One of the most important and frequest  auto insurance questions that we receive in our office is about “Who can drive my car?”

First and foremost all licensed drivers living in your household must be either listed or excluded on the policy. Insurance companies don’t like surprises when someone’s 18 year old son gets into an accident and is not listed on the policy. This is the quickest way to get a claim denied.

If your cousin or uncle is visiting and is going to use your car then they are a permissive user and don’t have to be added to the policy,(I would make sure they have a license not a menace on the road).

Also if you rent a car your coverage transfers to that vehicle, BUT it will not cover the loss of use for the rental car company if the car is in an accident. This is the extra coverage that they want to sell you. It’s usually pretty inexpensive and sometimes it is covered on your credit card.

If you purchase or replace a car on the weekend you are automatically covered for 30 days (although the leasing or finance company will be looking for coverage ASAP). So call your agent as soon as you can to give them the required information to add the vehicle.

Insurance companies have a something called CLUE (Claims Loss Underwriting Underwriting Evaluation). This is a system that allows all insurance companies to share losses on insureds. It’s not always %100 accurate but it makes hiding accidents,tickets and household members really hard.

At Reitano Insurance we try and run a firm quote so that there are no surprises when the policy gets issued. That’s why we ask for as much information up front,i.e..License Numbers , Social Security Numbers, prior policy numbers. This allows the insured to refresh his memory about some prior losses or alert them to any errors on their record.

When you get a quote form any agency you should try and get an “apples to apples” quote. This is only fair to your self and the agency.