Reader question:

If my daughter has a learner’s permit, does she have to have car insurance?

Ruby

It depends.

Anybody who is driving a vehicle is required to be covered by some form of insurance, but how you choose to go about that is up to you. For example, since she is your daughter, then so long as she is driving a vehicle that is covered under yours or a friend’s auto insurance policy, then she will be covered by that same policy in the event of a car accident. It is not necessary, for most companies, to include your teen driver who does not have her license yet on your car insurance policy, since they will be covered regardless of whether they are listed or not. This is good news for you, especially considering that teen car insurance rates are so high.

However, there are a couple of companies out there that do want a teenager to be listed on the car insurance policy whether they have their license or not, so long as they are legally driving your insured vehicle. In order to avoid this, or at least to know about, you should call your auto insurance agent and ask if the company you are with has what is called a family policy, which means that anyone in your household is covered if they drive the vehicle on your policy. If they are not, you can either consider changing companies or take steps to keep your teen car insurance rates down.

A couple of ways to do this is to raise your deductible, pay all at once instead of in installments, and to make sure that your teen’s name is assigned to the least expensive and safest vehicle on the policy, even if they drive the other car more often. Take care with that one, because many car insurance companies will try to add the most expensive driver to the most expensive vehicle to make your rates go up.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.