occasional driver insurance rules

[dansmith11]

I searched, but only found threads about 16 year olds trying to find a way to get cheap insurance. looking for the actual rules as they pertain to 2 adults living in 1 house sharing 1 car.

1) if there are technically 2 cars in the house, but the 2nd one is not on the road (has garage insurance, theft/fire. but no liability, will not be driven), then I assume we can still do the occasional driver thing with the 1 car?

2) If both the primary and occasional driver are going somewhere in the car together, does the person listed as primary have to be the one driving? ie. if I am the occasional driver, and we get in an accident and the primary driver is sitting in the passenger seat, will that somehow void coverage?

3) are there limits of some kind as to how often the occasional driver can drive the car? If the car would be shared somewhat equally, does that change things?

any help would be much appreciated.

[clem24]

Why don't you pick up the phone and call your insurance company??

[FraserB]

Originally posted by clem24
Why don't you pick up the phone and call your insurance company??

Stop trying to apply common sense to the internet.

[clem24]

Originally posted by FraserB


Stop trying to apply common sense to the internet.

I think I need to ban myself.

[FraserB]

Originally posted by clem24


I think I need to ban myself.

I think so long as you now know random internet people know more than OP's insurance company, we're all good.

[Disoblige]

What's funny is OP has been on Beyond longer than both of you.

[dexlargo]

Shit. I'll answer the question with the first thought that comes out of my head and filling in missing details using my IMAGINATION! (Not really - everything below is a confirmed fact):

I think the OP is trying to save money by doing an end-run around his insurance company by insuring himself as primary driver on a piece of shit car in the garage that's worth $50 that he has no intention of ever getting into.

He's doing this because his insurance is really expensive - probably because he had a DUI or something in the last few years. Understandably, he thinks calling the insurance company to ask if his scam will work might trip some red flags with them.

So, his wife is now the primary driver for (insurance purposes) of the Pagani Huayra that he got arrested in for drinking and driving. The truth is, she is forbidden from ever driving this car.

So the question is, will this work as a scam way to allow him to drive the Pagani every day without paying his impaired driver insurance rates for that car?

Morality, blah blah blah says no - that's cheating, he'll get caught, etc.

In reality though, if the insurance company issues the policies, why wouldn't it work?

I say go for it and let us know how it turns out.

[Xtrema]

Paging Masked Bandit......

Really, I would say depends on policy and the company.

AMA say no to 1) and they gave me the following reasons:

- There are 2 drivers license holder in household and 2 cars.
- Liability is the same when someone stole it from your garage and drive in into a building.

But I also heard TD and Intact take it differently and has options.

[dansmith11]

Lol calm down. I'm not trying to scam anyone. My girlfriend is moving in with me and we don't really need two cars. But I don't necessarily want to sell my car just yet either.

I don't drive much these days so I'm happy to share her boring car for now. But if badlands motor sports park opens next year I'll want to still have my car and I'll want theft insurance on it when it's sitting there.

Just curious to what the insurance implications are around sharing one car with another parked in the garage. If we can save some money without doing anything shady we might as well.

[FraserB]

Call your insurance company and ask them. If you're afraid of hurting your rates by asking, then don't give them your name.

After that, I'd suggest getting in touch with MaskedBandit or GuessBoi and switching to them for insurance. I've asked GB plenty of hypotheticals and hasn't hurt me.

[dirtsniffer]

It's fine to do. Might not exactly be the right thing but how will your insurance company know? If you're worried, just have two primary drivers.

[dirtsniffer]

Originally posted by FraserB
Call your insurance company and ask them. If you're afraid of hurting your rates by asking, then don't give them your name.

After that, I'd suggest getting in touch with MaskedBandit or GuessBoi and switching to them for insurance. I've asked GB plenty of hypotheticals and hasn't hurt me.

I believe you are confusing brokers and providers. Ask your broker anything you want. The same does not apply to your provider. Clarification on occasional drivers should not really affect your rates though.

[dansmith11]

this is why I'm asking on a forum. of course I can call my broker.. but it's like someone else mentioned.. different companies might have different rules, different brokers might give you different answers. I don't know for sure if I'll even be sticking with my company, or going with hers etc.

I'm not worried about a simple question impacting my rates. I'm just being thorough. and I know there are a few insurance gurus on here, and there may also be some people on here who have done the same thing. If I don't get an answer, I don't get an answer, I'll call a few companies anyhow. But it cant hurt to post. The only thing it can cost me is a few dummies yelling at me haha. More information is always better than less.

I know its a novel ideal.. but once and a while I use the internet to gather and exchange information with other people who might know about or have some personal experience with the topic at hand. The internet doesn't have to be used exclusively for porn and calling people faggots. :P

[A790]

Paging Masked Bandit.

[ercchry]

everyone in the household should be covered without adding them as an occasional driver

ie. wife has car, i have car... insurance slips have both names and both cars on them

[Gman.45]

+1 For Masked Bandit. OP will be better served now by PM'ing him with the original question. Everything else posted will just be conjecture really. If you truly want an accurate answer, ask the person/people here known for giving them, and has been stated by many people in your thread now, you have a couple of names to run with.

I won't be one to berate anyone for just asking a question, as in this case IMO the OP got some good advice from a few members, which again, is to ask the insurance experts the OP referred to directly - he now has their names and knows who to ask.

[clem24]

Originally posted by dansmith11
this is why I'm asking on a forum. of course I can call my broker.. but it's like someone else mentioned.. different companies might have different rules, different brokers might give you different answers. I don't know for sure if I'll even be sticking with my company, or going with hers etc.

So different brokers might give you different answers and so now you've turned to the internet, no BEYOND, to ask answers from non-insurance people?

Wait where the fuck is the facepalm smiley....

No seriously all the time wasted here and waiting for answers you could've just called.

But.. Here's my response: she moves in, you're common law. The car is under your name, insured under your name, that's all that's needed, *IF SHE IS NOT USING THE CAR FOR REGULAR THINGS* like going to work everyday, the gym, etc.. If she only occasionally uses the Pagani, then she's just 'borrowing' the car and doesn't need to be listed. But on the other hand, if she has a regular routine with the car 5 days out of 7, then you list her as an occasional driver

Of course, I am speaking out my ass here and you could've gotten the real answer by calling.

[Masked Bandit]

PM sent.

Sometimes this is a little more grey than I would like to admit. There are the "rules" as far as what underwriters will say along with what the insurance company manuals state and then of course there is what is enforceable in the real world. I won't get into details here, OP has my offer of assistance. Certainly not something I'm going to put in writing on the interwebz...lol.