A co-worker of mine has a son that just turned 16 and he recieved his drivers license. He has no tickets or anything. Totally virgin record. He bought a car (a 93 Intrepid). He went to get his insurance the other day. His parents insurance company would not touch him. No problem, he’ll go to another insurance company he thought. Nope. Nodody would insure him directly. Not that the insurance rate was astronomically high, but they wouldn’t insure him and his car PERIOD.
After farting around for hours, the insurance agent said they could do it, but what they had to do was the father (my co-worker) had to get the car insured (and I think even registered) in HIS name. Then, they could have the young one as a part time driver. Cost - $1600 per 6 months, and they’ll only do it for 6 months. It’s possible they wont even renew him when thats up. They’ve been dealing with the same insurance broker for years and they seem confident that he’s not trying to screw him.
Is this common nowadays with insurance companies? It used to be when I was a teenager I could get insurance no problem, it just cost an arm and a leg. Now, it appears that they want to insure young/inexperienced drivers for any price, PERIOD.
The particular company the parents are insured with doesn’t accept 16 year old *full-time[\I] drivers with zero years of driving experience. With the information you’ve given, that’s the only reason I can think of for mom & dad’s company refusing to write son. This is the first time I’ve heard of a company having this specific rule but all companies have their own rules.
Agent checks with other companies and find that they won’t insure the son if they don’t also write mom & dad’s policy. That’s a very common practice, in the U.S. anyway.
In order to get around it, the agent is suggesting that the car be titled in dad’s name and added to dad’s policy with son listed as part-time operator instead of full-time. The car can’t be on dad’s policy unless it’s titled in mom’s or dad’s name. So, it’ll be lying to the insurance company about the part-time/full-time thing.
In order to be on the up-and-up the agent needs to move mom & dad to a company that will accept son as full-time driver with mom & dad’s supporting coverage. I can’t tell from what you said if agent tried to find another company to take son only, or tried to find a company that would take the package. I’d be surprised if every insurance company in Canada refused to write a 16 year old full-time driver who just got his license.