Bells are chiming, families are celebrating; it must be wedding season! If you’ll be exchanging vows in the coming months, there are a few things to consider aside from what to pack for your honeymoon. One of which is how to handle car insurance. The seemingly simple task might be a little more complicated than originally anticipated, so we’ve compiled a list to check off following your new union. Take it from Metromiler Lauren Hartung, who recently got hitched!
1. Moving in together after the wedding? Make sure to update your address on your driver’s license and car insurance (among everything else).
2. Changing your last name? Update your information with the DMV and your car insurance provider. You’ll likely need your marriage license to do this, and make sure you’ve already updated your name with the social security office for an official name change.
3. Married people get into fewer accidents than their unmarried counterparts. We combined our car insurance to one policy and saved money on our monthly premiums – plus, it was much more convenient to only pay one car insurance bill instead of two. We signed up for per-mile insurance when we moved to the city and it is saving us about $60/month!
4. Buying a new car together? Add both names to the car title or lease and then register the car together. This helped us with our budget as both of our incomes were considered. We took one trip to the DMV together to register our car, change our names and update our address. Trust me, the DMV is much more fun together. From The Nest: Couples choosing a lease or financing option can opt for a joint loan, which gives both parties ownership of the car but also requires both parties to be financially responsible for the monthly payments. With a joint auto loan, the lender uses both spouses’ incomes and credit scores to determine the monthly interest rate.
5. In emergencies, support each other. As newlyweds, we both had accidents shortly after our wedding (both not our fault) and we leaned on each other (and our insurance) a lot to calm our nerves. It also made us think about putting an emergency kit in our car – Mechanic Matt has some great tips on what to do in a roadside emergency.
5. Take advantage of owning a car by spending weekends away together. In our case, we ended up moving cross-country a few months after our wedding and we took the opportunity to drive cross-country over a few days! Now that we live in San Francisco, we use our car infrequently but we love road-tripping to Napa, Yosemite, etc. Since Metromile has a daily mileage cap, we only pay for up to 150/miles a day!
Interested in seeing how much per-mile insurance could save you and your newly official partner-in-crime? Learn more here!