Auto Insurance for Non-Driver?

Parent Cafe
21

<p>I agree with those who think you are fighting an odd battle.</p>

<ol>
<li>You don’t want to sign a form excluding your son as a “driver” from use of your car - because as a 17 year-old with neither permit nor license, you want him to be called a “non-driver.” And then you would sign a form excluding this “non-driver” from use of your car. </li>
<li>The insurance company’s representative on the phone was not properly respectful. </li>
</ol>

<p>I have no idea of what the point of your concern #1 is. I completely agree with your dissatisfaction re #2 (assuming that you were always cordial and respectful on your side of the phone call).</p>

<p>So… change companies if you are unhappy with this one’s customer service style. Get over it on the first non-issue. My tough love perspective of the day :).</p>

22

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<p>I know! I am too!! I went into our insurance agent’s office and asked them about it when each of the kids got her learner’s permit and license and I got the same answer every time. If either of them were involved in an accident, then they would require us to put the kid on the policy (or exclude them, I suppose).</p>

<p>I went in to have them put on the policies for the time they were home with the idea of taking them off the policy when they left again for college in a month. </p>

<p>The whole idea of an insurance company who DIDN’T want to take my money was a revelation! I’ve gotten the same answer from more than one person.</p>

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<p>Seriously, when is your kid old enough that you don’t have to go through this? 25? 30? Once a kid, always a kid?</p>

23

<p>When I looked into dropping my Peace Corps daughter, the rate actually went up a bit. She is the oldest child and dropping her somehow bumped the other two up. Several phone calls got the same answer, so we just left her on the policy. She wasn’t rated on a car anyway since she had been away at school, as was #2. </p>

<p>It was the same way when DH was deployed. If I took him off, it bumped a teen driver up and the rates would raise.</p>

24

<p>Cap, in our case DD is the youngest driver (at almost 23)…she was listed as the primary driver on a van. There isn’t anyone TO bump up to cover her spot…unless they decide our CAT should be on the policy. Gee…we do let the cat ride in the car once a year to go to the vet…</p>

25

<p>When our daughters got their learner’s permits at age 15, I called our insurance agent’s office (State Farm) to let them know. They said since it was just a permit, there was nothing to change at that point, but as soon as they got their permanent license, we needed to let them know. With both girls, as soon as we left the DMV after they got their permanent licenses, our first stop was our State Farm office to let them know they were now officially drivers. That’s when they got added to our policies and our premiums increased. </p>

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<p>Not so fast… if he uses a major credit card to rent a vehicle, the credit card company will most likely provide coverage (check the benefits part of your credit card agreement). We just looked into this a couple of weeks ago for D1 who, at age 24, lives in Boston and does not have a car. She no longer is on any of our policies and no signed waivers were needed.</p>

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<p>How did you get her off of your policy???</p>

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<p>Could being 24 years old have something to do with it, Thumper1? Is your D 24 or older?</p>

28

<p>When she moved to Boston, I called our State Farm office and told them she was moving permanently and that she would not be having a car there. Also, at the same time this happened, H sold his truck and started driving her car. So we had three cars and three drivers (D2 has a car at school). If we’d continued to keep the fourth car (H had not sold his truck), I don’t know how they would have handled it. </p>

<p>I think this becomes more of an issue if you have more cars in the family than you do licensed drivers (and the extra cars are considered in use fairly often).</p>

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<p>But ellemenope - she was 22 when she moved to Boston.</p>

30

<p>Hmmm…well, scratch that theory…</p>

31

<p>Lots of folks in my area have more cars than drivers. I live in rural CT. MANY folks have a pickup truck or old van (like we have) to haul stuff to the dump or the like. These cars are listed as such on our insurance. Not used for commuting. My 23 year old, out of the country kid does NOT need the liability coverage and THAT is what costs us money. We know we still need to insure the car. That is required in our state.</p>

<p>What does age have to do with it? If my daughter were 18 and married, would they make me continue to carry her on my policy??</p>

32

<p>Thumper, could it be because she lists your address as her permanent address, even though she’s out of the country? My D moved to NYC, a bus ride away, and then to the town next door to us, and there was no question of her being still on the policy. I just informed them she’d moved, and that was that.</p>

33

<p>Interesting. I’ve been with 21st Century for 21 years. When S, now 22, got his permit at 15 1/2, the policy was that it was not necessary to have the child on the policy until he got his license. So a few years later, when my D was nearing 16, I got one of those notices as you describe. I called 21st and explained that D just had her permit, not her license, so she didn’t need insurance yet. 21st replied that, no, we would need to pay the insurance or exempt the child. I asked her to check with a supervisor, because that had not been the case with our son a few years before. So she checked, and came back to say they had changed their policy, and now existing customers would have to pay insurance for the teen driver with a permit, but they were changing the policy back to the old policy for new customers only. (!?!) So my response was: “I see, so you are telling me that it would be best for me to become a new customer…with a different company…no problem, I can do that.” She told me to hold while she talked to her supervisor again, and lo and behold, she came back to the phone and told me that yes, they would make an exception for me, that D would be covered for free until she got her license. Which is exactly what happened.</p>

