Samsa

thewing wrote: »

Most policies give you third party cover on any other car you drive, so you should be good to have policy on one (say fully comp) and then third party - it's they way I roll..

Well, once you don't roll into anyone in your uninsured car! :eek:

What you're talking about only applies to cars not registered to you, that you're driving with the permission of the registered owner (and no, that can't be yourself!).

galwaytt

Top Dog wrote: »

I think thats down to the discretion of the individual insurance company. I'm with Hibernian and if I need to do a transfer I can do it online for free, but if I ring them theres a €15 admin fee (or €50 when its a commercial vehicle).

True, but someone told me - I haven't checked, btw, having moved from Hib - that they only allow you to do this a certain no of times a year.........there's always a catch, isn't there !!

Top Dog

Top Dog wrote: »

In a nutshell, no you can't. A car has to be properly insured to be taxed, so by the method you're mentioning above you'd only be able to tax one of the 2 cars.

You know you can do tax online now and they have no way of checking your insurance policy number is correct? So yeh, you can tax two cars, and if they pull you up on it, you can say that was the car insured the day you taxed it.

Also, I have transferred my insurance plenty of times, for free, while my car was in for service, or if I was borrowing my dads car etc. The only rule (usually) is that the car you are transferring to is max 2litre, if yours is less than this, and in some cases, it may have to be equal or lower to the car you are driving, so there would never be a way of transferring your micra policy to your ferrari.

It's still very dodgy

phutyle

phutyle wrote: »

Well, once you don't roll into anyone in your uninsured car! :eek:

What you're talking about only applies to cars not registered to you, that you're driving with the permission of the registered owner (and no, that can't be yourself!).

Or your spouse/cohabiting other half

Biro

thewing wrote: »

Most policies give you third party cover on any other car you drive, so you should be good to have policy on one (say fully comp) and then third party - it's they way I roll..

You're covered on any car that ISN'T hired to you or owned by you. So that doesn't work!

Biro

the_manchine wrote: »

How does it work with courtesy cars then? I had my car in for repair a few months back and I had a courtesy car for a few days - when I was collecting it I had to ring up and swap my insurance over to it. The insurance people didn't seem too bothered.
Is this a special case?

They don't care about swapping over, and you can do it, but if you do it every weekend they'll tell you that you can't do that any more cause they'll jump to the conclusion as to what you're really up to! There's probably a set number of times you can do that in a year.

Top Dog

Deleted User wrote: »

You know you can do tax online now and they have no way of checking your insurance policy number is correct? So yeh, you can tax two cars, and if they pull you up on it, you can say that was the car insured the day you taxed it.

I've done the tax online thing before, and every time I had to input an insurance company and policy number. Dunno if they ever checked them out, but they definitely asked for them.

Top Dog

Top Dog wrote: »

I've done the tax online thing before, and every time I had to input an insurance company and policy number. Dunno if they ever checked them out, but they definitely asked for them.

Yeh they ask for them, but there is absolutely no system in place for them to check this at all.

Top Dog

Really? Didn't know that. Thought there was some big insurance database that they could use to verify such details.

Learn something new everyday.

Top Dog

Top Dog wrote: »

Really? Didn't know that. Thought there was some big insurance database that they could use to verify such details.

Learn something new everyday.

Nope - there probably should be but there isn't.

There was a big thing about it a while back and the government basically said there's nothing they can do about it!

Esel

It is still an offence to give false insurance details on the form, and I'd say it would be checked in the event of an accident/claim.

esel

esel wrote: »

It is still an offence to give false insurance details on the form, and I'd say it would be checked in the event of an accident/claim.

I honestly doubt it would be checked, maybe if you were uninsured and someone questioned why you were taxed and uninsured, but this is Ireland we are talking about here, they are too thick to check. But yeh, you're right, it's an offence to give false details, doesn't mean it can't be done though.