Do new drivers need car insurance?

Yes, you will likely have to add your teenager to your car insurance when they first get their permit and start driving. Some states - including Illinois, Indiana, Maryland and others - allow insurance companies to require that customers list a teen driver on their policy when the teen receives a learner's permit. However, different insurers differ on when you have to start paying extra for them. … read full answer

The bottom line is that you should inform your insurance company before your teenager gets their preliminary permit. While most companies start covering your teen then, you typically will not be charged extra at this point because the mandatory adult supervision makes your teenager a lower risk. You will be charged additional premiums for your teen when they are fully licensed or turn 18, whichever comes first.

But be aware that this is not true for all companies in all states. It’s important to ask your insurance company if you’re required to not only add your teenagers, but also start paying premiums for them as soon as they get a permit.

The average cost to add a teenage driver to your family policy is about $225 per month. It’s a bad idea to try to hide your teen from your insurance company just to save this cost, however. Your insurer is likely to find out anyway. You may have listed your young children on your original application, for example. Insurers also receive reports listing residents at your address and periodically review Department of Motor Vehicles information. If your insurer doesn’t find out about your teenage driver until he or she is involved in an accident, this can be a big problem. Some companies will forgive you. Others will refuse to pay the claim or back-charge you for all the premiums you haven’t paid since your teenager became licensed.

If you don’t want to add a teenager to your policy, you can have them buy their own. This will cost about twice as much, but it does protect the family assets from liability in case your teenager causes an accident. If your teenager moves away from home (other than for school), they will have to get their own policy anyway.

Car insurance follows the car, not the driver, in most cases. There are a few situations where car insurance follows the driver, though, such as when the car’s insurance limits are exceeded, in which case the driver’s coverage can be used to fill in the gaps. There’s also some disparity from company to company – your policy might provide less coverage for other drivers, or even no coverage at all.… read full answer

It’s advisable to review your insurance policy before letting someone else drive your car. It also helps to ask if the other driver has insurance before they get behind the wheel in your vehicle. And don’t forget to confirm coverage before you drive someone else’s car, too.

The driver’s insurance usually plays a (small) role

In most situations, the driver’s insurance plays a role regardless of whose car they are driving and who caused the accident. That is true regardless of whether a state has at-fault or no-fault laws because no-fault insurance only applies to medical payments. So fault still matters for property damage, at least, and the at-fault party needs to pay up.

However, the driver’s insurance can end up being negligible. If you are insured and you cause an accident in a friend's car, the primary coverage is their insurance, not yours. Instead, your car insurance is the secondary source of coverage. If your friend's coverage is exceeded by the collision, your insurance picks up the slack.

Uninsured drivers depend solely on the car's coverage

If you don’t have insurance and you drive your friend's car, your friend is on the hook for whatever damage you cause. But if the damage exceeds your friend’s insurance coverage, the other driver(s) could sue you and your friend, who also could sue you to cover his or her share!

This is assuming your friend gives you permission to drive. If you don't have permission to drive someone's car, insurance gets a little more complicated.

Permission matters - but it's hard to prove

If a friend with no insurance takes your car without permission and crashes it, you're liable for the damage they cause. That’s because it’s very difficult to prove you didn't give your friend permission to use your car. And in situations where you let your uninsured friend use your car, your insurance needs to cover any damage they cause.

However, the responsibility can fall on the friend who takes your car if they have their own car insurance. If they cause damage in that situation, their insurance policy would be the primary coverage, while yours would be secondary – again, as long as you can prove that you did not give them permission to use your car. In that case, your insurance would only need to kick in to cover gaps in their insurance policy, or if their insurance maxed out before the damage was covered fully.

If it’s not a friend who takes your car, things are different. Should someone steal your car, you're generally not liable for the damage they cause to others' property. But you need your own insurance for repairs to your vehicle if they vandalize it.

Best practices

• Check your policy to see who and what is covered.
• Keep a copy of your car insurance information in your car, in case you're not there when an accident occurs.
• Make sure your friends have a valid driver's license and car insurance before you let them drive your vehicle.
• Add people you live with to your car insurance, as well as other people who use your car regularly.
• If you don’t own a car, you can get non-owner car insurance to make sure you’re covered when you drive someone else’s vehicle.