I am a student North Carolina, and I am having the title on a vehicle transferred to me from my father who lives in Texas. I am from Lorain, Ohio. Does it matter where the automobile is registered for insurance purposes?

Ben

Lorain, OH

Since you are a nonresident in North Carolina it does not appear you need to register the vehicle in NC but can do so back in your home state in Lorain Ohio. If you instead wanted to register and title the car in North Carolina, you can verify with the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles to see if this is possible as a full-time student in their state.

As for auto insurance, you will need to insure the car in the state which the vehicle is registered since normally as part of the registration process one is required to show proof of auto insurance. If you title the vehicle in Ohio check to see if an insurance company will cover you while you are in North Carolina or if because the vehicle will be kept with you in North Carolina if they say you should insure and register it there instead until you move back to OH after college.

Hey Guys, I am only 16 years and I have a learners permit in Lansing , MI . I would like to be added to my father’s auto insurance policy so I can drive my new vehicle but I can’t find an auto insurance company that will insurer that will do that for me without charging an arm and a leg. Does anyone have a recommendation for student car insurance coverage in the Lansing area? Where can I find an insurance company that will insure me in Michigan?

Ben

Lansing , MI

You should be able to be added to your father’s auto insurance policy as an additional driver without any real problems, I don’t see why you would have an issue there. It would be your father’s insurance policy that would add you to his car insurance policy. I had a cousin in Flint MI that got his own auto insurance policy in his name but he had to get a legal guardian to co-sign for him because he was not 18 and still a minor. Another way is to obtain another car insurance policy for you and your father on your new vehicle or with his car and your car together.

You can easily get an online rate quote for great car insurance in Michigan from this site, and I would encourage you to do so. When you do, make sure you ask about a student discount and a limited use discount, both of which you are probably eligible.

Some car insurance companies will give good students…or I should say students with good grades a discount. I am not sure about your grades, but nonetheless you should inquire about a student discount of some kind, just because you ARE a student or at least I hope you are at your age.

A limited use discount means you are only going to drive your vehicle short distances and to and from school or other regular routes. I would assume your vehicle sits in the school parking lot most of the time during the day and at night it is in dad ’s garage. If you are only going to be driving these short distances you probably are eligible for this kind of discount as well. Every little discount helps!

You can easily get car insurance for your vehicle in Lansing , Michigan , dont worry. Some Michigan insurers may require that you be the policyholder if the car is under your name only. Some insurance companies will allow your father to insure it for you. Others will even allow your father to insure his car on the same policy.

If you have decided that you will purchase your own insurance policy, your father will need to confirm the policy coverages along with you because you are a minor.

I have a 1987 sedan that I don’t use, but I own it. Do I have to get used car insurance coverage for it anyway?

Sam

That’s a great question, Sam.

The answer to that is dependent on where you live, though. The state car insurance laws are pretty mixed up on this point, because some states require you to have used car insurance coverage even if your car is propped up on blocks of wood in the front yard. In New York, you have to have auto insurance so long as you own a vehicle and have the title, or are buying a vehicle, and it is of no consequence that you aren’t actually using that vehicle. In order to be excepted from this rule, you would have to give evidence through a certain form that your car is not only unused, but unusable, or that you have sold it to another person or to a junk yard.

If you don’t want to get in trouble by falling victim to a random check of car insurance, then I would advise you to do yourself a favor and look up your state’s department of insurance website to find out what kind of laws your state has concerning this.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

I have a great car but it has a dent on it now, which I found when I came out of the store. Should I make a high performance car insurance claim?

Michael

I’m glad you asked, Michael.

You know, I think that one of the reasons that people can’t get cheap high performance car insurance is because they are too worry some about their vehicles. Now, don’t get me wrong. Most high performance cars are expensive, and thus even the smallest scratch could cost more money than usual to fix. However, you should not compensate for your worry for your vehicle by making a high performance car insurance claim for every little thing that happens. Even if it is something that will cost money to fix, that does not mean that your car insurance company will need to know.

