Yet Another Insurance Question - Registration

Nothing to do with leasing but since but I have a question for the experts in the community. My son is planning on getting his driver’s license and I don’t want to include him in our policy for obvious reasons. I’ll get him a beater for his first car and have a separate liability only policy for him. Question is, can the beater be registered to me or do I need to transfer registration?

TIA

I can almost 100% guarantee that if he lives with you and will be driving any car at all, that your insurance company is going to make you add him to your policy.

This seems like a loophole they’ve thought of.

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I thought I saw “Exclusion” language in the policy, but he’s away in college so perhaps I can register the car with the address he’s at. I’m in CA, BTW.

I had no issues getting insurance on my own for a vehicle that was registered to my parents. We left the registration tied to my parent’s home address because I was moving pretty much every year during my college days.

However this was almost 18 years ago at this point so things might have changed? But I remember it being pretty painless.

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Maybe it is state by state. When I was 16 my dad’s insurance all but forced him to add me if I was going to be driving at all.

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He should be able to get a separate policy for the son. He should make sure the underwriter adds him as the owner on record though since it’s the father’s car and not the kid’s (assuming he’s not over 18 and the dad registers it to himself).

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When I started driving I had liability only as well in CA. It did not matter who the car was registered to as they were not insuring the car, just the driver for liability. I could not drive my parents other cars that were under their policy however as their insurance had specifically excluded me.

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Thanks for all the replies, so I contacted my insurance and this is their answer.

Based on the information provided, if you are the registered owner the vehicle could be insured on a policy in your son’s name as long as the vehicle is in your son’s possession; however, you would also need to be listed on the policy due to your ownership of the vehicle. Rest assured, since you have your own insurance you would not impact his policy premium.

If you son resides in your household and is a regular operator of your vehicles he would need to be added to your policy.

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This is a state by state situation. What you are trying to do can usually work. However you insurance company will probably make you exclude your son on your policy. So he can NEVER drive your vehicles. If he did they would not cover any type of claim he caused. However it is usually so expensive to insure a young child on their own policy that any savings would be mitigated. So it is usually just easier/cheaper/better to insure them on your policy and do things the correct way anyway.

Check with State Farm on rates for the younger driver. They (at least where I live) can add the teen to just one vehicle and give ability for them to drive all cars. That way you are only getting the hit on one vehicle and the others are staying the same. Geico also had decent rates on teen drivers in my area (I am an insurance broker buy do not rep either of these companies, just what I have seen in real life situations).

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He will not be driving any other car, and he will have only liability. I will get quotes for both situations but I cannot see how adding him to our current full coverage policy will be cheaper. I’m in SoCal BTW.

Your son can not get a policy on his own if you are purchasing the vehicle for him and have your name on the title - as you already know now your son has no insurable interest on the vehicle, since he does not own it. There really is only two options in this case which I think you have covered already.

Option 1) List him on your policy, add the vehicle on your policy

Option 2) List him on your policy, and exclude him (some companies do not allow you to exclude drivers, if your company operates that way then you will need to find another carrier) - then get another policy under your name with him added as a driver with the new vehicle.

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The more important question for you might be whether you remain secondarily liable for any damage your son causes. He be able to get a minimum liability insurance plan that covers him for relatively cheap, especially with the ridiculously low minimum coverage California requires. But if you are liable for any deficiency judgement since it’s your car that isn’t a good idea. Especially because your car insurance won’t cover that deficiency judgement.

If you go this cheap secondary insurance route I’d recommend spending a few hundred bucks on a lawyer to make sure you don’t have huge potential liability if you son, say, totals a new luxury SUV.

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Worst case scenario, I’ll have to disown him.

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I was more thinking just give him the car and have him register at his college address.

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DAD IS THAT YOU? (Just kidding)

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