Car Insurance: Occasional self-employed Business Use

[bruncher]

Does anyone have experience of car insurance which allows occasional self-employed business use? My current insurer seems very strict - even warning me (I asked some questions) that driving to a course for Continuing Professional Development would be considered business use.

If I drive to a meeting of a charity where I am unpaid (management committee) is that 'business use'?

[supremetwo]

Does anyone have experience of car insurance which allows occasional self-employed business use? My current insurer seems very strict - even warning me (I asked some questions) that driving to a course for Continuing Professional Development would be considered business use.

If I drive to a meeting of a charity where I am unpaid (management committee) is that 'business use'?

i have no problem with obtaining business use, but mileage is not large and some providers ask 'how many business miles', others do not.

ABI article re volunteer driving. HTH.

https://www.abi.org.uk/globalassets/sit ... tment2.pdf
The insurers named will insure their policyholders to carry out voluntary driving, that is, the use of a vehicle they own in connection with, or for the benefit of, charities, voluntary organisations, clubs or societies, under the conditions set out below, where payment does not exceed the HMRC mileage rates in force at that time.

Nearly all This company does not charge extra for volunteer driving so simply tell your insurer.

[tjh290633]

Odd. My Certificate of Insurance from Admiral states:

Permitted Use:

Business for policyholder only
Use for social, domestic and pleasure purposes and
travel between home and permanent place of business
or employment. Use for the Policyholder in person in
connection with his/her business or profession, subject
to the exclusions below.

The Policy does not cover:

Use to secure the release of a motor vehicle, other than the
vehicle identified above by its registration mark, which has
been seized by, or on behalf of, any government or public
authority. Use for merchandise delivery, renting out, peer to
peer hire schemes (including when the hirer is using your
vehicle) or used for hire and reward including but not limited to
taxiing and chauffeuring whether licensed or unlicensed. Use
on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, or for racing, pacemaking,
competitions, rallies, track days, trials or speed tests either on
a road, track, or at an off road 4x4 event or where the type of
use is shown as excluded under the above heading "Permitted
Use".

Carriage of goods is obviously excluded.

TJH

[bungeejumper]

The Policy does not cover:

...Use for merchandise delivery, renting out, peer to
peer hire schemes (including when the hirer is using your
vehicle)
Carriage of goods is obviously excluded.

I don't read it quite that way. I think it's just to stop people from using the car for a door-to-door parcel delivery service. If you wanted to use the car to take a printer to the repair shop, or to take (say) a few exhibition materials to a conference, as I sometimes have to do, then it would be quite hard for anybody to argue that that wasn't "use in connection with my business or profession".

LOL, I've never seen the Nurburgring get a specific mention on an insurance document. Do Admiral get a lot of boy racers, then? IIRC, the Nurburgring won't let you onto the circuit without signing up to its own insurance terms. Although I very much doubt that even they'd cover the cost of your car if you totalled it.

But it's correct that you really do have to look at what your insurance proposal says before you sign on the line. Does "peer to peer hire schemes" include a car share arrangement, of the kind that our local council promotes? According to some insurers, yes it does, and you have to get additional insurance.

I always take care to specify business use when getting car insurance quotes, and it rarely adds more than £10-£20 to the quote.

BJ

[bruncher]

Thanks for the responses. Insurance is something I prefer to leave alone rather than shopping around (so many questions), but maybe it's time to bite the bullet and do a detailed review.

[bungeejumper]

Thanks for the responses. Insurance is something I prefer to leave alone rather than shopping around (so many questions), but maybe it's time to bite the bullet and do a detailed review.

If you aren't shopping round every two years or so, you're probably paying too much. Insurance companies are notorious for treating their most loyal customers as suckers - whereas they'll offer great big discounts to any new customer who comes along. Then again, you can simply fall out of their target demographic. Norwich Union (=Aviva) silently tripled my wife's premiums when she turned 60. And the brokers had the brass nerve to tell her that they'd checked that this was still a competitive premium! (The meerkat said otherwise. We saved hundreds... )

I think all of the comparison websites will let you preview the policies of any insurance companies that end up on your shortlist before you actually buy. That's just as well, because their attitudes can vary toward detailed things like the extent of European driving cover, damage excesses for any second drivers, your (and their) past speeding convictions, windscreen cover, "act of god" damage, and whether you'll need to get your car fixed at one of their chosen repairers or whether you can just take it to your local main dealer.

Not to mention the ultimate horror of "any car" cover! If you think your insurer covers you to drive any car with the owner's permission, you may be in for a surprise. A lot of companies have quietly removed that one from their cover over the years. It never hurts to check.

BJ

[didds]

I do recall one company I was with (generally I would switch every year for the best deal) the policy included commuting to a single place of work. When I told the company I worked for several months at a time at a client's offices, then moved to another client's offices, they said the standard policy terms covered that.

I always took that to mean one office at a time... so changing contracts four times a year doesn;t breach the term bevcause you are only ever dfriving yo opne set of offices at a time ie client A for a few months, then B for a few months etc.

Id never thought about it, but I did have some clients that had several offices and somedays I'd maybe have to flit between them. But then TBH that coud be true of an employee so its not the contracting/self employment that is the "issue" here.

didds