Car Insurance in California - Liability for Additional Drivers
In the state of California, you must have auto liability insurance. That applies to every driver in your household. If someone who lives in your house drives your car and gets into an accident, the insurance company will not pay the claim unless they have insurance.
California requires that every driver have liability insurance. The minimum level of coverage to be legal is $15,000 for medical expenses for one occupant and $30,000 for 2 or more occupants of the other vehicle, and $5000 for property damage including car repair. Note that these figures pertain only to the other car. If you want to protect your own assets, you will need additional coverage.
If you don’t carry liability insurance, the California Department of Motor Vehicles will suspend your license for up to a year. If you don’t pay the damages you are liable for, they can suspend the license until you do. If you do not have liability insurance, you are personally responsible for all damage done.
If someone in your household has their own car and car insurance, you don’t have to put them on your insurance if they drive your car occasionally. But if they cause an accident in your car, their own insurance will have to pay the damages.
Additional driver insurance covers only your car or cars. The covered person has no protection when they drive other people’s cars.
When you add an additional person to your coverage, it will increase the cost of your policy. The amount of the increase will depend on how old the driver is, their driving record, and sometimes even their credit score.
Parents are often shocked to find out how much their premiums skyrocket when they add a new teenaged driver to their insurance. Their student’s good grades can help with the price though. If the additional driver has one or more accidents or traffic tickets, the rates are higher as well. The reason insurance companies are looking at credit scores more and more has to do with actuarial tables that show that bad credit equals bad driving.
If you live in a house with other drivers, make sure they are covered by your insurance or their own. If not, lending your car to them for a grocery run could turn out to be an expensive proposition.
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