March 29, 2024

Guide to Purchasing Non-Owner’s Car Insurance

Have you ever taken your friend’s car for a spin up to the local beverage store to pick up some party favors for the big game? Did it ever occur to you that wrecking that car could lead to serious financial hardship for both of you? Do you know that there is a way to purchase car insurance for just this kind of situation? Many of us assume that there is some way that we will magically be covered by our own or even our friend’s car insurance, but that is not the case!

So when will you need to ensure your buddy’s car? There are occasions when your car is just not operational, and yet you still need to get to work, and maybe go to the store, so what can you legally do? If you have a friend or family member who has a loaner vehicle, you can borrow that car and drive it legally as long as you are covered by some form of insurance plan. 

According to my insurance agent, you can only put immediate family members onto your auto insurance policy. You could rent a car and purchase their insurance, but who has that kind of money? All this can be a little difficult for an average person to understand. You can ask your insurance provider to tell you more about the insurance policy that you are opting for or if you have a baltimore car accident lawyer he/she can also describe you the different terms that are there in your insurance policy. 

Non-owner’s insurance can only be for liability; they will not offer you collision, so the rate should be fairly inexpensive. The problem with this kind of coverage is that the limits of coverage are fairly low, but this also covers uninsured drivers, (ask the insurance agent about your state’s assigned risk program) which is mandated by the state to help insurance companies by making each of us pay just a little extra in order to cover the many uninsured motorists.

Another important thing to realize is that typically this kind of insurance is more like gap insurance because it only covers the portion of liability above and beyond the owner’s insurance policy. That’s right; the owner’s insurance will be hit up first to cover the bulk of the damages if you crash their car; then your nonowners policy will kick in to cover the remainder.

Bear in mind, this means that if you do have a fender bender, then you will be either bartering some labor away by working for your buddy for free until he feels that the value of damages has been covered by your blood sweat and tears. Or you could just pay your friend a lot of money to put a new fender on his vehicle. The best way to prevent any issues with driving a friend’s car is to just purchase the nonowners car insurance.

I am certain that smart friends would not just loan anybody their finer vehicles without knowing full well that you could take care of any damages in the event there is an accident. You have got to ask yourself: is it really worth the risk?