I’m mostly thinking about insurance here. I’ve been told conflicting information. I live in Florida.
I live with someone who has a driver’s license and a car, but I don’t have either. I’ve avoided getting one because I have no interest in car ownership, and I feel like if I started driving regularly I’d probably die - I have driven before but I really don’t think it’s something I’d ever get good at.
It’s undeniable that having one would be convenient though - for rare occasions like emergencies at a minimum but also other scenarios.
I know almost nothing about how this stuff works. If I get a license, am I required to acquire and pay for insurance, even if I don’t own a car or regularly drive? Or will the person I live with have to pay more for their insurance? Are there any other costs or downsides associated with it that I might not be thinking of?
Thanks.
The longer you have your license, the cheaper your car insurance will be if you do eventually get a car. From the point of view of an insurance company, having the license and never driving is exactly like having the license, driving a lot, and getting zero tickets or accidents.
I’ve been driving for 30 years, no accidents, and my yearly insurance comes out to a little less than $900. I imagine it would be similar if you just never actually drove a car.
Here in Norway insurance is bound to how long you had your insurance, not the drivers license. If you’ve had the insurance for 7 years without an accident you get the cheapest price. And if you have it for 4 more years accident free you don’t lose the 7 years if you have one.
In Sweden it’s basically tied to the age of the driver.
Yeah, age of the driver, size of the engine and age of the vehicle also factors in, but the bonus you get per year of accident free driving is a big part.
The same is generally true in us as long as you stick to the same insurance company.
Not here. No accidents in decades and insurance sky high because Florida. Most of the cost is for “uninsured motorist”. More uninsured motorists make it higher, and the higher cost makes more uninsured motorists, and round and round we go.
You don’t need to get insurance just because you have a license. You can have a license and no car.
It could help you as far as some employers will ask if you have one and a few situations like that.
There’s no real downside other than paying for the drivers license test. Even after it expires it’ll still work for an ID.
Even after it expires it’ll still work for an ID.
Depends on where you are and what you are doing
In some jurisdictions, the longer you have a lisence / the longer you have one without any tickets or other issues, the cheaper the insurance might be.
If you can afford the test, it might be good to have
I waited until an emergency before I finally realized I needed a license. Do everyone, including future-you, a favor by not waiting.
And I had the same fears, but driving is remarkably similar to other skills: you get better through practice.
I have a license but no car. It allows me to rent cars or trucks when I need them, and most rentals either come with insurance or the option to purchase it. There’s no recurring cost.
Absolutely no good reason not to have a license. Be it for the occasional rental or borrowing someone’s car once in a while. Or just being able to drive someone’s car across town if something happened.
You don’t need car insurance until you actually buy a car so you’re good there. It will require being renewed every few years but that’s a lot cheaper than the auto insurance. I say grab it. Like you said, could be useful if you ever need to drive someone in case of an emergency, or want to take over on road trip or something like that.
This applies to the insurance of the person I live with too? They recently changed companies and I know one of the questions they had to answer was “How many members of your household are licensed to drive?”. If I got a license their rate should stay the same? It would be their car I’d drive if a situation ever came up where I needed to drive, but I absolutely do not see it becoming an even twice-a-year thing.
Household doesn’t include roommates. That only applies to families.
Edit: to clarify, its basically defined by if you have shared finances. Do you have a joint bank account with your roommate and pay a joint credit card? Then you’re a household. Otherwise, you’re two separate households.
Person you live with may have to pay more or exclude you from their policy depending on your driving history (for example if you have a past DUI)
But no, you can get a license and not own a car and you don’t have to pay insurance or anything like that. You do have to pay to renew your license every X amount of years (I think it’s like 10 years depending on your immigration status) and that costs like $45 or something trivial like that.
I recommend getting a license. Employers may look at you funny if you can’t provide a driver’s license when doing the initial background check. Of course if you live in downtown Miami you might not need a car so it’s different.
But generally speaking most of Florida you need a car to get around.
