Why do you have to add your child to your car insurance policy if they never drive your car?

If the child is a lisenced driver living in your household, the insurance company assumes that he will drive the car. It is possible to have an exclusion added to the policy (more likely to be the company's decision after the minor has had 3 or 4 claims) that states the child will not drive it. If you have this exclusion, there is NO COVERAGE IF THE KID IS DRIVING, so don't even let him back it out of the garage. In a nut shell, because they do not believe that the child won't ever drive the car, and actuarial experience bears out that they are right. Odds are that sooner or later most parents will let the child drive the car "just this one time...". As mentioned above, most states allow insurers to exclude an operator from coverage and thereby reduce the premium accordingly, but be aware that if the child is the operator in an accident of significant proportions, your financial life could be profoundly effected. In other Words, if he/she seriously injures or kills someone, and you are found liable, well.... let's just say it won't be pretty. Think VERY carefully before selecting this option. If he/she is not living in your household (and has a legal address elsewhere but the car is NOT pricipally kept there), none of the above applies. As long as they are licensed and operating the vehicle with your permission (and do NOT do so on a regular and frequent basis), there would be coverage. You are required to add a child to the policy because almost every policy is a family policy, in that every resident relative is covered to drive your vehicles contractually whether or not they are listed as an operator on the policy. See your Definitions section of the contract for 'insured driver'. What that means is that the company is legally on the hook for paying if they drive or not, so they are deffinitely going to collect the premium for it. A NDE (Named Driver Exclusion) is a possibility, but be warned: these are usually underwriting decisions by the company (We'll nonrenew you unless you sign this NDE for your son who has had 4 accidents in the past 3 years.) so if you ASK for an NDE and one is applied, it will still be considered generally as though the company asked you to have one when you want it to come off. In that the company may NOT WANT to take it off, may have some guidelines (no accidents/tickets in past 3 years for example) for when one can come off.