What Happens If You Let Someone Drive Your Car While You’re Deployed?

Have a deployment coming up? Then you’ll need to decide what to do with your vehicle while you’re away. If you’re considering leaving it with a trusted friend or family member, then you should be aware of what could happen if you let them drive your car while you’re deployed. 

While this arrangement could work out if they simply run the engine for a bit once a week to keep everything in working order, the situation changes if they plan to drive it regularly. You could be personally responsible for some costs if they get into an accident while you’re deployed, even if you had nothing to do with what happened. Learn more about when it’s allowed for someone else to drive your vehicle, what your insurance may and may not cover, and how to protect yourself before you leave.

The Key Rule: Insurance Follows the Car

With most policies, car insurance follows the car, not the driver. That means if you have an insurance policy on your car or truck, it can also cover someone else who borrows the car with your permission. If they get into an accident while driving your car, your car insurance could step in to help cover costs.

What Is Permissive Use?

The important factor here is that the driver has your permission to drive the car. Permissive use coverage means your policy can cover other drivers when they occasionally drive your car with your permission. For example, if your neighbor’s car broke down but they need to make it to an important doctor visit, they might be able to borrow your car while you’re deployed and be covered by your policy under permissive use. It depends on the type of coverage you maintain on the vehicle when you’re gone and the details of your policy.

But if your neighbor drives your car to work every day, that could be a very different situation. Permissive use does not apply to people who regularly and routinely drive your car. 

The coverage limits that apply to permissive use coverage can vary by insurer, state, and policy. Don’t assume that by lending someone your car when you’re deployed, they’ll be covered to the same limits as you. According to Geico, if an accident occurs under permissive use, lower liability coverage limits could apply. With some policies, your comprehensive and collision coverage may not apply at all. Your insurance claim could even be denied, depending on who was driving and what they were doing.

Costs beyond what your car insurance could cover become the responsibility of the driver. If the person borrowing your car has their own insurance policy, it’s typically secondary, meaning it kicks in after your own policy limits are exhausted.

When Coverage Can Be Denied

There are some important exceptions to permissive use coverage. In these situations, the person driving your car would most likely not be covered:

• They regularly drive your car: If someone routinely drives your car, they’re not an occasional borrower, and they should be named on your policy.
• They’re excluded from your policy: If you excluded them as a named driver on your policy, then they won’t be covered.
• They don’t have a driver’s license: If someone lost their license (perhaps for DUIs or other violations), they’re not a legal driver, and they won’t be covered.
• They’re a member of your household: Anyone who is a member of your household—your spouse, parent, or child of driving age—generally needs to be on your car insurance policy.
• They borrow your car to drive for Uber, Lyft, or similar: They would either need a rideshare endorsement or commercial auto insurance instead.

What Happens If They Get into an Accident

You’re thousands of miles away on deployment. Someone borrowed your car, and they got into an accident. By the time you find out what happened, the damage is done. Depending on what occurred, here’s what could happen with your car insurance:

Your policy pays

If you gave the driver permission, the accident could be covered under your liability insurance, up to your policy limits. 

Here’s an example. Let’s say your policy limits are 50/100/50. Depending on the state, your policy could cover the other driver’s medical bills up to $50,000 and property damage up to $50,000. If more than one person was injured, the total your policy would pay toward their medical costs would be $100,000. 

However, in some states and with some insurers, permissive use may only cover up to your state’s minimum car insurance requirements, which could be much lower. In that case, the insurance policy of the person who borrowed the car could kick in to cover costs, too. 

Your rates go up

Your insurance could be more expensive if someone causes an accident while driving your car.

Because a claim was filed on your policy, your rates will likely go up at renewal. Insurers include your claims history as a rating factor when pricing your insurance policy, so expect to see an increase on your bill. 

In some cases, your insurer might decide not to keep you as a customer. Then you’d have to shop for new insurance immediately, so you don’t risk a lapse in coverage, which could cause new headaches. An insurance lapse can result in fines, license suspension, and other penalties, depending on your state. Plus, when you go to purchase a new policy after the lapse, your rates will likely be even more expensive. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) doesn’t protect against auto insurance lapses the way it does for health and life insurance.

