Martin Lewis says 'don't do it' in car insurance warning to drivers

Martin Lewis

Martin Lewis has sent a message to drivers, saying ‘don’t do it’ in a car insurance warning. He talked about ‘fronting’ in his latest newsletter from Money Saving Expert, reports BirminghamLive.

He said on his BBC Sounds podcast that you should never put a parent or another family member as the main driver on your insurance if they don’t use the car the most. The MSE newsletter said: “This is ‘fronting’ and it’s fraud. It’ll be checked if you claim and the insurance will be invalid if you’re caught.”

“You could even be prosecuted. Don’t do it.” But Martin Lewis also shared a helpful tip: “If you have a family member or friend who may drive the car and has a good driving record, adding them as a second driver can make you appear less risky and bring prices down.”

He suggests trying different things like adding one parent to see if it changes the price, then trying the other parent, or both. A dad named Marc said this advice saved him a lot of money. He wrote: “I renewed my 18-year-old son’s car insurance and saved a whopping £450 by adding my wife as a named driver. Massive thanks.”

The newsletter also reminds everyone: “Take a few minutes to check if you’re overpaying.”

“If you are, even if you’re not near renewal, you may be able to lock in a price to forestall future increases for a year.” A reader also cautioned: “There are a number of ways Insurers catch fronters out, these can be simple things such as how many cars are there in the family or the type of car and is it modified etc.”

“There are more subtle ways they do this which can be as simple as checking whose name is on the receipt from the car dealer or checking with the young drivers college or work to see if they have a parking permit etc. Another give away is the car being registered in the parents name.”