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.
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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.
lampy2k4 said:How much did you save by not having insurance for 10 months?
I saved nothing, but lost a lot, as it now turns out.
I was completely oblivious that I can or should have insurance. I though that the term "lapse" only applies to people who had a car and I had no car - took metro in Europe - it was nice.
If I knew how much hassle this is going to be, I would have paid some inexpensive basic insurance - $120/year and there would be no problem. Too late now, it seems.
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.
Thanks for some good ideas. FW is always good for venting and advice when unexpected things happen with your money.
As to Chyvan's comment, I wonder what would happen if we got someone from the family who was in the country all the time to co-sign the title? But they would not be members of our household so no go, I think.
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 CAN continue car insurance as a non-owner. Insurance companies will convert you to a very inexpensive policy. Good to have if you are driving a friends car or renting cars. Then when you purchase a car again, you have had continous coverage.
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.
clampuke said:binasv said:lampy2k4 said:How much did you save by not having insurance for 10 months?
I saved nothing, but lost a lot, as it now turns out.
OK. Let's rephrase the question. How much would you have spent on insurance during the 10 month period if you had not canceled your policy?
All I know is that a minimum/basic coverage (issued for the vehicle which I did not own any more) me would not cost me more than $150/year, but I don't know any quotes for this "Name non-owner" insurance, which probably would have been the best.
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.
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...
binasv said:clampuke said:binasv said:lampy2k4 said:How much did you save by not having insurance for 10 months?
I saved nothing, but lost a lot, as it now turns out.
OK. Let's rephrase the question. How much would you have spent on insurance during the 10 month period if you had not canceled your policy?
All I know is that a minimum/basic coverage (issued for the vehicle which I did not own any more) me would not cost me more than $150/year, but I don't know any quotes for this "Name non-owner" insurance, which probably would have been the best.
Named non-owner. It's a policy popular among these who drive cars other people own on a regular basis. This includes rentals and is way cheaper than the $10-$15 "protection" they want to tack on.
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