13 per cent of parents admit to 'fronting' car insurance for their children. Fronting is when a parent claims to be the main driver or user of a vehicle, with the child as a named driver, when in fact it's essentially the child's car.
Survey of 7,000 motorists
According to an AA Car Insurance survey of over 7,000 motorists, 4.76 per cent of those polled stated that they are currently listed as the main driver on a car mostly used by one of their children.
Meanwhile, a further 8.58 per cent of respondents stated that they had done so in the past but were no longer listed as the main driver on a son or daughter's car.
A white lie?
"Understandably many people will be looking for ways to reduce their car insurance costs in the current climate, but it's important to remain honest about who the primary user of the vehicle is in order to ensure your cover will remain valid in the event of a claim. The issue of high car insurance costs has been a major concern for many motorists in recent years and it's something that the AA has been lobbying government on since 2015. While some drivers are starting to see reductions in their premiums, these drops are happening at a very slow rate and are only being felt by certain cohorts who are deemed to be a low risk by underwriters," Conor Faughnan, AA Director of Consumer Affairs stated. "Those with an atypical driver history or who fall into higher risk groups, such as young drivers, are still being affected by rising insurance costs which unfortunately forces some people to consider telling what they feel is a white lie to their insurer to try to keep costs down."
Insurer could cancel policy
Another 18 per cent of parents - almost one fifth - said that they had been 'tempted' to front for their kids' insurance, but had decided not to.
While it may be considered to be a 'victimless crime' in most people's eyes, insurers tend to take a dim view of fronting. "Misrepresenting the main driver of your vehicle, known as fronting, may seem harmless but if you wind up having to make a claim the insurer could refuse to payout if you have misrepresented who uses the car and how often they use it. If you identify yourself as a named driver on your policy, but the insurer has reason to believe you are the primary user of the vehicle, they are within their rights to refuse to cover any damage, with the exception of third party injury, resulting from an accident and even cancel the policy" said Faughnan.