Additional drivers and car insurance: What you need to know

By AAMI 09 September 2020

If other people drive your car frequently, it may be worth adding them to your car insurance policy as additional listed drivers. This might help cover them if they’re involved in an accident while driving your car, and you won’t have to come up with extra funds for a more costly excess (where this is required).

What does ‘additional driver’ mean?

An ‘additional driver’ or ‘listed driver’ is how car insurance providers refer to another person who drives your car regularly, who is also listed on your policy. When an additional driver uses your vehicle, they may also be insured under your policy* in the case where you need to make a claim.

Are unlisted drivers covered?

Cover for unlisted drivers varies between insurance providers. To find out whether unlisted drivers are covered, have a squiz at your Product Disclosure Statement. (Psst – AAMI customers, keep reading!)

If an unlisted driver is covered, there will usually be conditions on the age and driving experience of that driver. AAMI will include unlisted drivers in your cover, however if they are involved in an incident, additional increased excesses will apply if the driver is not:

over the age of 25, or
an experienced driver. An experienced driver is someone over the age 25 who has held the appropriate licence to drive your car for two or more consecutive years.

The Additional Information Guide spells out all the different types of excess.

Unlisted drivers are covered under Compulsory Third Party policies like CTP in SA, Green Slip in New South Wales, and MAI in ACT. Just keep in mind that these policies only cover injuries to others if you have an accident.

Do you need to list all drivers on an AAMI Car Insurance policy?

Comprehensive Car Insurance

If you have AAMI Comprehensive Car Insurance, you should advise us when someone is driving your car regularly as an additional driver. It’s worth noting that there’s no specific excess for unlisted drivers, but a higher excess may apply in some circumstances, such as an age excess or inexperienced driver excess. A regular driver might be anyone who you expect to drive your car more than once during your policy period.

An inexperienced driver is someone who is 25 years or over and has not held a driver licence specific to the car type for at least the past 2 consecutive years prior to the incident.

An additional excess applies if an inexperienced driver was driving, using or in charge of your car at the time of the incident. This excess is higher if the inexperienced driver is not listed on your certificate of insurance.

Learners don’t need to be listed because you, or another experienced additional driver, will be in the car to supervise them. The inexperienced driver excess applies to learner drivers but as if the learner driver was listed on your certificate of insurance.

And don’t forget to let us know when they move on to their P-plates!

At AAMI, we calculate your premium based in part on the drivers you add to your policy. This takes into account their age, gender and history as a driver. Choosing a higher AAMI Flexi-Premium excess, reduces your premium (and vice versa). The decisions you make about your policy, such as your choice of AAMI Flexi-Premium excess, will affect the amount you pay for your premium.

More About Comprehensive Car Insurance

Third Party Property Damage

Like Comprehensive Car Insurance, you should advise us when someone else – other than a learner driver – drives your car regularly if you have AAMI Third Party Property Damage Car Insurance.

How to add an additional driver to your policy

Adding an additional driver to your AAMI Car Insurance policy is easy! Simply:

Log into your online account.
Select the policy you’d like to add the additional driver to.
Choose ‘Update policy’ and then ‘Listed drivers’.
From there, add in the requested details for your extra driver.
If it’s applicable, pay the extra premium.

And voila! You will have successfully added an additional driver to your policy.

Have questions about updating your policy online?

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