Car Insurance in California - Liability for Additional Drivers

Car Insurance in California - Liability for Additional Drivers
by Stacy Fox

In California, you must have liability insurance for all of the drivers in the household. If you don't and someone gets in an accident, the insurance company will turn down their claim.

California requires that every driver have a minimum level of insurance. The requirements are called 15/30/5. That means that the insurance company will pay $15,000 if there is one injury, $30,000 if there are 2 or more and $5,000 in property damage including damage to the other vehicle. Note that liability only insurance covers damage done to someone else and does not replace your own car.

Additionally, you should know that if you do not have liability insurance, the California Department of Motor Vehicles will suspend your license for a year. You will also be personally liable for any injury or damage done to the other car if you get in an accident.

Sometimes people in the household have their own car and insurance. In this case, you don't have to put them on yours. But, if they get into an accident using your car, their insurance policy will be the one covering the damage, not yours.

You should know that additional driver insurance protects someone only when they are driving your cars. They don't have insurance to cover them in 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.

You should make sure that every driver in your household has insurance whether it is their own policy your yours. If not, lending your car to them for a quick errand could turn out to be quite expensive.

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