You might be wondering if your auto insurance covers you if you borrow your friend’s car, or maybe want to know what happens if your friend borrows your car and wrecks it. Who’s covered? Whose insurance pays? Help me out here!

• First off, with Farmers Insurance and in “general”, auto insurance follows the car, THEN the driver.*
• Second, permission is critical.*

As long as you give permission to your friend to drive your car, she would be covered on your policy. When your policy maxes out and pays for damages she inflicted on another vehicle, and/or all the passengers involved, then your friend’s auto insurance would kick in for the difference – depending on her insurance policy’s coverages and how her insurance company deals with that scenario. Now let’s say, your son gives permission to his best friend to drive your car, your auto policy would not be responsible to pay out.

Likewise, when you drive your friend’s car, its important that you have permission, and it’s also nice to know if she has adequate coverage otherwise your policy may be paying the bulk of the damages if she had very low liability, or if her policy excludes other drivers altogether. A few policies out there only cover the driver named and not the vehicle named.

*Be sure to check your state’s laws, along with your own policy, concerning this matter as all state’s and insurance companies have some differences in how they handle a claim with a driver of a non-owned vehicle.

So what’s the moral of the story here? Get to know your coverages! Call your Agent now and make sure you are adequately covered. And before driving someone else’s car, make sure they know theirs!