How Adding Drivers Can Change Your Car Insurance Rates
In the quest to find cheap car insurance, many drivers try to combine their policies with other drivers. Naturally, insurance companies don't allow just anyone to do this - drivers who are added to existing policies need to be related to or married to the policy holder, or, depending on the insurance provider, simply living in the same house. It's easy to see why online car insurance quotes are cheaper for drivers with combined policies; the insurance companies are making more money, so they pass along some savings to the consumer. However, there are a few things to think about before combining your policy with another driver's policy.
First of all, realize that adding another driver to your policy is a risk. If the other driver is involved in an accident or if he receives a traffic ticket, the cost of the overall policy will increase. Likewise, if the new driver has a bad car insurance record or owns an expensive and unsafe vehicle, the cost of the combined insurance policy is likely to be quite high. Adding a driver to a policy may stop an insurance policy holder from qualifying for various discount programs, too, so it's a good idea to research online car insurance quotes before adding a driver or changing a car insurance policy in any other way.
Because of these factors, one problem that you might run into when adding new drivers to your car insurance policy is deciding how much each person pays. The driver with the higher rates might want to split the cost of the new combined policy, but that's obviously not fair–the safer driver should benefit from his or her relatively low risk factors. A better idea is to split the savings that you get from combining your policies. For instance, if Driver A has a car insurance premium of $100 per month and driver B has a car insurance premium of $150 per month and their combined policy costs $200 per month, Driver A should pay $75 for the new policy and driver B should pay $125 per month. This effectively splits the savings of the new policy in a fair way that should be acceptable to both drivers.
After you've decided how to pay for your combined policy and you've taken the time to assess how the new policy will affect your online car insurance quotes, you can rest assured that you're getting the best cheap car insurance policy possible. Combined policies are a great way to get lower rates, and they're a fantastic option for multiple drivers living in the same household.
