How much does it cost to add a secondary driver?
Adding a secondary driver to your auto insurance policy can be a great decision. By bringing someone else on board, you have more flexibility in terms of coordination and organization. Otherwise, it always falls on the shoulders of a single person to be the designated driver—no matter how tired, intoxicated, or unwilling he or she is.
But secondary drivers don't get added for free. And under certain circumstances, they could end up being quite costly.
Using SmartCoverage's auto insurance quoting tool, we've run some tests to demonstrate exactly how much it costs to add a secondary driver to a policy under a variety of different scenarios. To start, we'll establish a profile for the vehicle and primary/principal driver under the policy.
The vehicle
Year: 2011
Make: GMC
Model: Terrain SLT 4DR AWD
Lease/owned: Owned
Purchase date: November 2011
Winter tires: Yes
Overnight storage: Private driveway
Primary vehicle use: Personal
Daily commute: 0 km
Total annual km: 3,000 km
Comprehensive coverage: Yes
Collision coverage: Yes
Principal driver
City: Toronto
Date of birth: January 2, 1964
Gender: Male
Marital status: Married
Occupational status: Employed
Current license type: G
Age first licensed: 16
G license date: October 1981
Listed on separate policy: Yes
Time with current insurer: 15 years
Year first listed on a policy: 1980
Desired start date: September 2017
Insurance cancellations in past 3 years: None
License suspensions in past 3 years: None
At fault accidents in past 10 years: None
Traffic tickets in past 3 years (non-parking): None
Featured quote: $99.17 per month/$1,190 per year
Now, let's try adding in a secondary driver. In this hypothetical case, that driver will be the wife of the primary driver. Like her husband, she won't have any major red flags on her driving record.
Secondary driver #1
City: Toronto
Date of birth: February 2, 1964
Gender: Female
Marital status: Married
Occupational status: Employed
Relationship to applicant: Spouse
Current license type: G
Age first licensed: 16
G license date: December 1981
Listed on separate policy: Yes
Time with current insurer: 15 years
Year first listed on a policy: 1980
Desired start date: September 2017
Insurance cancellations in past 3 years: None
License suspensions in past 3 years: None
At fault accidents in past 10 years: None
Traffic tickets in past 3 years (non-parking): None
Featured Quote: $128.42 per month/$1,541 per year
What if this hypothetical couple has a 17-year-old daughter who still only has her G2 license? Let's see how that would affect the premium.
Secondary driver #2
City: Toronto
Date of birth: July 2, 2000
Gender: Female
Marital status: Single
Occupational status: Student
Relationship to applicant: Child
Current license type: G2
Age first licensed: 16
G2 license date: May 2017
Listed on separate policy: Yes
Time with current insurer: 1 year
Year first listed on a policy: 2016
Desired start date: September 2017
Insurance cancellations in past 3 years: None
License suspensions in past 3 years: None
At fault accidents in past 10 years: None
Traffic tickets in past 3 years (non-parking): None
Featured Quote:$177.67 per month/$2,132 per year
As you can see, the jump from adding the second secondary driver was higher than the one that occurred after just adding the first.
But what if that second secondary driver was male? When we adjust the simulation to make that 17-year-old male instead of female, the quote from that same company actually jumps all the way to $203.42 per month/$2,441 per year.
Conclusion
There you have it. Those are quotes for a fairly common three-person family situation.
But that is just one situation out of what is really an infinite amount. If you want to customize the quotes to better match your own situation, give SmartCoverage's quoting tool a try!