Friend crashed car, insurance.

[Enlight]

The following should be considered hypothetical:

 

I allowed my friend to drive my car one night and he ended up running it into a curb, the damage is severe. The biggest problem, however, is my friend is not a legal citizen. He does have an international license. If I let my insurance company know this was the case, could this affect his residency in the U.S.? I'm a resident of NY, and my provider is GEICO. Thank you.

 

I also posted this in the nasioc OT, so don't bother answering again if you already have. thanks

[KTM 525]

Not sure about your buddy with the residency but why would you tell your insurance company? Thats like telling them you roll thru stop signs and break the speed limit with regularity.

[D-2.5-GT]

If there were no authorities involved and it was never reported, i would go with saying you were driving if you NEED to report it to insurance. I doubt it would affect his citizenship, but there is a good chance that the company would deny coverage - unless the coverage is on the car NOT the driver. Otherwise, if it is on the driver, there is going to be a problem, simply because this person doesn't have a valid US license nor are they insured for driving your car.

 

If it was reported with police, etc... then you are pretty much at the mercy of either paying to fix it yourself, or talking to your company to see what their rules are.

 

This is why i rarely let even my best friends drive my car....unless i am un-able to do it.

[PGT]

With my company, USAA, I have 'permissive use' coverage. This means that anyone driving my car is covered under my policy, up to 90 days. Longer than that, and they would need to have their own policy for an accident to be covered. I am not sure how an international driver would come into play though - it seems it wouldn't matter for my policy at least.

 

Maybe call GEICO and ask if there is coverage if you let your girlfriend borrow the car for the weekend?

[rao]

If he is not in the country legally, the accident will not affect his residency status because he doesn't have residency status.

[Guest *Jedimaster*]

I know some people in INS. Used to have illegals deported from time to time- where you located at?

[Parousia]

I am not sure about US private insurance coverage... because it differs so much wont you have to actually check your unique package?

 

Parousia

[TAckhouse1]

I would have to agree with the others. Insurance can cary greatly. Call Geico and ask them about letting your "Girlfriend" borrow it.

 

I also have the "permissive use" coverage. I did let my GF borrow my car (this was a couple years ago) and she totaled it on me. Luckily she was ok. But it sucked, because it was as if I had the accident. My insurance covered the bill, and my rates went up.

 

Thats why I too rarely let anyone else drive my car.

 

-Nick