P.J. Miller - Partner
Why must you inform your car insurance company when you move residences?
Your rate or cost of coverage is partly due to your “territory," or residence location – city, state, etc. If you’ve moved out of state, your auto insurance company might not operate in your new state. That could cause your policy to not be eligible on the renewal date and you would need to secure other coverage.
Your new state might require evidence of insurance for that particular state and might require that to be done within a certain number of days.
Also, so your billing gets to you – don’t let your payments lapse and then your coverage is canceled!
If you are a college student going to school out of your home state, what does it mean for your car insurance if you take the car with you?
Typically, if you take your car with you, you might not receive a discount. That usually applies when a college-age student doesn’t have the car with him/her and leaves it at home with the parents.
More cautionary than technical, the student should be reminded that allowing others to operate the vehicle could jeopardize the policy and coverage. Plus, it creates a mess come claim-time with a college-age student giving another student “permission” to drive the non-parental vehicle – usually, permissive use of the vehicle has to come directly from the Named Insured, the policyholder/parents.
How much time do you have to change over your car insurance when you move out of state?
This is subject to the new state, so always check the guidelines, but it could be as soon as 90 days. Otherwise, it should be done as soon as possible or by the next renewal date. States have different guidelines as to the minimum standard of coverage and even though your policy would usually automatically “convert” to the new state required minimum or as close to your existing equivalent, it’s always good to be aligned with your new state coverage. For example, the new state might be a “No-Fault” state and when you change over to the new coverage, there will most likely be differences in coverage for you to select from.
Questions about car insurance coverage? Contact Wallace & Turner at (937) 324-8492 in Springfield, (937) 652-8492 in Urbana, or info@wtins.com.