What is Fronting on Young Drivers Car Insurance?

Why do People Use Fronting to Get Cheaper Car Insurance?

Dec 2, 2009 Carol Finch

Younger people are often charged unaffordably high premiums for car insurance. Some ask older individuals to front as the main driver to cut costs. Is fronting legal?

Getting affordable car insurance for young drivers can be hard. This age group poses a high risk in insurance terms and premiums are often sky-high. Some young drivers will ask older adults to take on a practice known as insurance fronting to cut their costs. What is this and is it legal?

What is Car Insurance Fronting?

The premiums charged on a car insurance policy are costed on a variety of factors. One of the main factors is the primary driver of the vehicle. The younger and more inexperienced the driver is, the higher the costs are likely to be.

This puts insuring a vehicle beyond the budgets of a lot of young people. Some will ask an older adult to help them reduce costs by applying for insurance as the primary driver of the car. This practice, known as fronting, can cut considerable sums off car insurance charges.

In many cases the person who takes on a fronting role will be a parent of the young person. In others they may ask an older friend. Adding a few decades in age, no-claims bonuses and driving experience can see car insurance quotes reduced by hundreds if not thousands of pounds. For some young drivers, this is simply the difference between being able to afford to run a car and not being able to do so.

Is it Legal for Young Drivers to Use Fronting to Get Cheap Car Insurance?

The simple answer is no. Insurance companies view fronting as an act of fraud. The point here is that the person taking out the policy states in their application that they are the primary driver of the vehicle that is being insured. If they are fronting for another individual then this is not true. This can lead to a variety of consequences for both parties.

What Happens if an Insurance Company Finds Out About Fronting?

Insurers take fronting extremely seriously and many have developed in-depth investigative procedures to alert them to possible fronting cases when claims are made. Both the young driver and the person fronting for them could suffer serious consequences if they are found out. For example:

The young driver could be taken to court for driving without insurance.
Being caught could result in license points, bans and fines.
The insurance policy could be invalidated giving cost responsibility back to the drivers.
The fronting adult could have their own policy for their own vehicle invalidated.
Both parties may find it harder and more expensive to get car insurance in the future.

Many people simply take a fronting route because they do not realise that this is illegal. They are just looking for ways to cut extremely high young driver insurance costs. But, rather than taking this risk, they may be better looking at other legal ways of saving money on this kind of insurance.

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