Your personal finance questions – Will my insurance cover damage to my electric vehicle caused by my friend?

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Charlie Weston Twitter Email

January 28 2023 02:30 AM

Q I allowed my friend to try out my new electric car last weekend and unfortunately, he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a wall, causing major damage to the front of my car. Does my car insurance cover the damage?

A Check your policy documents to see if you have open driving on your car insurance.

As long as you have open driving, generally, once your friend is aged between 25 or 30 and 70, is claims-free, and has a full clean Irish, UK or EU driving licence, you should be covered, said the chief executive of Insuremycars.ie Jonathan Hehir.

To find out if you have open driving, check your certificate of insurance and see if you can find an extra option called open drive insurance, open driving or open driver.

Even if you have open driving on your policy, there are usually a few requirements to be met by both you and the other driver. For example, most insurers will require that you, the policyholder, are aged between 25 and 70, and some will also require you to have at least two years’ no-claims bonus.

As long as you are covered for open driving, the level of cover you have on your car insurance policy simply extends to the friend that you allowed to drive your vehicle. As both the damage and the claim will be under your insurance, this claim will affect your no-claims bonus, Mr Hehir said.

Only a handful of insurers on the market offer comprehensive DOC cover

Should your friend have Driving Other Cars (DOC) cover, this would only cover damage to the car in this case if it is comprehensive DOC cover. Only a handful of insurers on the market offer comprehensive DOC cover. Third-party only DOC cover won’t cover the damage to the car in this instance, Mr Hehir said.

Q My husband and I are hoping to book a winter break to the sun early this year. But we are worried about Covid. If we get travel insurance, would we get our money back for the holiday if either of us gets Covid and have to cancel the holiday as result?

A This will depend on the exact travel insurance policy you buy, according to the chief executive of Peopl Insurance, Paul Walsh. A number of, but not all, travel insurers have Covid cover built into their policies.
However, even where Covid cover is available, it varies from one insurer to another, Mr Walsh said. So you would be well advised to check the policy before you buy travel insurance, he said.

The Covid protection offered by Irish travel insurers is largely around cover for medical expenses should you be diagnosed with Covid abroad, and cover for losses that would arise in the event that you test positive for Covid shortly before you are due to depart for your holiday.

That cancellation cover will also usually apply if a holiday has to be cancelled because a travelling companion, or any person you had arranged to stay with during your trip, has been diagnosed with Covid.

Buy your travel insurance at the same time you buy your holiday

Be sure that the Covid cover in the policy covers you in the event that you or your husband fall sick with the virus and have to cancel your holiday as a result, Mr Walsh said.

And buy your travel insurance at the same time you buy your holiday as generally, Covid cover won’t apply if you buy the insurance less than a couple of weeks, or in some cases, less than a month, before the start of your trip.

While Covid cover generally covers medical expenses if you fall ill with the virus while holidaying abroad, you won’t be covered if you travel to a country which the government has advised against all but essential travel to that country, he said.

Q I just got a quote for Advanced Care Extra from VHI Healthcare for almost €3,000 over a year. Are there any lower cost equivalent plans? We can’t afford to pay that much for our health cover.

A The VHI Advanced Care Extra is a good plan, says broker Dermot Goode of TotalHealthCover.ie, which is part of the Lockton Ireland group. But he said it is quite expensive at €2,740 per adult.

Health Insurance

Assuming you do not mind taking on a small excess per private hospital stay, you should consider the Advanced Care 50 Day-to-Day scheme also from VHI, Mr Goode said.

This health insurance plan offers similar cover but at a lower cost of €2,016 for the year. If you are open to switching provider you could also consider the new Momentum scheme from Laya Healthcare at €1,825 a year.

This plan combines good hospital cover with excellent refunds on a range of eligible out-patient expenses with no excess to pay first, Mr Goode said.