<p>Fast forward to now: D is away at school w/o car, we exempt her, and 21st issues a waiver, meaning they will cover her for free for 30 days when she’s home, up to 4 times a year. Last summer she was only home for 6 weeks, so we drove her around for two weeks before asking for the 30-day waiver. This summer we’ll end up adding her to insurance, but we’ll exempt her again in the fall.</p>

<p>S now lives with his girlfriend, not with us, but we still have him on our insurance, since that saves him $. The gf does not have a license, but does have a permit. 21st asked for the permit # of the gf, they have her listed on the policy, but not rated, and they do not charge for her. When she gets the license, then she will have to be rated.</p>

<p>So, what I’d do would be to get some quotes from other insurance agencies, and if they beat 21st then go with them. But first I’d call 21st and tell them that you will change to X company unless 21st matches the deal, including the policy re not insuring the non driver. But really, if your kid isn’t driving anywhere , then it’s no big deal to sign the requested paper. It simply asks that you acknowledge that your teen isn’t covered.</p>

34

<p>Regardless of the form - it sounds as if it’s time for a new insurance company given the way you were treated. </p>

<p>Contact a few of the well known companies, ask for quotes, and ask whether they have any requirements for a ‘non-driver’ son. If you find one you like you s/b able to get the insurance coverage right away and cancel your existing policy (and they’ll need to refund the unused 4 months).</p>

<p>I have State Farm and they’ve always been respectful when I’ve talked ot them. Even though I’ve used them for a very long time, if they ever treated me rudely, I’d drop them in a second. I pay them a lot of money and consider myself a ‘customer’ and expect to be treated like one.</p>

35

<p>I just thing the whole thing sounds bizarre. We covered our kids until they were 18, then they bought their own insurance and it had nothing to do with us. There have been times where they were home for a bit, while still students and we put them back on our policy during that time, then when they go again we take them off. To insure someone who doesn’t even drive/have license is just crazy. And I would not tolerate the rudeness, you are their customer and they should show appreciation for your business. I def would look for a new company, I am sure there are many who would love to have your business.</p>

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<p>Sopranomom92–son’s gf is listed on YOUR insurance?</p>

37

<p>Truly bizarre, especially since, so far as I know, my auto insurer had no way of knowing whether we had kids at all, much less how old they were. But I agree that in the scheme of things, this is a silly battle to fight. These days I run into poor customer service of one kind or another on almost a daily basis, and if I got my panties in a twist over every little occurrence, I’d have no time to actually live my life.</p>

38

<p>Thank You so much for your input! It is much appreciated.</p>

<p>We are in the process of getting new quotes for insurance and we will be changing. I agree that a company should earn your business and definitely feel as if they begged us to leave, so we’ll comply. I’ve spoken to a few more friends in similar circumstances and we are the only ones that have had this situation arise. All my friends didn’t have to put a son/daughter on their policy until they actually had a license. It seems 21st Century is in a minority about issuing this kind of ultimatum. I’m glad that the other person with 21st Century was able to use her previous experience to her satisfaction - you go girl! I can’t even conceive of going back to them now - there are other insurance companies!</p>

<p>I believe in free enterprise and they have every right to conduct themselves in whatever manner they choose (outside of being illegal) in business, just as I have every right to change companies I use. My phone call to the CA Insurance Commissioner’s office, (asking for the correct form - see my first post) convinced me that what they were doing was not illegal, so I never thought of reporting them to any authorities.</p>

<p>I always thought unlicensed drivers were automatically exempt from insurance coverage - some exclusion they include when you get coverage, you know, you can’t give permission to an unlicensed person to drive your car - and always thought any child of mine without a license/permit would fall under that ordinary exclusion. I wonder what situation arose to alter that provision?</p>

<p>I’m glad others have been able to post and get input on some of their strange insurance issues too, I’ve learned so much from you all.</p>

<p>Thumper, I feel for you, I wish I could help you out. It’s hard to imagine that you can’t drop a grown child from your policy just because you want to, it’s your policy and you pay for it. I pray this is the last of my insurance issues. Before this we had exemplary service from 21st Century, which is why this treatment caught me so off guard, I expected to make a phone call and everything to be handled easily and quickly (silly me). I’ve heard that the true test of a company is how they handle the non-routine stuff…I guess that is true.</p>

<p>Again, thanks so much for all of your time :).</p>

39

<p>I can confirm that some insurance companies have at least partial charges for “permit holders”. We had Traveler’s in 2007 when my son got his permit at 15. It was only a couple hundred extra - the full charge came when he got his license at 16. We now have Chubb. When my daughter turned 15 last year, there was no charge for her when she got her permit, only once she was licensed. This will vary by company and maybe by state regulation.</p>

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<p>I’m not sure what Atomicgirl means by this:
“All my friends didn’t have to put a son/daughter on their policy until they actually had a license.”(post38)
As I understood her, she didn’t have to put child on her policy, either.
She chose to have child put on policy when she chose not to exclude him, when the choice was offered to her.
Picking A or B(for example) is making a choice, but not picking at all is also making a choice.</p>