Joining a ridesharing company has become an increasingly popular way to make some extra money. These services let you use your own personal vehicle to pick up fares and take them to their destination. Many people even use this extra income to finance the purchase or lease of a new vehicle, which in turn provides a more comfortable experience for their passengers.

Ridesharing companies typically need drivers to pass a background check, meet a number of requirements, or abide by a code of conduct. Before you consider becoming a driver for one of these services, you should also check to see if your insurance needs to be modified.

Drivers who use their own vehicle to pick up fares for a ridesharing service will usually have personal auto insurance coverage. The Insurance Information Institute says these policies assume that you and your family use the vehicle for personal transportation and not for business.

Personal insurance policies are not priced or underwritten with commercial use in mind, since liability limits for commercial vehicles are higher. Mark Vallet, writing for Insure.com, says an injured party may press for more damages when a commercial vehicle is involved in a crash since the vehicle's company can be included in the suit. For this reason, a personal policy excludes coverage for incidents that occur when the vehicle is being used as a livery service, such as a taxi or limousine. The policy also tends to exclude coverage for any other business use, such as plowing snow or even delivering pizzas.

As a result, ridesharing drivers will be vulnerable to a coverage gap if they are not properly insured. While you will still be insured for incidents that occur when you are off the clock, an insurer may refuse to pay a claim or even drop your coverage for incidents that happen when you are looking for a fare or transporting one.

There are three phases involved in ridesharing where your insurance policy may not apply. In the first, the driver has logged onto the ridesharing company's smartphone app but has not yet been matched with a passenger.

In the second phase, the app has linked a driver and passenger but the driver has not yet picked up the fare. The third phase extends from when the driver picks up the passenger to when they are dropped off.

The ridesharing company itself may offer liability insurance to help ensure that its drivers are covered, but this may not be enough. Vallet says the company's coverage often only covers the time when you are transporting a passenger. In the first two phases, any claims will still go to your personal insurer.

As ridesharing has become more popular, auto insurers have been more likely to offer specialized coverage for these drivers. Beverly Bird, writing for the automotive site Autoblog, says one option is a hybrid policy that covers both personal and ridesharing use of the vehicle. In some cases, you might need to switch to a commercial policy that covers personal use as well.

Ask both the insurer and ridesharing company plenty of questions to find out if you have adequate coverage. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners says you should find out what your personal policy covers and whether there is any supplemental coverage, such as an extension to cover the time when you are on the clock but not carrying a passenger. Find out when the ridesharing company's coverage kicks in, how much liability insurance it offers, whether you'll be charged a deductible, and how you can file a claim after a crash.

These questions will also help you determine how much extra money the ridesharing coverage will cost you. Vallet says many insurers charge less than $10 a month for the added coverage, while others will increase your rates by a certain percentage.

You may also want to be more conscientious of how you drive. Tara Baukus Mello, writing for the financial site Bankrate, says that even if you are covered for a crash that occurs while you are working as a ridesharing driver, your rates will still increase if you are at fault. You'll need to consider whether the extra driving and time required of the job will affect your driving abilities and potentially increase the risk of a crash.