Suspend car insurance - Can it be reinstated later on?

by Guest » Wed Feb 13, 2008 07:07 am
Guest

In case I'll go work aboard for half a year or a year, am I allowed to suspend car insurance and reinstate it when I am back? Thanks.

Total Comments: 23

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 09:02 am Post Subject:

I am sure that there must be solution to your problem lying somewhere around the corner. Some insurers may allow you to suspend car insurance for a time period. You can ask the agent about the options available. Another way to reduce the cost of insurance when your car is off the road is by lowering the coverage on the car. You may drop the collision and comprehensive coverage on it and maintain the lowest level of liability coverage.

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 09:48 am Post Subject:

What about contacting at the state DMV? If you are required to submit the license while abroad, you may suspend car insurance as well. However, different state may have different law. Hence it would be rather wise to clarify it from the office itself.

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:05 am Post Subject:

am I allowed to suspend car insurance and reinstate it when I am back?



IMO it may depend upon the company's policies. Some companies indeed allow the owner to go on suspending car insurance on the hibernating ones.

However, some of the ways as suggested by the other users also sound good to me to lower the cost of insurance while the car is off-road. ;)

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:49 am Post Subject:

Yes, you may suspend car insurance policies, assuming the vehicle will be garaged, or parked and not moved at all in your absence, if you have no lein holder on it...I would drop everything except comprehensive coverage...Comp covers, things like theft, hail, fire, vandalism etc....Which can occur to a parked car....remember though that it must not be driven on a roadway because you would have zero liabililty protection.

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 03:59 pm Post Subject: can i suspend my car insurance ?

You may wish to suspend car insurance policies under certain circumstances.
The problem is if you leave the tags on the vehicle (i.e. don't turn them into the DMV). If you cancel your insurance policy the carrier will notify the DMV of this. If you still have active tags it can get nasty. Most states require insurance in a vehicle with active tags.

You would not be suspending car insurance, you'd be cancelling the policy and then obtaining a new one 6 or 12 months later.

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 11:27 pm Post Subject:

If that's the case tcope (not in my state apparently) then how would one get away with a sleeping term on say motorcycles?

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 12:53 am Post Subject:

Not really sure of how to suspend car insurance in such a scenario. Thought suspending car insurance sounds like something that is done over the winter when motorcycles might not be driven.

Carriers are required to report when a policy is no longer active. Now I'm not 100% sure if that is always done or if it's just done if a policy cancels for a reason such as non-payment. This is done to prevent people from getting a policy just for the insurance card in order to obtain a tag and then letting the policy lapse or not paying for it at all. They would then drive around for 12 months or longer with no insurance. I've heard of people changing carriers and getting a letter from the state indicating their tags would expire unless they could prove they had insurance. This plan might have been changed slightly in the past few years.

In any case, the OP should check on this info with his carrier and the DMV.

[Missouri wise crack left out as I now live in the west :)]

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:57 am Post Subject:

Never heard of suspending car insurance in such a scenario. Thought it sounds like something that is done over the winter when motorcycles might not be driven.

yeah, I know they don't report that or any for that matter insurance that is canceled/non-renewed etc. in my state to the DMV tcope...In fact your example happens here A LOT...'Johnny Got No Money (or character)", walks into an agents office (or on line now) plops down a month or two of premium...gets a card, licenses car, and then never renews....the only way they are 'caught' is if an accident occurs or they are pulled over for something...The cops here can ask for proof of insurance, if none the get a ticket have to go to court and prove that either they have it NOW or just had an expired card...and pay the fine....

[Missouri wise crack left out as I now live in the west ]

You put "Missouri" and "wise" right next to each other ! :wink:

Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2008 02:44 pm Post Subject:

I have a friend that used to have the garage insurance on his corvette in the winter because he did not drive it in the winter, he is not allowed to do that anymore because too many people put this insurance on their vehicles and say they will not drive them do in fact drive them. I don't know if it a state law or what. Maybe some of you insurance folks would know this, I know that he has to keep the insurance on it that he normally would if he were driving it.

Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 10:59 am Post Subject:

More than likely a company thing...I know I looked into putting our boat into a 'sleeping' period and it only saved me like twenty bucks! so I'll say forget suspending car insurance policies...(I would ALWAYS maintain comp-even when my car is garaged, and it doesn't sound interesting for me to suspend car insurance)...I'm sure my company makes it unattractive on purpose.

Add your comment

Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.