Alarming statistics come together with GoCompare.com stating that 60% of people they polled would consider fronting an insurance policy for their child. Couple that with Zurich Insurance’s estimation that 10% of cars bought by parents for their kids have possible fraudulent insurance policies attached to them and there seems to a big problem and not much in the way of prevention.
Fronting is when a parent insures their child’s car in their own name as the main driver, adding their child as an additional driver to save money on the insurance premium. Such is insurance fraud and if found out the insurer can refuse to pay out any claims against the policy resulting in points for both the parent and child’s licence, fines and the costs of any damages to vehicles involved in the accident.
So how much could really be saved through fronting? Young Marmalade calculated that a 20 year old from West London insuring a Vauxhall Corsa as their own with Zurich would pay 3,257, but if the parents took out a policy in their name and added the 20 year as an additional driver they would pay just 1,843 (*data from Nov 2007). That’s some temptation to lie.
The problem is that most people don’t think they will ever be caught as proving that the parents are not the main driver is problematic. Parents should be aware though, that it is not impossible to prove fronting and the penalties for such can be incredibly high. Those who front someone else’s policy can actually have up to six points put on their own licence. The increasing levels of CCTV footage available will often betray the dishonesty of fronting. If you’re car is parked outside your child’s University 200 miles away from you for 4-8 months of the year, proving the policy has been fronted is not difficult.
The problem is a vicious circle with most insurers increasing the premiums across the board for parents who add children as additional drivers “just in case” which will penalise even the honest policyholders. As with the rest of insurance it is the honest people who seem to be paying the price for the dishonest amongst us.
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