I was told that because I live with a parent, if I were to get a drivers license, their insurance payments would be higher, even if I'm not actually on their insurance.
Is that true?
How would the insurance company even know I have a license anyway? What if I have my own insurance?
(Edit: answered before "What if I have my own insurance?" was added to the question.)
Is that true?
Yes, because you'd be someone who lives with her, and who can drive. You'd have implicit permission to drive her vehicles.
Thus, the insurance company will have to take into account that another (and presumably young and inexperienced) person in the house would be tooling around in a car that's insured only for your mother's regular use.
How would the insurance company even know I have a license anyway?
The fact that you have a drivers licence is (usually) a matter of public record. The insurance companies want to know this, so they get the records.
In the United States, the car insurance company may not know that you have a license; it's the insured party's obligation to report any changes in the household. However, depending on the state, you may or may not have to consider that person a covered driver. For example, from this article on Who is considered a household member for car insurance purposes:
If you have a household member that you do not want to be on your policy and he or she will not be driving your vehicle, you may be able to exclude the person from your policy if your state laws allow it. However, your insurance company still needs to be aware of the person as a household member so that he or she can be specifically included or excluded from your policy. If a person is excluded from your car insurance policy this means that he or she will not have any coverage extended to them, even if driving your vehicle in an emergency situation.
If you don't add the person as a household member, whether or not they'll be a covered driver, it is a form of insurance fraud:
Other drivers living in the household impacts the insurer's underwriting evaluation. The insurer needs to know how the vehicle to be insured will be used before deciding to issue a policy. Not telling the insurance company about a household member is misrepresentation, a form of insurance fraud.
They suggest checking with your state insurance regulator to see if it's possible to exclude a household member.
It sounds like you're thinking that if your mom's insurance cost will increase, you're hoping to avoid that increase by getting your own car and your own insurance. Note it may be cheaper to to have your mom insure both cars and add you as a driver rather than you each having your own policies. (Or if you don't get another car right away and you share hers.) You could just offer to pay your mom the difference and that way you'll potentially save quite a bit of money compared to getting your own policy.
This is not true in general in the UK.
The insurance policy states the drivers it applies to. If your mom wants a policy that only covers her, and not you, that's fine.
As for "emergency driving", the standard UK policy coverage is that the named drivers are covered to drive other vehicles which they do not own, with the owner's permission - but the insurance only covers the minimum legal requirements for third party claims.
So if you wanted to drive your mom's car in an emergency, that would by covered by your insurance (if you have any) not by your mom's.
It depends. Insurers often offer a range of premiums for the same car, depending on the options chosen.
Some of the options include cover for young/inexperienced drivers, and other options allow you to specify the only drivers permitted to drive the vehicle. You may also be able to pick cover that allows everyone to drive, regardless of experience.
Depending on the cover your mum has chosen, the premium may not increase just because someone else in the family has acquired a driver’s licence.
In germany, living in the same household as the insurance holder doesn't matter because that alone won't allow you to drive the car.
Many (private) car insurance policies have a list of drivers for that car. If you are not on that list you cannot drive that car, and the premium is in consequence unaffected.
Of course, if you are added to that list the premium goes up (because you are young and inexperienced*).
If the insurance policy is for the car and any driver (typical for business owned cars), the premium won't go up (i.e., it is high already).
However, there are also "any driver above 25** years" and that would need to be changed in order to allow you drive and in consequence the fees would go up.
The increase in insurance premium for allowing a young and inexperienced driver to drive the parent's car is typically still lower than the insurance premium for an own car of the young & inexperienced driver on that young driver's name.
This is typically also true for taking out a secondary car insurance (on the parent policy) for said young & inexperienced driver's car. (Owner, driver, insurance holder and car holder can all be different persons, btw.)
When taking out a new insurance policy later on, accident-free driving years can be accredited also if the (new) insurance/holder was driving other cars regularly and the insurance holder of that car certifies this.
This is typically done within the family, but also possible for business cars. Car sharing is more difficult in that respect (but then participants in car sharing typically don't drive much).
More on car insurance for new drivers ( in German)
* young and inexperienced are of course correlated, but they are not the same for car insurance. Someone getting their (first ever) driver's licence at age 30 would be subject to inexperienced premium (no years of accident-free active driving), but would not be in the young risk group.
In contrast, a 22-year-old who has 7 years of accident-free driving because they took their moped driver's license when they turned 15 and are accident-free driver ever since has the full benefit of 7 accident-free driving years (after transfering the years from moped to car) but are nevertheless still young.
** age limit can vary by insurance company - typical is somewhere around 23 - 25 years.
Existing answers cover most of your question well:
Your mother's insurance rates definitely can rise if you move into the household and have a driver's license of your own
It wouldn't be difficult for the insurer to find out that you have a license, though they may or may not know that you live with your mother (particularly if you aren't a minor)
But they haven't covered the remaining question about you having your own car insurance.
It probably won't help your insurance situation much to have your own car and coverage. That you might drive your mother's car is what would cause her rates to rise in this situation, representing some nonzero additional risk to the insurer.
Having your own insurance mitigates that somewhat, but doesn't eliminate that extra risk to your mother's insurer (coordination of benefits for auto insurance gets messy quickly, and it's easily possible for your mother's insurance to have to pay out even if your own coverage does so also). Talking with the insurer is the only way to know for certain.
An option that may exist for you and your mother is for her to speak with her insurer and get a policy which specifically excludes you from driving her car. A consequence of this is that you would effectively never drive that car, as you would be liable for any incidents that come up (either personally, if uninsured yourself, or through your own auto insurance if you have it). The terms of such an insurance policy may also state that you cannot drive the car under any circumstances.
Availability of such a policy will vary by insurer and state, but it may meet your and your mother's needs if it's an option for you.
How would the insurance company even know I have a license anyway?
The insurance company could query the state for other people with drivers licenses with the same address. They could also require your parent to update their policy when a member of the household gets a license, or a licensed drivers enters or leaves the household.
It is possible to not have you count as an authorized driver. It is generally done when you are student living on/near campus who doesn't have access to the family vehicles.
What if I have my own insurance?
At least in Virginia they consider all licensed members of the household when setting rates, due to that ability to occasionally share cars.
