If someone else drives my car and wrecks...?

Question

Or gets into an incident where he/she is at fault , regardless of whether or not I'm in the car.. does my insurance cover it and my premiums gets affected or does the person's insurance cover it?

I should probably add that the friend has insurance, just not likely to be carrying their own actual insurance card to present at the accident. I have full coverage, uninsured, $100k, the whole she-bang.

Answer 1

Assuming your friend has insurance, his insurance should cover it. If not, you're stuck and your premiums will be affected. Also, your insurance company probably will not be too happy that you let a friend drive your car.

Answer 2

In most cases your if you have given a friend permission to use the vehicle and you are the first named insured on the policy your insurance carrier will cover the loss. This will not effect your premiums but they do look at the number of overall claims both Liability and proerty damage. In some states your insurance company will subrogate (go after) their payout from the party that was driving the vehicle and or their insurance (which should cover it for them as a non-owned vehicle). Beware however because every state has different rules and regulations, and some policies can exclude drivers from coverage if they are not listed as operators on your policy.

Answer 3

Most of the time, your insurance policy will cover the damage your car does to someone else's property, and the injuries involved, as long as the "someone else" isn't a household member and doesn't drive your car regularly. Your deductible would apply.

Their insurance would be secondary, kicking in only after your limits were exhausted.

IN some states, the driver has to collect medical payments under their own policy first, before they can collect under the car they were driving in, so that varies by state.

Also, who's premiums get affected - likely both of yours, as you'd lose any "accident free discount", and they'd get "points" against their license; however, if you were shopping around for insurance, this WOULD be a claim against your policy and would count against you.

Answer 4

Basic answer is probably yes.

Let's say that you carry minimum liability. That means that if your car is involved in a collision, the OTHER car's damage is covered by your insurance company.

Please note that I answered "probaby yes." Most liability policies will have an "uninsured driver" policy. Yours may not.

IF the driver in your car carries his own insurance, local state law may determine the primary coverage. In California, for instance, insurance adjusters may assign percentages of responsibility. They may assign 80% responsibilty to him and his insurance covers 80% of the damages and 20% to you for loaning him the car.

Remember, claims (losses) may affect your premiums. Points, for traffic violations, while different than claims will also affect premiums.

I sure hope this was a theoretical question!

Answer 5

Insurance follows the car, not the driver. You WOULD be responsible for paying for the damages because it is your car. You insurance would be affective if there was a payout on a claim.

**mcooper does NOT know what he's taking about**

Answer 6

Probably your insurance. I had a similar scenario:

I was driving my van and a woman driving what was apparently her boyfriend's car (guessing based on the names and addresses on the police report) made an illegal left turn and cut me off so short that I wound up smacking into her. She had a different insurance company--they refused to pay it, so her boyfriend's insurance company footed the bill to repair my van.

I imagine he wasn't very happy with her....

Answer 7

Insurance covers drivers NOT cars. Your policy is to cover you. That means that often your insurance will cover damage you do to someone else's car while driving it. But it will never cover someone else driving your car. If they have no insurance, you are toast.

Answer 8

If friend is not on your insurance, you could be liable for all damage to vehicles and you could also be for any medical if necessary. You should be careful letting someone else drive your vehicle. Check with your agent to be sure.

Answer 9

insurance always follows the vehicle, in every state period.
if you gave the person permission to drive your car then your insurance pays and you could be penalized, period

Answer 10

It totally varies from state to state and company to company. Generally speaking, if that person is not exlcluded, then it would be covered.