I recently learned that you are supposed to add your spouse to your policy when you get married whether they drive your car or not.
I honestly did not know that as my wife has had a license for years (4 or 5 years) but doesn't drive. We have been married for a little over 2 years.
I also have an open at fault claim which has nothing to do with my wife as she wasn't in the car at the time.
I want to disclose this now but am a bit worried about what will happen since I didn't do it earlier. I am reading a lot about insurance after my recent accident so I'm learning the rules.
If it matters, she didn't immediately move in after marriage and still hasn't changed her address with the DMV or post office.
I have GEICO.
Edit: thank you for all the responses. I went ahead and added my wife online. My 6 month premium went up by $30 😕. Hopefully no surprise calls or inquiries about the change.
Disclosing marriage to auto insurer
byu/jdiddy_ub inInsurance
Posted by jdiddy_ub
7 Comments
She will need to be added since she is licensed. Your state/carrier *may* allow spouses to be excluded but that is rare. The worst that can happen is that they will back charge you to your last renewal date. I don’t believe they can go back any farther than that.
I would wait a little longer before adding her or making changes to your policy just to see if the claim closes to avoid that taking longer.
Luckily she wasn’t involved in the accident etc. As you stated. Otherwise I would advise reporting ASAP if she were involved in the accident in any way.
But yes, she does need to be added to your policy.
State?
Oh, honey. SSL?! Call, add her/him immediately. It’s an underwriting issue.
I wasn’t worried til you said NY but since she wasn’t involved in this loss you’ll be OK. NY is huge on getting people for premium evasion since it’s so common. The most common being unlisted operators and garaging.
Go through the claims process. You’re fine. Add her online but if it increases your premium significantly you can ask to have her as an excluded driver. You should be able to sign paperwork confirming she will never drive the car and if she does there will be no coverage for that loss. If there’s no serious premium increase then just keep her on for future protection. There’s no need for geico or any other insurance policy to retroactively charge you. Just add her online and move on.
Lots of fear mongering in this one.
It should be immediate. Just go through the online process. As long as she doesn’t drive you aren’t really committing any type of fraud. Insurance companies in general are cracking down on people in households with a valid drivers license and no other applicable insurance. Is your wife has her own vehicle and own insurance then none of this is necessary as well.
Honestly, because this is NY, my advice would be to add her on ASAP. Even though she doesn’t drive at all, PIP, UM, and SSL are things that are certainly pertinent to her.