Can someone drive my car and be covered on my Progressive insurance?

Comprehensive insurance is coverage that helps pay for the cost of damage to your vehicle when you're involved in an accident not caused by a collision. Comprehensive car insurance covers losses from things like theft, vandalism or extreme weather events.

Comprehensive coverage is never required by state law, but it is usually needed for cars that are leased or financed.... read full answer

What Comprehensive Insurance Covers

• Theft
• Vandalism
• Damage from falling objects
• Flood damage
• Fire damage
• Damage from animals
• Damage from natural disasters
• Glass damage, such as a cracked windshield

Why You Should Get Comprehensive Insurance

You should consider buying comprehensive coverage if you cannot afford to pay out of pocket to repair or replace your car in a worst-case scenario. Comprehensive insurance is usually considered to be a good investment since it’s cheaper than other types of car insurance and covers events that are out of your control as a driver. A good rule of thumb is that if the cost of comprehensive insurance exceeds 10% of your vehicle’s value, you can consider dropping it.

To learn more, check out WalletHub’s guide to comprehensive insurance.

Your car insurance and registration have to be under the same name in most cases. New York, North Carolina, and New Jersey are a few of the states with laws requiring that the name on a car’s insurance policy and registration match. But even though other states don’t have it written into law, insuring a car that is not registered in your name can still be difficult and make the claims process harder. ... read full answer

If you do need to insure a vehicle that is not titled in your name, you’d need to prove you have an “insurable interest” in it. That means you would be affected financially if something happened to the car. Examples include the vehicle’s owner, its lienholder, or a co-signatory.

Insurance for a car not registered to you

You might want to insure a car that isn’t registered to you because you frequently rent or borrow one. But even if you have regular access to the same vehicle, you can’t insure it on your own. Instead, you should be a listed driver on the owner’s insurance policy, which serves as the primary insurance in the event of an accident.

You can get additional liability coverage by purchasing non-owner car insurance if you don’t own a car.

Someone else insuring a car whose title is in your name

If your insurance company has reason to believe your car was insured by someone else for fraudulent reasons, they will deny payment for your claims. If you have several accidents or traffic violations, you can’t just get a friend or family member to insure your car so the premiums are cheaper. Insurers fully investigate claims, and any discrepancy between the names on the policy and the title will be explored before any claims are paid out.

Adding a driver to a car insurance policy can cost as little as $0 extra, or it can add as much as 100%+ to your annual premium. The exact cost of adding a driver to an existing policy depends on the person you’re adding, whether you need to insure an additional vehicle, and which car insurance company covers you. The riskier the additional driver is to insurers, the more it will cost to add them to your policy.... read full answer

For example, adding an experienced driver with a clean driving record won’t cost as much as adding a newly-licensed teenager. Adding a teen driver to a policy increases the premium by an average of 140% to 160%, according to several studies, but it could be much higher or lower depending on your state.

Why Adding Another Driver to Car Insurance Affects Premiums?

Having someone else listed on your policy means it won’t always be you (and your level of risk) behind the wheel. Remember, car insurance follows the car, and insurers calculate prices based on the risk that the car will be in an accident. That risk is different when more people get the chance to drive.

Simply adding a second driver to an already covered vehicle won’t always spike your rate. But if you’re adding both a driver and their personal vehicle to your policy, your rates will likely go up quite a bit. Adding a car creates the need for more coverage, which costs more.

Here’s an example of how premiums might change on a six-month policy covering a 2014 Hyundai Sonata after the addition of a 16-year-old, a 30-year-old, and a 50-year-old, respectively.

As you can see, the cost of adding a driver is highest when that driver is a newly-licensed teen. Otherwise, it’s usually very affordable to add a driver. In some cases, it could even save you money.