Myth 14: You Don’t Need Insurance If You Rarely Drive
Some people who drive infrequently assume they can skip insurance altogether to save money, especially if their car sits parked most of the time. In nearly every state, however, insurance is legally required for any registered, drivable vehicle, regardless of how often it is actually driven. Beyond the legal requirement, comprehensive coverage also protects against non-driving risks like theft, vandalism, or weather damage, which can happen even to a car that never leaves the driveway.
The reality: If your vehicle truly sits unused for long stretches, ask your insurer about a reduced usage policy or storage coverage option instead of skipping insurance altogether, since these options can lower your cost while keeping you legally compliant and protected.
Why These Myths Persist
Many of these myths persist because they contain a small kernel of truth that gets oversimplified and passed along without the important context attached. A myth like older cars not needing full coverage, for example, is genuinely true in many cases, but the oversimplified version loses the nuance that actual vehicle value, not simply age, should drive that decision. This pattern repeats across nearly every myth on this list, a partial truth stretched into a blanket rule that does not hold up in every situation.
Social media and casual conversation also play a role in keeping these myths alive. A friend’s personal experience, like not seeing their rate rise after a not-at-fault accident, gets repeated as a universal rule rather than an outcome specific to their insurer and their state. Multiply that pattern across millions of conversations over decades, and it becomes easy to see how confidently stated misinformation spreads just as quickly as accurate information, sometimes faster. Even well-meaning family members who genuinely want to help often pass along outdated advice from years or even decades ago, back when different rules or pricing models may have applied.
How to Separate Fact From Fiction
The most reliable way to cut through these myths is to ask your own insurer directly about your specific situation rather than relying on general assumptions passed down through friends or family. Insurance policies vary enough between companies and states that a rule of thumb that applied to someone else’s policy may not apply to yours at all. When in doubt, a five minute phone call to your agent is worth far more than secondhand advice, however confidently it was delivered.
It also helps to read your own policy documents at least once, since many of these myths would be immediately disproven by simply looking at the actual terms written into your specific contract. Treat your policy the way you would treat any other important financial document, worth an occasional careful read rather than something you only think about when a claim is already in progress.