Hey guys,

So I was talking to a friend of mine about car insurance for the immigrating SO. He's wife has been driving in the U.K for over 10 years, she came over to the states recently and got her driver's licence a couple of weeks ago. When he phoned the insurance agency to add her to his insurance, (State Farm Insurance) he was told that his wife would be classed as an inexperienced driver (with less than 1 year of expereince driving in the U.S) and the insurance premium is going to almost double if not more.

That was a shocker to me. Has anyone else heard of this? I actually have my insurance with State Farm, and when I moved to the States about 7 years ago, I had been driving in the U.K for 5-6 years, and they were able to take that into account when they insured me.

Have you guys experience similar situations? Anyone recommend an insurance company that may take into account previous driving expereince abroad?

Thanks

In order to renew my registration, I must have an existing policy in place. However, I drove with no insurance for one year. Saved me alot of money! LOL. It's risky, and I wouldn't even suggesting no insurance.

I havent called yet because my husband doe shave the DL yet. But my insurance covers me for any driver that I give permission to.

Geico charges me about $200 extra for being an "inexperienced operator". The surcharge
will go away after 3 years.

I belive when I came here from Canada, but wifes policy $$$$ did not change. We were with State Farm then, now with USAA

The same applies for my insurance.

devblt,

My insurance company also classified my wife as an inexperienced driver, although she had been a licensed driver in her country for more than 10 years. The premium is higher as a result, but not double.

Yodrak

I am from Spain and I lived in the US for 3 years. My driving experience in Europe counted, I had American Family Insurance. But I think this has changed now... It is true, they take it as if you did not have any experience at all, it is frustating...

It depends on where you live and on the insurance. Geico decided to no longer recognize driving history from other countries (as of Jan 1st 2007). Of course we changed right away since they accepted it before and the premium should suddenly double itself.
We called a lot of agents in our area, stay away from State Farm in NC! They had the nerve to tell us that NC had a law prohibiting insurance companies to accept foreign driving history, which is total BS.
We are now with Allstate, a reasonable premium, good service and no hassle with accepting my driving history (copy of German DL was fine, I added an English copy of my driving record).

Ergo: call a lot of different insurance companies and see what you can work out!!!

I feel State Farm has outrageous premiums period. Before my SO even got here i checked into their rates and it was almost double for what i was paying currently. I thought hmm maybe cause its not a multi- policy rate, so i had them give me a premium for home owners insurance, $800 a year!!!!!! Mind you i pay $390 a year for the same coverage. Insane.

@ Garyandmarylou: It depends pretty much on where you live. We'll move to CA and there Farmer's will be the cheapest for us. I don't really understand how insurances calculate their premiums in the US, but to me it seems pretty arbitrary. Like USCIS

I hear ya there !!!

If your spouse was driving overseas, he/she can get credit for her driving experience you have to show the licence to the insurance agent. Some states will take your license when you go for a new one, so my best advice to anybody is to make a copy of it, then you can always show it as proof. that was with state farm, Vikings, Unitrin so i am not sure about other insurance company.

I was able to get credit for my driving experience when I first got my insurance years back with state farm. Apparently, they have now changed their policy on this. When my friend asked is state farm insurance agent, he was told they cannot accept driving expereince from abroad.

Are you positive about State Farm? Perhaps he's agent is not clear on the rules.. who did you hear that from?

Strange.

Hubby's also with State Farm. His premium went up by only $15 after I was added last year when I got my driver's license.

As mentioned above: arbitrary rules!!!!!

Read the fine print. You are likely to find a sentence or two that say that any driver that is a member of your household has to be explicitly named in your policy.

My wife (the USC) pays about one-third of what I pay for car insurance, and she is the primary driver on our new, more expensive car. In other words, our premiums quadrupled. But, we added a car.

My husband added me to his Geico policy, as his spouse, with absolutely no problems and premium didn't go up at all. There were no questions concerning my prior driving experience, we just needed to send them a copy of my DL.

@ Ivona: There was no problem with us either, until we called to ask about it since I got the hint from someone else. Only after calling them they shared their "wisdom" that they changed their policy this year. If I had an accident I would not have been covered, and we did not know until we called. They then gave us the quote for the new premium which was $1200. Crazy!!!! Really, be careful and make sure that you are really still covered. In case of a claim it can become very uncomfortable.

That was last year, I am sure it would be the same. There are even additional discount if you are a professional, engineers, and also if you have you have done higher studies like masters and all, I would say check with another Agent. The worse that can happen when your agent gives you all the applicable discount the adjustor(kinda forgot how they call them) can question some of them, but as long as you have your proof, nothing to worry about.

If your spouse has a poor driving record, you can expect it to affect your insurance premium.

Geico told me that it was impossible, at least in New York State, to *exclude* your spouse
from your insurance policy.

Interesting. Does it mean that getting married can invalidate one's policy?

I was in charge of Commercial Insurance at the company I worked for in Canada so I had gotten letters of experience from all my Insurance Providers to date (you just write them/fax them your Policy #'s and they need your signature to release the information), as well as a copy of your Driver's Abstract (your driving record from your last CDN Address' DMV). It will show any speeding tickets etc. Those two pieces helped us secure only around 5$ a month more increase in my hubby's premiums (State Farm here in CT). Give them ALL the information you can.... Insurance companies need to be convinced that you are not a risk to them. 5+ years of no claims on my insurance, and a clear driving record helps .. a lot..

wow, I am surprised. I should consider myself lucky, I guess..... No extra cost for us, but the company is local, so I can't recommend unless somebody lives in Virginia.

Ana

Depends on how long you have been with State Farm. I am on the State Farm Mutual plan. I actually get dividend checks from them. My motorcycle, brand new, full coverage is $156 a year. State Farm is expensive to start but rewards its long term customers. As well, you get what you pay for. If I have a claim I take it to the body shop and its fixed, no questions, no claims adjuster. I would never switch companies.

My Husband still has an Albanian License and will for at least 6 months. State Farm would not insure him and told me to "just say he is visiting" if anything happened. That worked when we were not married, but after the wedding we switched to Geico, who will insure someone without a US License. The permiums were double, but he only had 6 years of experience and one accident and is under 25 so I can't say I was shocked at the amount. We pay about $100 a month and that does not insure our car, just the other guy.

Geico offered to exclude my husband in California so my rates would not go up. Must be dependent on the State.

A few months ago hubby added me to the car insurance... It is only costing us about $90 a month and that is with full coverage......

The lady just asked me how long I have been driving for , and where I had moved from or something like that.... she didn't ask for any proof or anything....

We just went to a small insurance company, not one of those brand name ones