The way I see it is that if something is under your deductible or you are otherwise able to afford to pay for the damages, then most of the time there is no reason to contact your high performance car insurance company unless you are a hundred percent sure that this would not put your clean auto insurance claim record in jeapordy. The reason I say this is, even though auto insurance companies want you to report all accidents in good faith even if you don’t file a high performance auto insurance claim for them, and they won’t punish you after the first couple, once you start a list then you will begin to see that they don’t think you are as good a customer as they thought you were before.

There are some guidelines that you should go by when deciding whether or not to report your high performance auto insurance accident to your company, and I’ll give you a list following this. You should think about these before you decide to call up and advise your company of your dent, although there are always going to be more factors and these should not be the deciding ones for your situation. Here they are.

• Can I pay for this?

This is the number one primary thing that you should consider. I got a dent in my car, too, recently, but I didn’t bother to call up my vehicle insurance company. It will probably cost me around fifty dollars to get fixed, which is five percent of my auto insurance deductible, so it doesn’t make any sense to report it. I can just wait and be lazy and go get it fixed when I’m ready, instead of having to worry about the long problems making a claim with my auto insurance collision coverage.

• Am I alone in this?

Another thing that will obviously play a huge role in you reporting your little accident to your high performance car insurance company is whether or not someone else is involved. If someone else is involved in the accident, then go no further. REPORT IT. I really don’t think there should be exceptions to this guideline, because even if the other person says they are okay and there is no need to report it and claim, that does not mean that it is true.

I’m not saying that the other person is lying, but I am saying that the evidence of damage may not be apparent right away after you get into an accident. The other person might start to feel back pains later that night, or might notice their vehicle making weird noises on the way home. One time I barely nicked a guy, and although there was no outer damage to my car, it wouldn’t start! You never know what will happen. If you get into an accident involving another party, report it.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

• Your driving record.

Your driving record shouldn’t be as hard to maintain as people make it out to be. It actually is not that difficult to stay safe on the road, and all you really need to do is go the speed limit or do something just as good, keep your car insurance card on you at all times, and practice defensive driving to avoid accidents.

This is where the different kinds of discounts you get really start to interrelate, starting with this and that defensive driving course. If you think about it, one of the easiest ways to ruin your driving record is with an at fault accident or with a speeding or DUI ticket. Now, more at fault accidents can be avoided than currently are. When many people think of an at fault accident, they are thinking of things like running a stop sign or a red light and plowing into someone, but in most cases it’s a lot more ambiguous than that.

Did you know that the widest spread type of at fault accident involves the at fault driver plowing into the back of the other driver’s vehicle? This is the easiest kind of accident to get into, because it mostly happens when you aren’t paying attention to other drives. People think that the way to avoid an accident is to go the speed limit and watch out for other cars in their rear view mirrors, but there’s danger in the car in front of you as well.

The best way to avoid a rear at fault accident is to practice defensive driving rule number one: keep at least three seconds behind the car in front of you, and five seconds in bad weather. Yeah, people may honk at you and tell you to close the gap, but your car insurance rates are the ones that will go up if you rear end somebody. If you follow these rules and the person in front of you hits the brakes, then you will have plenty of time to stop safely without hitting them. If you hit them, it will be considered your fault because you did not keep a safe distance behind.

• Your credit report.

Keeping your credit report clean is easier said than done, but this can save you thousands of dollars throughout your life, and not just on car insurance. People with good credit reports get better interest rates on their loans, and end up paying thousands of dollars less than others for expensive things like cars and houses. People with bad credit reports end up paying way more.

Your car insurance company says that credit reports correlate to driving ability. People with bad credit reports file more claims, they say, than people with good ones. So having a good one is one of the biggest factors in getting a good high performance car insurance price.

How much does a non owner auto insurance policy tend to cost?

Greg

Thank you for your question, Greg.

