Question
Can I drive my mom's car to Canada?
I am 20 years old. I have car insurance for myself on my car, and my mother has a car, with her own car insurance that I am not on, given that I live an hour north of her. However, my insurance knows my address to be the same as hers (I'm in college, I use her address as my permanent address). I am planning a trip for a weekend to Canada, with four other friends, ranging from 20-25. I just wanted to make sure that I can take my mom's car without doing anything beyond getting a letter of permission from my mother. I want to know if say I get into an accident while in Canada, (or I suppose in the US), if the insurance will cover everything, and I won't get in trouble. This also goes for if any of my friends choose to drive.
Answer
There's a lot of things to unpack here. There's the general concerns:
- Are you covered to drive your mom's car?
- In this case, you might not be. Because you're not listed as a driver on her policy but use her address as your primary residence and they know about it, they might list you as an excluded driver on the policy. This means her policy would not cover any claim in which you were the driver.
- Does your policy cover Canada?
- While some insurance companies do provide coverage into Canada, it's not set in stone. You should check with your personal policy to double check. By your policy, we mean the one for your vehicle