When you customize your car insurance, you can support risk management and lower monthly premiums. An excluded driver is one such option for customization.
This guide to driver exclusions discusses how they affect your auto insurance policy, why they exist, the purpose of driver exclusion forms, and the risks of allowing an excluded driver to drive your vehicles.
What Is an Excluded Driver, and Why Do Insurers Exclude Certain Drivers?
What does “excluded driver” mean? An excluded driver is someone you have removed from your car insurance policy because they are a high-risk driver or have their own auto insurance policy. With an excluded driver, you can customize your car insurance policy while focusing on risk management.
High-risk car insurance can be expensive. To reduce costs, you can remove an individual with a poor driving record, explicitly naming them as an excluded driver. You can exclude a partner or spouse, as well as a child.
An excluded driver is different than a household member whom you simply removed from your policy. In these cases, the latter may be covered under “permissive use” if you have allowed them to operate the vehicle, and they’ll be covered in your policy if an accident occurs. Excluded drivers are explicitly named in your auto insurance policy, and they are not covered under any circumstances.
An excluded driver who uses your car and gets in an accident will have no insurance coverage, and you’ll bear full financial responsibility. Whether you want to save on your auto insurance policy to prevent a risky driver from getting behind the wheel, the excluded driver option can support your goals.
What Happens If an Excluded Driver Operates the Vehicle?
There can be serious financial and legal consequences, including claim denial, out-of-pocket costs required to pay for expensive repairs, and potential policy cancelation when an excluded driver gets into an accident while operating one of your vehicles. While you can typically find a new insurance policy following a cancelation, it will likely be more challenging to get and more costly.
Is an Excluded Driver Ever Covered in an Emergency?
Very few policies make exceptions for excluded drivers, even in the case of an emergency. However, it’s worth checking with your insurer to confirm.
How Exclusions Impact Your Insurance Premium
Whether you have comprehensive insurance, collision coverage, or personal injury protection, your insurance premiums will likely rise if an excluded driver is caught driving your car.
However, excluding a high-risk driver from your auto insurance policy may reduce your overall insurance premiums. When perceived risk drops, prices can follow. Your insurance company makes risk-based decisions that incorporate your driving record, years of driving experience, the vehicles you drive, and the area in which you live to determine policy pricing, and excluding a high-risk driver can potentially save you a significant amount of money.
What To Do If You Need To Remove or Reinstate an Excluded Driver
Follow these steps to name a person as an excluded driver on your car insurance policy:
- Contact your insurance company: Reach out to your auto insurer and provide the necessary information on the driver you wish to exclude.
- Submit a request: You may have to complete a form to request the removal.
- Review your updated policy: Make sure all of the updates are accurate once the policy has been revised.
Your insurance company may have certain requirements to reinstate an excluded driver. You may need to provide specific documents, such as completion of a safe driving course. You can ask for new pricing based on the driver’s improved road record or if you have a new household dynamic, such as a new teenage driver or an adult child who has moved back home.
Can You Drive Someone Else’s Car If You’re an Excluded Driver?
You may be able to drive someone else’s car if you are an excluded driver. While you may be excluded from your parents’ policy, for example, if a friend gives you permission to drive their car, that is OK.
You can also look into non-owner car insurance, a policy that covers you without owning a car, as an option for driving other people’s cars.
Compare Policies To Find the Right Coverage for Your Household
EverQuote allows you to compare auto insurance quotes side by side, so that you can search for the features that matter most. Insurance rates change as often as daily, so it pays to search early and often when seeking affordable car insurance that covers all of your needs and wants.
Check out EverQuote today to find the best car insurance for your current and future driving needs.