Naturally, this price will vary depending on what vehicle insurance company you go with, but I would say that the typical non owner auto insurance policy costs slightly more than a regular car owner auto insurance policy. The reason for this lies behind the fact that it is a specialty policy and does not have a vehicle attached to it, and a vehicle is normally a very big factor in the insurance score of a person that determines how high or low their car insurance premium will be. A person with a non owner auto insurance policy will be using various vehicles, all with different safety and theft ratings.

Just like with a regular vehicle insurance policy, though, you can get discounts and cheap car insurance rates on your non owner auto insurance policy. The way to do this is much the same. You raise your deductible, you get a good driver’s discount, and you purchase all of your insurance policies with the same company so long as it is possible. Non owner auto insurance does not have to be expensive, and it is well within the reach of many who cannot afford to own a car.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Can you let a 17 year old drive your car even if they aren’t included on your car insurance policy?

Margeret

It depends on your situation, Margeret.

I’d like to know under what circumstances the teenager is driving your car. First of all, does the teenager live with you, is he or she your child, etc.? If the teenager is considered part of your household, that is to say, if they live with you, then you should add them to your policy as soon as they get their driver’s license. This means a big hike in the price of your auto insurance premium for the 17 year old car insurance coverage, but it is much better than what the repercussions would be if the 17 year old ever had to make a claim and had not been listed on the policy.

Everybody who is driving has to have motor vehicle insurance. If the 17 year old does not live with you, then yes, that kid will be covered if he or she drives your car, because any friends or relatives who drive your vehicle are covered, regardless of age. So if you little your little brother borrow your car to run an errand, he will be covered.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

Do I need to get uninsured motorist Florida car insurance coverage if I live in Tampa? I just need cheap liability coverage.

Charlie

Glad you asked, Charlie.

Uninsured motorist protection is not a required part of Florida car insurance coverage law, so really it all depends on your options and your priorities. The first thing that you need to consider, before you take in to mind any extenuating factors, is that no matter where you are, no fault state or no, there will be people driving without car insurance. Depending on what state you are in, it might not even be necessary to get extra coverage because of this, but this is still something that you should keep in mind.

First of all, in Florida they only offer one kind of uninsured motorist coverage, and that is for bodily injury. This can be a good idea to carry if you don’t have anything else that would cover the bodily injury of a victim of an accident caused by you if that victim did not carry car insurance coverage. However, it also provides protection for yourself in this area, and that is where it begins to become redundant. In Florida, you are already required to carry personal injury protection coverage, and then most people have health insurance on top of that. It is very unlikely that your health insurance coverage and your personal injury protection would run out after one accident, making it to where you need even more coverage.

One thing that you might consider when thinking about getting uninsured motorist coverage is the possibility of getting a pain and suffering benefit. This might not be possible if you do not have this type of car insurance coverage.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

If I drive safe for three years straight, does my car insurance company have to give me better rates?

Don’t you wish?

Although it might be nice if safe driving automatically gained you cheap car insurance rates, it is not something that you can always take for granted. Some car insurance companies require longer periods of time, and other may factor in what exactly your previous offense were, or even how many non fault car insurance claims you have on record.

The best way to make sure you get better rates after a long period of safe driving is to make sure that you know this from the get go. Shop around and get safe driver auto insurance quotes online, and find out who gives safe drivers the best prices, when, and what the discounts are.

cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.

I use my car for my business. Do I need commercial car insurance? I need cheap insurance, since my business is just starting out.

Graham

That’s up to you.

Now, you are allowed to insure your business car under a personal policy if you also use it for personal reasons. However, if you don’t want to get into trouble for misrepresentation, then you have to be up front about all of the mileage and uses of your vehicle. If you don’t tell your car insurance company that you also use your car for business purposes, then that could be grounds for nonrenewal.

If you do report using your car for business, then your rates will most likely go up. If you use it for business more than for normal uses, it might be a better idea to just get the cheapest commercial car insurance you can. You also might want to get more coverage if your business involves carrying people or goods around.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.