Ohio Auto Insurance: Who Needs to Be Listed on my Policy
I had a discussion with someone on Facebook a couple of weeks ago about spouses being listed or not being listed on their auto insurance policy and how it was required with Progressive: Just got off the phone with Progressive – in Ohio, any spouse or relative, over the age of 15 1/2, residing in your home should be listed on your insurance policy in order for it to be covered should any of these people drive your vehicle. However, you may list and exclude them. Excluding them means that if for any reason whatsoever, they drive the vehicles on that policy and crash them, they will not be covered. It also means their motor vehicle records will not be used to rate your policy.
If any of these people decide they want their own insurance policies, they must sign an agreement saying the other person will not be driving any vehicles on the other person’s policy or they should be listed and excluded on the other persons auto policy. If there is a claim and an unlisted relative or spouse that lives in the household is the one driving a vehicle on a policy they are not listed on, there may not be any coverage in the case of a claim.
There are exceptions for legally separated spouses, spouses living out of the country, and military personnel who are stationed or on duty out of the country.
And, if you’re married and living in separate households, then it’s OK and actually necessary to have separate policies because your vehicles are garaged at different.
I believe this is important to know considering that nearly 50% of the people I meet have no car insurance at all or have been riding around hitting people with no insurance at all for years. Also, accidents happen everyday. If someone who lives in your home (household) borrows you car for five minutes and runs to the store and hits someone or gets hit by someone else, I’m sure you don’t want to lose use of your vehicle.
When I lived in Miami, my ex and I purchased a brand new Nissan Altima of that year. We tried to save money by putting our insurance in his name only. We weren’t married but lived together. Less than a month after we got the car, I was hit in a Burger King parking lot. it was called a no-fault area because it was a private parking lot.
The car was totaled and my drivers license showed that we both lived at the same house. There was absolutely zero coverage, so guess what? I got to continue to make monthly payments on a vehicle that went to the junkyard just because I was trying to save a couple of dollars. It definitely was not worth it!