Moving in with your significant other may mean that you have learned to overlook their faults. However, if your other half is a bad driver, your insurance provider may not feel the same way. Your partner's bad habits may impact your premiums. Fortunately, there are ways to keep your rate low.
1. Multi-vehicle Discount
Insurance providers typically offer multi-vehicle discounts to households with more than one vehicle on a policy. This may offer families lower overall premiums. However, if a driver on your policy has an at-fault accident, licence suspension, convictions, or a combination of violations, you may see a dramatic increase in your insurance rate. Your insurance company may decide to not offer the driver with accidents and/or tickets coverage.
Compare auto insurance quotes as a couple and separately to see if a multi-vehicle discount can save you money. Even if you maintain separate policies, your rate may go up because you have a driver with bad history living under your roof. Although your premiums may increase, you may still end up saving overall with a multi-vehicle discount.
2. Multi-line Discount
If you decide to keep your auto insurance policies separate, then consider saving elsewhere.
Combining home and auto insurance under one provider may offer additional savings. Insurance companies may extend a discount between 10 and 15 percent per policy included in the bundle. This means, a multi-line discount can be even more beneficial for households with further policies such as life insurance, motorcycle insurance, or ATV insurance.
3. Accident Forgiveness
No one wants to admit that they're a bad driver, so you may want to tread lightly when suggesting this next option. If you think it is likely your spouse may have an at-fault accident, you may want to consider adding accident forgiveness coverage to your policy before an event occurs. This insurance add-on forgives a driver's first at-fault accident and may prevent increasing rates.
However, this feature doesn't mean the accident is magically waived from a driver's record. An accident will remain on a driver's history for six years.
If a driver were to consider switching companies, this accident would be visible to the new insurance provider and may affect rates.
4. Primary Driver
Some vehicles are worth more than others, which means in the event of an accident some claims will be higher. If you have two vehicles, suggest driving the one that would have a higher replacement value. This would leave the lower value vehicle in the hands of your spouse. Most importantly, make sure both vehicles have the proper coverage.
Collision and comprehensive coverage can help cover the costs of damage to your vehicle.
Collision typically covers:
- car accident between you and another vehicle
- An accident between your car and an object
- A single car accident such as a rollover
Comprehensive coverage generally covers:
- Fire damage
- Vandalism
- Theft of your vehicle
- Some weather-related damage
- Accidents involving animals
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You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but you can try! While minor tickets appear on your record for three years and accidents for six, there is plenty of time to earn a clean slate and potential savings.
It may take time before you can completely reevaluate your insurance situation; however, that shouldn't stop you from comparing rates regularly. There are vast price differences between companies and how they view driving profiles. By shopping around, you can find the best rate for your profile.
At Kanetix.ca, you can compare car insurance rates from Canada's leading insurance providers with just a few clicks.
