Should Married Couples Have Joint Car Insurance?

If you're newly married or in a committed relationship to someone who already has a policy, you might wonder whether you should combine auto insurance. In a lot of cases, we'd recommend combining your policies for joint coverage. Combining policies can make sense to potentially get better rates, share vehicles more easily, and budget for coverage as a couple. You might receive a discount on joint policies, and it can simplify repayment if you share most of your money and split bills.

But if you and your partner have very different car insurance needs, you might want to hold off on combining your coverage. For instance, if your spouse or partner is much older than you or has a worse driving record, this may only serve to drive your costs up. And you aren't required to have joint insurance if you're in a relationship.

Your coverage options depend on the insurer and where you live. Let's look at the rules and times when married couples should have joint car insurance.

Key takeaways

• Spouses and other household members are generally included on your car's auto insurance policy when you sign up and list them. However, you aren't typically required to combine your policies if you're married or in a long-term relationship.
• Keeping separate policies as a married couple can make sense if one of you has a specialty vehicle, one of you has high-risk factors, or you're planning to separate.
• You can exclude someone from your insurance policy in most states if you decide you don't want to list your partner as a covered driver on your policy, but not all insurance companies allow this.
• If your spouse doesn't physically live with you, you may be able to drop them from your policy.

Can married couples have separate car insurance?

Couples reserve the right to have separate auto insurance policies, if they choose to. That said, insurers will often require you to list your spouse as a driver on your policy if they're part of the same household, so keeping separate car insurance policies would mean you and your partner are both covered under two. 

However, being listed on your partner's insurance, and vice versa, isn't the same as having a joint car insurance policy. Rather, joint insurance coverage is one policy with multiple cars and drivers. You and your partner would both be policyholders, and you would pay one monthly or annual premium instead of two. If you have separate policies, you will each have your own car and coverage, but your spouse will most likely need to be listed as an additional driver on your policy. That is, unless, you list them as an excluded driver. This would mean they're not allowed to drive your vehicle at all, so this isn't an option for married couples who often swap cars.

Joint car insurance offers many benefits and makes more sense than separate policies, with or without excluded drivers, in some instances. Here are the rules you need to know about having separate policies based on whether your partner lives with you.

Rules about separate policies if your spouse or partner lives with you

If your spouse lives with you — even if they're gone temporarily due to being deployed or away at college — the insurer will likely put your spouse on your car insurance policy automatically when you sign up. Insurance companies generally require anyone living in the same house, including roommates, in-laws, stepchildren, etc., to be listed on the policy. But again, this differs from a joint policy.

If you have separate auto policies and you're moving in together, that means that you'll both be covered under a combined car insurance policy from two separate companies as long as the insurers are notified. The exceptions are if you cancel one of them or ask the insurance company to list your spouse as an "excluded driver" from your own policy.

Your policy won't cover them if they're excluded, so they can't drive your car. If they do, the insurer will consider them uninsured, and if they get into an accident, you and your spouse will be on the hook to pay for everything. Your spouse may also face penalties and jail time, and your insurer may raise your own rates or drop the policy altogether.

Not all insurance companies may honor your request, so be prepared to find a new policy if that's the case. In addition, some states don't allow you to exclude drivers from your policy — notably, Kansas, Michigan, New York, Virginia, and Wisconsin. This means that you may be forced to include your spouse on your policy if they live with you.

Rules about separate policies if your spouse permanently lives away from you

We aren't always able (or willing) to live at the same address as our spouse. If your partner doesn't physically live with you, you generally won't need to disclose them to the insurer, and they won't be listed on your policy.

You may still get a lower premium just because you're married (as opposed to being single). However, your spouse's rating factors — warts and roses and all — won't impact your policy's pricing.

However, your spouse can usually still drive your car as long as they have your permission, just like anyone else. Be sure to double-check your policy's "permissive use" clause, which lays out who else it covers.

Some insurers will cover other drivers only if they'll be driving your car fewer than about a dozen times per year, in which case, adding your spouse as an authorized user can be helpful. Other insurers might insist you add your spouse to your policy whether they live with you or not.

If your spouse was living with you previously and moved away (if you're separated), it's worth calling your insurer about removing them from your policy. This ensures they're no longer listed, but they can still drive your car if needed. If you exclude them, they can't drive your vehicle.

Benefits of joint car insurance

Now you know how it works to have separate policies as a couple, we can get into joint insurance — one policy, two drivers. Here are a few advantages to combining your car insurance coverage instead of opting to keep two:

• Simplicity: Managing one policy, including handling the premium payments and renewal, is easier than when you're managing two.
• Potentially better rates: Combined policies for multiple drivers often have lower rates than two separate policies. Checking around for quotes on a joint policy will help you see the potential impact. 
• Additional discounts: You'll qualify for extra savings depending on what your insurer offers, such as multi-car discounts or policy bundle discounts.
• Easier vehicle sharing: You and your spouse are covered while driving any car listed on your joint auto policy.
• Simpler claims: Nothing legally stops either of you from being covered under multiple auto policies at once. However, you can file a claim against only one company for a specific covered event like a car accident, and it could complicate the claims process. You wouldn't have this issue with a joint policy.

