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Using Your Car for Work

Using your car for work is an obvious thing to do should the need arise; but are you covered in insurance terms?

Basically you are, if you purchase a policy which includes it. But, you do have to make sure you are being honest when getting a quote.

Insurance companies base their quotes on a whole range of factors. Gender, age, no claims record, conviction record, physical address, where the car is kept overnight, expected mileage, model of car, is there an alarm fitted and are there any modifications to your car; are just some of the questions you’ll get asked.

And you quickly realise that different answers come up with widely different quotes.

Take a middle aged female accountant who lives in Northumberland and garages her small hatchback – complete with engine immobiliser – and does an average 12,000 miles a year, and catches the bus to work. Insurance companies see her as a low risk and statistically, they are right.

Now take a young male marketing executive who lives in Finchley and keeps his hot-hatch (no alarms; spent the money on a bigger sound system) on the road, and does around 20,000 miles a year, taking his car to work every day. Insurance companies see him as a high risk and again statistically, they are right.

And if you feel like cheating the system and fibbing on a few questions, don’t, as that won’t seem so clever when you’re filling out your accident report and trying to make a claim. In these days of computer data banks, the odd fib is very obvious and can cost you a lot of money, as well as your good standing.

But back to the business bit. Quite early on in the quote you will be asked for what purpose do you drive your car. The cheapest option is social, domestic and pleasure. The next category is social, domestic and pleasure, and commuting. In other words, using your car for everyday matters, and using it to get to and from work. Next up is social, domestic and pleasure, and commuting, and business (proposer only). This covers you to use your car for work as well. The next and most expensive option, is the all-singing and all-dancing social, domestic and pleasure, and commuting and business (any driver can use your car for business).

Obviously, it all depends on your personal profile, but the difference from the first option to the last, can be in the region of 50%, so it does make an impact.

Using your car for work is not a problem in insurance terms; it’s just going to cost you a bit more, but, remember, don’t fib, as they’ll find out in the event of a claim.

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