No car = No insurance? Wrong!

Last year I sold my car, cancelled my progressive insurance and left the country for 10 months for a research trip.

Now I am back and buying a new car and I have just learnt that I made a big mistake in allowing my insurance to lapse. (I though that it would be common sense to assume that if I have no car, I should have no insurance. Boy, was I wrong!).

Now "Progressive" quotes me premiums which may be even $200-per-6-months more than if I did not have an insurance lapse.

Lesson learned - consult an an agent when you do things which appear commonsense. I did not allow my health insurence to lapse, but this...

Any fatwalleter has any good ideas what, if anything, could be done?

I am in Ohio and have clean record, good credit and all. I complained and complained to "Progressive" that the issue of lapsed insurance was not addressed whan I was cancelling the policy last year. Any agent would mention that. Why not a CSR? They say I will have to wait 2 year to get the premiums back down and could possibly see some discounts in 1/2 year.

How much did you save by not having insurance for 10 months?

Yes, you will pay higher premium if you don't have current insurance policy. Very simple solution - you go get insurance with any other company and contact Progressive about switching a month later. Done.

I faced this situation with my S.O. when we sold her car as scrap and cancelled the insurance which we thought was the smart thing to do. For a good nine months we limped along with my car and taking the bus. Eventually, after getting her another car we discovered the expensive mistake of being insuranceless.

Fortunately, here's how we salvaged the situation. When we'd originally bought the car from the dealer, they wouldn't sell it to just her alone because she didn't have insurance to drive it off the lot, so I put my name on the car title thinking we'd take it off later, but that was the key to getting good insurance rates. Instead of her calling to get the insurance, I got the insurance and because it was titled jointly, she was listed as a named insured, and later after we broke up, her name being on the declarations page was sufficient to be considered insured. As an added bonus, we became eligible for the multi-car discount.

CrazierRus said: Yes, you will pay higher premium if you don't have current insurance policy. Very simple solution - you go get insurance with any other company and contact Progressive about switching a month later. Done. Most policies charge a higher premium for those who have had lapses of insurance in the last X years. Simply having a current policy won't address that.

You pay the additional 200 for the next 6 months and in 6 months you renew with a different company without any lapses insurance

I saw your post and immediately got worried as I am moving out of the country in two weeks and planned to cancel my insurance.

I called Geico to ask what their suggestion was, and they said I should simply cancel my insurance. They could offer "Name Non-Owner" liability owner insurance, but the agent did not recommend it. It would not be worth it. They said that when I called to renew, they would look over my past driving record and she noted that I was moving out of the country.

clubplanet said: I saw your post and immediately got worried as I am moving out of the country in two weeks and planned to cancel my insurance.

I called Geico to ask what their suggestion was, and they said I should simply cancel my insurance. They could offer "Name Non-Owner" liability owner insurance, but the agent did not recommend it. It would not be worth it. They said that when I called to renew, they would look over my past driving record and she noted that I was moving out of the country.

I hope that the agent you spoke to was right. I think it differs significantly from state to state. If I were you, however, I would talk to some nice independent insurance agent locally to confirm the details. I think CRS's in big insurance companies do what the company policy tells them - they don't look out so much for you etc. At least that is what I think happened to me.

"Progressive" - bet Geico too - had this basic "legal minimum" insurance which was $60/6 months. You could get something of this sort.

The problem with letting your car insurance lapse is that the insurance company won't pay for pre-existing dents.

InsuranceGuy said: All of the carriers I have worked at surcharge between 25-40% if your insurance has lapsed. The kicker is that not one insurer will take this surcharge off of your policy no matter how long you stay with them.

Pay the extra for 6 months and switch carriers.

Odd, isn't it? For one, you generally can't have car insurance unless you have an insurable interest in an automobile to begin with...

it would be good if you could close out the account except for something like a $20 add on for rescue towing during the ten months

don't know if something like this work --- but on FW ever angle is usually tried

SUCKISSTAPLES said: so whats the cheapest "Named non-owner" policy out there?

If its really just $60 or $150 per year, might be some strategies there. I was always under the impression it cost even more than regular owned insuranceI had a ho once who said because she had a $60 policy it was ok for her to floss my ride.

In California, surcharges for not having prior insurance are illegal: link

Geico has been friendly to drivers returning from extended stays out of the country. Their online quote engine even includes "No, I was on deployment or overseas" as an answer to the question "Currently Insured?".

Geico is awesome. They are some of the lowest in Arizona for high risk, 24 y.o. males *yours truely*

Progressive quoted me something like 350/month for full coverage, with geico its significantly cheaper.

juniorjam said: The problem with letting your car insurance lapse is that the insurance company won't pay for pre-existing dents.

All insurance companies require a inspection (I know this for a fact in NY and NJ) at the time you buy insurance from them for the first time. If you are buying a new car (registering it for the first time), this inspection is waived.

ajny said:
All insurance companies require a inspection (I know this for a fact in NY and NJ) at the time you buy insurance from them for the first time. If you are buying a new car (registering it for the first time), this inspection is waived.

I quote/compare every 6 months when renewal, and I was asked for visual inspection for only 1 time. I am in CA.

I recently asked USAA about non-owner insurance for me and my wife and they quoted it at $501/year (most of which is for liability insurance). We have never owned a car, have perfect driving records, and have not been on any auto insurance policy for a few years. Both of us are in our mid-20's. We live in the Boston area. I'm not sure what information is relevant to pricing non-owner insurance.

Interesting - we have the non-owner policy from USAA in NY and it's $115 every 6 months. We did have their insurance before, which may account for the lower price.

One other thing to note - some of these non-owner policies can be helpful when renting cars - we have used ours to supplement coverage provided by AMEX.

ajny said: juniorjam said: The problem with letting your car insurance lapse is that the insurance company won't pay for pre-existing dents.

All insurance companies require a inspection (I know this for a fact in NY and NJ) at the time you buy insurance from them for the first time. If you are buying a new car (registering it for the first time), this inspection is waived.

I've never had any new insurer do a vehicle inspection.

I can't see how a lapse in insurance has anything to do with pre-existing dents.