I’m very familiar with Florida’s rules about this. You can have a driver’s license just fine and not be required to pay anything. The scenario you’re worried about is if you have a driver’s license and a car registered and tagged (license plate) at the DMV. If you have a valid license plate and no insurance, the DMV either wants the valid plate back, or you’re forced to get car insurance, or else your driver’s license will be suspended. They do this to prevent uninsured people from driving around with valid tags (license plates), basically by getting insurance, registering the vehicle with the DMV to get a valid plate, and then canceling the insurance or letting it lapse, in order to “appear” like a valid driver.
Additionally, if you have a vehicle in your driveway and no valid license plate, you can be cited by the local government’s code enforcement department, for having an unregistered (junk) vehicle in your driveway. I don’t remember exactly what the citation was for, but I’ve received one when I was young and first getting into the car hobby. I’m a car enthusiast and I have always had multiple vehicles, and have been told by my city I had to either register the car, get it out of view (I think getting it covered up with a car cover counts, but they really want you to put it in a garage), or get rid of it. Some municipalities don’t care, some care and don’t enforce it, and some do enforce this.
Also, a car insurance company wants to know about every licensed driver in the household, because they could potentially be sharing cars with you. You don’t want to tell the insurance company that you have roommates or they’ll require you to add them to your car insurance policy, which will be very costly. If they somehow find out, just tell them their information is old and that the individual has recently moved out of the house.
If you have any other questions or if I’ve forgotten something, let me know and I’ll give you the answer.
Simply having a license is inconsequential. It costs nothing once acquired, unless you want to renew it when it expires. Insurance only applies if you own a car… If you don’t own or operate a vehicle then no entity cares whether you have a driver’s license.
Employers usually care, but obviously depends on the job.
Insurance is a complicated issue and it varies by state.
Generally, though, no, you won’t have to pay anything.
If you live with others who drive and do have insurance, they may need to add you as an excluded driver on their policy to avoid affecting their rates, but that, again, varies by state, and also, insurance carrier. I would just talk to an agent in your state.
If you just want an ID, most states offer essentially an ID card that’s exactly like a license, but just the ID part. Might want to look into that, too.
State ID is an option that would come with the risk of having to retake the tests if the DL lapsed long enoug.
If I get a license, am I required to acquire and pay for insurance, even if I don’t own a car or regularly drive? Or will the person I live with have to pay more for their insurance?
As a general rule, if you have a car tagged it has to be insured. This is whether you’re licensed to drive it or not.
As far as your roommate, they can exclude you explicitly from their policy so they don’t need to pay any extra.
Renewing your license actually has a nominal charge but it’s not much.
To elaborate on “it’s not much”: it’s $32 to renew in GA. They expire every 8 years. It’s pretty negligible. I imagine this varies pretty wildly by state but I doubt it’s ever going to be particularly expensive.
Only renewals cost something.
Every 10 years in Florida
This just reminded me that I have no idea when my license expires.
Get the person you live with to check with their insurer about their cover. Some policies are cheaper if you exclude drivers under a certian age/experience, some cover anyone. Better to ask the question first. It might even be free to put you on as a listed driver (especially if your female).
At least in Australia in my experience unless you specifically add exclusions they cover anyone you let drive the car but have an eyewatering “unlisted driver” excess. Like several hundred extra dollars.
I am in Florida and my policy covers incidental driving of my car by other licensed people who are not related to me. But when my daughter got a license (we had 3 cars and 3 drivers and she made it 3 cars and 4 drivers) the cost almost doubled.
If you are not driving the car the license is not going to affect the insurance, and yes the car would still be covered if you had to drive your roommate to the hospital or go get him because he was drunk or whatever, you don’t need to be on the policy.
Car insurance is SO expensive here partly because there is no public transportation so everyone and their Grandma is on the road crashing into each other. Another example of trying to save on social cost but increasing everyone’s cost and risk so it ends up costing more not less.
Fun fact for Florida: when you begin a policy, you need to list every member in your house of driving age regardless of if they drive your vehicle or they drive yours. Otherwise, insurance can deny a claim if one of them is injured in your vehicle. I listen to a lot of talk radio and an injury attorney shared this a few weeks ago. Relevant info: https://www.berryinsurance.com/blog/who-to-list-auto-policy-video
The only downside for me is my horrible photo. Other than that, it only functions as an extra form of ID.
