Consider a situation where your friend flew in from out of town to visit you. You let them borrow your car for a trip during their stay to the grocery store or some other place. But does insurance cover someone else borrowing your car or not?
Most of the time, you can allow someone to drive your car and have the coverage, although you need to check your vehicle insurance policy. Your friend gets to drive your car only if you permit them, or you can allow them to drive occasionally as it will not be much of an issue.
Accidents are inevitable and can happen at any time. Even minor accidents can leave you and your friends with questions about whose car insurance will cover the damages. Let us check out what happens when you allow your friend or family member to borrow your vehicle.
You will be happy to know that you can now take advantage of Cheap Liability Car Insurance in Chicago from a few reputed insurance companies.
Who Is and Isn’t Covered While Borrowing a Car?
The vehicle is covered by car insurance, but the driver is not. While allowing your friend or a family member to borrow your vehicle, the insurance is considered the primary coverage. Although when the person is borrowing your car has good coverage available, your insurance will cover your car. The insurance of the borrower can eventually offer backup coverage under certain conditions.
The vehicle insurance is unlikely to offer coverage to the driver using your car without permission or is excluded from your policy. If your friend takes your car and you did not permit it, your insurance might not cover them.
The car and the driver are not covered if the driver is excluded from the policy. The excluded driver is usually the family member or household member you have specifically agreed not included under your policy terms. Often, the excluded drivers are the high-risk-takers who are not covered by making the insurance rates more affordable.
Some insurance companies may increase premiums when you have a high-risk driver such as the one facing several accidents on their record. Although you are giving an excluded driver person to drive your car, the policy is unlikely to cover them since they are left out of your insurance coverage.
What Happens During an Accident with Someone Else Driving Your Car?
You may permit your friend to borrow your car; however, they are not excluded as drivers on the policy. So what if your friend gets involved in an accident with your car? The other driver hits the side of your car, causing damage while your friend is not at fault. In these circumstances, the at-fault driver’s insurance is responsible for covering damages to the car and injuries to your friend.
During an accident where your friend is at fault, your insurance will likely cover the damages to the other driver’s car. The liability coverage is probably paying for the damages and injuries to the other driver. The damage to your car is not covered unless you have collision coverage.
You have to pay your deductible for repairing the damages using collision coverage, although you were not driving at the time of an accident.
You may find out that the limitations of your insurance coverage are not high enough to cover the damages imposed on the medical bills or the driver’s car. The insurance of your friend’s car covers the remaining cost.
Several insurance policies have to cover the remaining liability costs associated with accidents if your insurance limits are not high enough.
It is essential to remember that every policy is different, and you may have to face varied guidelines for situations where the car is borrowed during an accident. To attain certainty, check out the policies for you and your friend.
What happens when the driver violates the traffic rules?
A friend who is borrowing your car and eventually ends up in an accident will be given a ticket for the traffic violation. The speeding tickets and other violations often make the driver take higher risks, leading to an increase in insurance premiums.
At-fault accidents and violations of traffic usually follow the driver. It means that your friend is borrowing your car and getting a speeding ticket which is unlikely that the cheap liability car insurance rates can increase due to the ticket they received.
Adding a Driver to Your Policy
The essential factor to take into consideration when allowing a friend to borrow a car and how often they are borrowing the car. The friend visiting you twice a year does not have to be added to your policy.
But, if you have hired babysitters who take your kids to soccer practice each week, you should inform your insurance company to ensure you and your babysitter have adequate protection.
Final Words: Does Insurance Cover Someone Else Borrowing Your Car?
It really depends on the policy you hold to determine whether or not your car insurance covers somebody else driving your car. While it may not be necessary to add a friend or family member to your policy should they only need to borrow your car one time or so, that may not be the case if they use the car freuently.
If you are still in doubt on whether to add someone who may be borrowing your car to your policy, we recommend reaching out to a qualified insurance broker for more specific answers.
Tags:
