Relationship: Get Joint Auto Insurance Policy?

This month, my auto insurance came up for renewal and after moving in with C, my insurance went up.  This is probably due to the change in location, as my commute is now longer.  As a cash-lover, I shopped around for the best price in auto insurance.  In my search, I found that the cheapest insurance would be to go with C's company.  That got me thinking, could I merge his and mine auto insurance?  After all, when I was in college, adding myself to my parents' insurance meant a mere a hundred more (compared to getting my own insurance of over $500).

The answer is "usually yes" it is possible for people to merge their auto insurance policies.  Even if they are not married, related or have joint titles.  Based on what I could find and my conversation with insurance companies and lawyer, the main requirement is a shared address.  Though sometimes that is not required (as my college dorm address demonstrates).  In addition, I discovered some important things to consider.  Now these considerations are if you don't share a bank account, but it applies to others too...


Consider this ... 

1. What coverage does he (or she) have compared to what you have?  With this merge, there is a high potential that someone will lose out in the cost savings if you do not match.  If you are one of the lucky couple where your policies are the same, then you can skip this consideration.  
• In my case C had lower bodily and damage liability than I (much lower).  However, he had no deductibles for his collision and comprehensive.  According to my person at Progressive, the recommendation is not to sacrifice the bodily injury liability and property damage liability (after all this is where your personal asset can be sued).  Of course, I should make the disclaimer that this is also where the premium is highest.  
• The lesson is you must compare your cost savings with the same policy as you currently have.
2. If you have the same coverage (or the possible cost increase does not matter), the next consideration is potential lawsuit should one of you get into an accident.  As a joint insurance policy, there is the possibility that your asset can be included in the lawsuit.
• Now this lawsuit is above and beyond the insurance company payout.  So this is where that bodily injury liability, property damage liability or whatever other liability matters.  The insurance will pay up to the limit and if that is not enough (i.e. you happen to total a Bugatti Veyron) then you are responsible for the remaining amount.  So when you have low bodily ($5,000 is the lowest possible I know of) then you are responsible for 1.1 million - $5,000 your insurance pay = Debt!
• Now again my person at Progressive stated the likelihood of this lawsuit occurring is low for the liability settings I have.  (As long as I avoid the Bugatti Veyron of the world).  Plus he commented that the person behind the wheel is gone after first.  Since we are not related or married, it would require my boyfriend to have absolutely no asset before I need to worry too much about mine.
3. If he gets into an accident, your joint policy goes up.  This comes down to how do you divide up the savings?  Obviously the easiest way is to go 50/50, but going into this policy C and I have different car and driving history.  
• Your driving history, your ownership of your car, the type of car you have and many other factors go into the calculation of your insurance premium.  To decide how you divide up the cost requires understanding how much you would be paying separately.  There is the chance you are not going to save anything.  Obviously if you have a perfect record and the other person has an accident (at fault) a year, the joint policy would stink for you.  The joint policy assumes both of you will drive both cars, therefore C can be involved in an accident with either my car or his.  Hence the premium is calculated based upon this assumption (though in reality he is not likely to drive my baby without me).
• For us, I think we will work on dividing up the savings equally but skip over the exact 50/50.  (This means we take how much we'd save jointly and divide that up 50/50)
• If the accident occurs after you join your account, you can always separate and get separate accounts at any point of your coverage.  If you plan well (for you joint bank account pairs), you can put the higher risk car with the safer driver and potentially save there.  However, if one person does have a worse driving record or a super high risk car, then consider separate policies.
4. Do not need dual approval to remove someone from the policy.  If C and I ever were to break up, much less break up horribly, then he can remove me (or I him) without ever notifying the other person.  Obviously this is a huge inconvenience but the major concern is that you are not notified so you are left driving around with no insurance.  Most companies will send you a notice when you lose your policy.  However, if you have had a horrible breakup then I suspect you have already prepared for the separation of assets, including joint insurance.  For me, this concern was not very high.

These are just the things I considered in making my decision, but for different people there might be more things to consider.  After all if you do share each other's car equally then joint policy might be better than adding a secondary driver or uninsured motorist coverage.

Now I make the disclaimer that I am by no means an expert on insurance policy and you should always talk with your agent.  However, I do hope this helps you have an intelligent conversation with your agent.