Car insurance

What happens if you lie to your insurer?

Unfortunately, however small the lie, giving false information to an insurer is fraud. No 5 ways about it: you're committing insurance fraud. We've all told little fibs to get a better deal, right? Using a mate's student discount, saying you found this top with no label on it in the sale area...but in this case, your little fib can mean your car insurance policy is invalid. You're basically driving uninsured - which means you're driving illegally.

Lying about car use

You'll probably be insuring your car for 'social, domestic and pleasure' use with 'commuting', which includes your commute to work, college or uni. The commuting category only covers 1 regular place of work - not multiple sites. If you use your car to drive to multiple sites during your work day - like for deliveries, customer home visits or going to meetings - that no longer fits the commuting category. Business use will probably cost you more but it would cost you big time if you needed to make a claim and were found to have insured in the wrong category. ingenie actually only has 'social, domestic, pleasure and commuting'. That's because we don't generally insure cars for business use and we know pretty much all our drivers are going to be using their car for getting to work or studying. So you don't need to worry about which category you're in - you're covered for your usual driving unless you use your car as part of your job.

Lying about who's the main driver

Fronting is a big deal and one of the most common forms of car insurance fraud when we're talking about young drivers. With premiums looking scary for under-25s, the temptation to get a policy in your mum or dad's name with you as an additional driver is strong - even if you'll be the one driving it most of the time. Not only is it illegal, it also means you're not earning your No Claims Discount, which can represent HUGE savings in the long run. You want to start working on that as soon as possible, not delay it a whole year to save a bit short-term.

Get more information on why fronting is a big NO.

Lying about mileage

With any car insurance policy, you have to state how many miles you think you'll drive over the year. You can calculate that by working out what you'll do each day to and from work/college/uni, subtracting non-driving holidays and adding trips and weekend driving. Of course, this is a bit different with a black box policy: your insurer can tell you how many miles you're doing so you can update your policy during the year if you think you'll go over. Insurers need to know how many miles you're covering a year because the more you're on the road, the more likely you are to crash. That makes a difference to how much you should be paying for your insurance.

Lying about modifications

Some insurers (ingenie included) don't allow any modifications at all. That means anything on the car that wasn't put there in the manufacturer's factory: flash alloys, fat exhaust, spoiler...anything added post-factory. If you crash and your insurer finds you added a bodykit after you took out your policy, they're going to take issue with your claim. They definitely wouldn't replace the bodykit you spent cash on and they could even refuse your claim entirely. In some cases, you can be charged the full price of the policy you SHOULD have had, in 1 lump sum. Ouch.

Find out more about car modifications and why they're not such a hot idea.

Lying about driver history

It might be your first ever policy so hopefully your driving record is clean (although you can get points on your licence before you pass your test) - but you need to declare any driving offences or insurance claims for ALL the drivers on your policy. So, if your dad is going to be named as an additional driver on your policy and he happened to make a claim last year for a bashed bumper, that goes down on the policy. If your mum is going to be an additional driver and got nabbed for speeding a couple of years ago, that goes down on the policy too. The details of any driver on your policy are just as important as your own: check them several times with each party to be sure they're 100% correct.

Lying by omission

I don't want to sound like a meanie but this is important: if you fail to declare information, that still counts as lying. You might think that it can't matter if you don't tell your insurer you now park in the street instead of in a garage - but it really, really does. If your car gets stolen, you'll have to explain why it wasn't in the safe place you said it would be.

Stuff you need to tell your insurer:

• Change of details - things like changing your job, where you park or your address can affect your insurance
• Damage to the car - even if you're not claiming, your insurer needs to know
• Motoring offences - for ANY of the named drivers on the policy
• Increase in the mileage you think you'll do

Telling the truth doesn't have to mean paying more

Car insurance is more expensive for young drivers. That's just facts. But you can get the right policy for you without breaking the bank. Take a look at our black box insurance. It lets you earn discounts on your insurance if you drive well, so you could be getting 21% off your price in the first year with us. Until you need to make a claim, you don't realise how much of a comfort it is to know you're 100% covered. Don't risk it: tell the truth and get the insurance you need to keep you on the right side of the law and safe from the huge cost of a crash. Updated: 03/01/2019