A friend at work pointed me towards an article in the Financial Times describing how Norwich Union Direct, who insure one in seven cars in the UK, have dropped the third party cover offered when driving another car you do not own. Whilst small print has been banned, the insurer has put details of the change in normal sized print on page 13 of the policy document.

Whilst it is a clause I haven’t often used, an example of a situation it is useful that my friend gave me. He and a friend made a trip up to Yorkshire, in his friends car. However on the trip his friend broke his arm, and therefore couldn’t drive. His friend had named driver coverage on his insurance policy, so when my workmate drove them both back home he was using his insurance policy third-party coverage for driving other cars.

The excuse given as an example is that the third-party on other cars clause allows inexperienced young drivers to insure a basic car, but then drive more powerful cars belonging to friends. Probably a fair point, but why penalise everybody else again?