You could be responsible for other costs

Typically, if the person borrowing your car is at fault in an accident, then they would be responsible for costs beyond the limits of your auto policy. Your insurance helps cover injuries and damages, but they would be legally responsible for the accident and any remaining losses.

Say, for example, a friend who was only supposed to turn your car on to keep it running started using it regularly without telling anyone after their car died. They didn’t see the harm, but one day they caused an accident that resulted in severe injury.

Your car insurance policy limits are 25/50/25, but the other driver who was injured has $30,000 in medical costs. The person borrowing your car could be personally responsible for the remaining $5,000. If they have an insurance policy of their own, it could kick in to cover their costs. But if they don’t, they’d have to pay for it out of pocket. The injured driver might even sue them for pain and suffering.

In some cases, though, costs that go beyond your policy limits (or the driver’s car insurance limits, if they have a policy) could be your responsibility to pay for out of pocket. For instance, if you let someone borrow your car who really shouldn’t be driving (such as your minor child, a drunk person, or someone with an illness that makes it dangerous to drive), it could be considered “negligent entrustment.” The injured driver might then file a lawsuit against you for their losses.

When You Must Add Someone to Your Policy

In some cases, you’ll need to make sure the person who’ll be borrowing your car while you’re deployed is listed on your car insurance policy. If they live in your home, they need to be on the policy, whether they’re your spouse, family member, relative, significant other, a kid away at college, or a roommate. Every licensed driver in the household should be named on the policy. This applies whether or not you’re deployed. 

If they live in your home but you leave them off of your policy, the insurance company could deny your claim if an accident were to happen. Your insurance company might decide not to renew you, or could even cancel your policy for lying about the drivers in your household, which is considered “soft” insurance fraud, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).

You should also add someone to your policy if they’ll be regularly driving your car, borrowing it to go to work, to regularly pick up the kids, or for some other reason. This is considered regular use, not permitted use, and they should be listed as a driver if you want to make sure it’s covered.

Deployment-Specific Risks

When you’re deployed, it can be tough to juggle your car insurance needs with the fact that you’ll be gone and you won’t be driving the car. But if you own the car, it requires insurance. 

If someone else will be storing and maintaining the car for you, they’ll also need to drive it periodically to make sure it stays running, which can be a long-term commitment. If you’re deployed overseas, it’s hard to predict exactly how long you’ll be gone. 

Some insurance companies, like USAA, offer storage insurance especially for deployed military members. This allows you to store the vehicle securely and only keep a low-cost comprehensive or “storage insurance” policy on the vehicle to protect against hazards like fire or storms. If you drop liability coverage without notifying your state, there could be serious repercussions. You might need to file an affidavit of nonuse to avoid serious fines or penalties.

However, if you have a lien on the car–meaning you’re financing it with an auto loan–you may not be able to choose storage insurance, and could be required to maintain full coverage instead, even if you aren’t around to drive the vehicle. 

How to Protect Yourself

• Before your deployment, update your car insurance policy to reflect the new reality. Add any drivers who might borrow your car, especially if they live in your household. 
• Set clear agreements with each person who might borrow your car, including rules on maintenance, fueling, care, and determine how often they can use the car and where they can drive it.  
• If it works better for your situation, consider alternative arrangements, including storage insurance or removing yourself from the policy as an active driver, assuming you’re not the primary insured (or adding a military deployment status).
• See if there are military discounts that could apply that could help offset the cost of car insurance while you’re away.
• Set up autopay so you don’t miss a payment and risk a lapse in coverage.
• Keep your policy current, including the list of named drivers.
• Review your policy every year or at renewal to be sure the coverage and drivers are accurate and reflect your current situation.
• Don’t lend your vehicle to anyone you don’t trust to drive responsibly.
• Make sure your coverage limits are set high enough to cover your risk while staying affordable.

Bottom Line

Lending your car to others means accepting financial risk. If you’re deployed, life is risky enough; make sure the risk of lending your vehicle is worth it. If you decide that it is, review your car insurance policy carefully to make sure it reflects your desired coverage levels and drivers who will be using the vehicle, and make updates as necessary. When you return, review the policy again.

Meet the Author

Mary Beth Eastman

Mary Beth Eastman is a writer and journalist who specializes in car insurance and related topics. She received her BS in Journalism from Bowling Green State University, where she serves as secretary...

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