When separate policies might be smarter

Going out of your way to specifically exclude your spouse from your own insurance policy (assuming it's even an option) or buying separate policies may occasionally be worth it. Here are a few times we'd recommend separate policies over joint policies and how to go about it:

• You're separating: Excluding your spouse from your car insurance means they're not allowed to drive your car – and it's one more step toward splitting up from your ex and starting anew. They might not even qualify to be on a joint policy with you after you separate.
• You have a specialty vehicle: If you have a vehicle that requires a special policy (such as a sports or classic car) and your spouse won't be driving it, it may be worth purchasing a separate policy for this car and excluding your spouse. This could help lower your car insurance bill.
• Your spouse has high-cost rating factors: If your spouse has a recent history of multiple infractions like at-fault accidents or DUIs, it can be prohibitively expensive to keep them on your own policy. However, check the pricing since multi-car discounts might still make a combined policy the more economical choice.

If you exclude your spouse from the policy because they have a bad driving history, they can still get a policy on their own. But unless they exclude you as a driver, this means their policy will cover you too as long as you live with them. (Remember, insurance companies will list everyone in the same household on the policy.)

On the one hand, your good driving record may help them earn a lower rate, but on the other, it means you're still paying for an extra policy when you already have coverage. It's worth pricing out your options, but unless your insurer offers specific coverage options or features you prefer, purchasing a single combined policy may be wiser.

How does being married affect your car insurance?

Being married can impact your car insurance rates in ways that aren't always straightforward.

• Discounts: Combining car insurance with your spouse might unlock discounts that you wouldn't qualify for on your own. For example, my husband had a steep legacy discount for having a longtime State Farm policy when we got married, and it lowered my rate too. Having two cars also allowed us to qualify for a multi-car discount.
• Marital status: Insurers use several "rating factors" when calculating the price for your policy, and marital status is one of those. All else being equal, a married person will usually pay less for car insurance than a single person because insurers deem them as less likely to get into a car accident.
• Other rating factors: Insurance companies also use several other metrics to calculate rates, including your credit score, age, gender, education level, typical driving patterns (i.e., how much, where, and when you drive), and – a biggie – driving history. If your spouse doesn't rate favorably in those factors, it can impact the cost of your joint policy.

In addition, where you live — and where your spouse lives — plays a role in your car insurance as a married person.

Car insurance companies we recommend for joint insurance

If you're shopping around for a new combined policy with your spouse, consider these three recommendations:

• Farmers Insurance: This insurer offers several discounts that are helpful for families, such as households with teens who share a car or previously covered drivers under age 29 who are moving out on their own. There's also a potential 10% discount for policy bundling.
• Liberty Mutual: If you or your spouse has children, it's worth considering Liberty Mutual since it offers a special discount when you add a new teen driver to your policy, in addition to several other discounts for young people. There are also discounts for multiple cars or policies.
• State Farm: It's the country's largest auto insurer by market share, and it consistently gets high customer satisfaction ratings by J.D. Power. It also has a long list of discounts.

Other ways to save on your car insurance costs

Whether you combine policies or not, here are some other ways to save on insurance:

• Shop around: Compare rate quotes from companies offering relevant discounts for your household, such as good student discounts or multi-car discounts.
• Build your credit: In addition to helping lower your car insurance rate, a better credit score can help if you need to borrow money in the future to buy a new car or a house, get hired for certain jobs, get funds for emergencies, and so on.
• Choose cars wisely: Get a rate quote before you buy a car, especially if you'll be buying larger vehicles as your family size grows. Cars with more safety features may cost less. Our insurer quoted us only $37 more for Ingrid, our brand-new Volkswagen ID.4, compared to Greta, our decades-old beat-up Ford pickup. That was probably because Ingrid has so many more safety features than Greta.
• Choose coverage types wisely: Switching from a full coverage to a minimum coverage policy can save you big bucks if you're not as worried about replacing your vehicle in an accident. That's what we ended up doing with Greta, our older truck, and it saved us nearly $300 per year.

FAQs

Bottom line

Since your spouse will likely need to be on your car insurance policy anyway unless you want to deny them coverage entirely, it's worth taking some time to shop around for rates before you make a decision one way or another. Just because your current policy jacks up your car insurance rate doesn't mean another company will do the same.

Most experts recommend getting rate quotes from at least three of the best car insurance companies when your policy is up for renewal. However, there's really no limit on the number of insurers you can shop around with to find the lowest price.

Also, carefully weigh the pros and cons of combining car insurance, especially in cases where your spouse is a high-risk driver, you're separating, or you have a specialty car.