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[http://www.insurance.com/blog] Insurance Insider is your resource for insurance news and how it affects you. Do I have to insure a car that’s just sitting? Posted on August 15 By Des Toups My husband is deployed and will be gone for several months. We have two vehicles, one car and one SUV. I wanted to know if I can take the car off the insurance until he returns to save us some money. I don’t drive the car, so it just sits there. Is this possible? Compare car insurance quotes now. Not only can you do so, it’s a smart idea. You’ll have to meet a few conditions, though. First, you have to own the car outright. Any lender will insist that you carry comprehensive and collision coverage on the car to protect its interests; if you drop these coverages on a car that is financed, they will be notified and buy their own “forced-place” policy to protect your car at a very expensive rate. Second, you’ll have to turn in your license plates. Why? Because any registered vehicle has to carry at least minimum liability insurance in nearly every state. Third, your state may require you to file what’s called an affidavit of non-use, allowing you to legally own an unregistered and uninsured vehicle. Fourth, you’ll also have to find a place to park the car besides a public road, even if it’s front of your house. So, if you own the car, can turn in the plates and have a driveway or garage, you’re good. But what if you can’t do all of those things? You might try putting the car in storage. Many insurance companies offer substantial discounts – as much as 90 percent -- for deployed members whose vehicles are stored on base or in a storage facility. Lastly, let your insurance company earn its keep. Talk to your agent or the company’s customer service team. They can spell out options that might include cutting back on coverage, greatly reducing the amount of mileage that is calculated into your rates, temporarily dropping your husband off the policy, or turning up a discount. 0 Comments Can Grandpa and Grandma drive our cars? Posted on August 08 By Des Toups I live in Florida with my father and mother-in-law. They have their own auto insurance for their vehicles, and my wife and I have insurance for our own vehicles (different companies). At times my in-laws use our minivan to take our kids out. If I exclude them from our policy and likewise on their part, would my insurance cover me in their vehicle, and theirs cover them in our vehicle? Would it be best to add them as drivers to our policy and likewise on their part? The short answer: Don’t exclude them. Don’t add them to your policy. You’re fine as is. Yes, licensed drivers living under the same roof are usually considered when an insurance company calculates your premiums, except in two instances: When the other drivers have an insured vehicle of their own Or when the other drivers are specifically excluded from your policy In your case, your in-laws should not be “listed” drivers on your policy because they have a car and policy of their own. Your insurance company may ask about the additional drivers that public records show at the same address, and you may have to provide proof that they are insured. They should not affect your rates at all, and you should be able to lend them your car occasionally as permissive users. You should be able to drive theirs as well. Permissive users are covered by your insurance when driving your car. If they hit something, you pay for any damage they do to other cars or to yours, and for any injuries they cause as well. Only when your insurance is exhausted would your in-laws’ insurance step in. If you excluded your in-laws from your policy, they would not be covered in any way by your insurance – but you would still be liable as owner of the car. 0 Comments Should son insure his stored car? Posted on August 01 By Des Toups My son will be studying abroad for a year. Should he just drop his insurance? He won't be able to keep the car registered. We'll be keeping it behind our house while he is gone. Suggestions? Your son has several options. He may be able to drop coverage altogether, or he could keep basic protection on the car, which might be cheaper in the long run. His choices: If the car is financed, he has to keep the vehicle insured with comprehensive and collision to satisfy his lender. If he owns the car outright, he can drop comprehensive and collision coverage at his discretion. He can drop liability coverage, but he may also need to turn in his plates to the state. A car that’s registered requires liability insurance in most states, and if he cancels coverage the state will be notified. He can ask his insurance company about keeping just comprehensive or storage coverage on the car, so it is protected against hail, theft, vandalism or any other hazards behind your house. Comprehensive is typically the cheapest element of any car insurance policy. Dropping coverage altogether has a hidden cost: When your son returns to the United States, he will face higher rates because of the gap in his insurance coverage -- and he may find some insures reluctant to consider covering him at all. For example, let’s look at the cost of liability-only coverage for a 24-year-old male in Akron, Ohio, with no tickets or accidents and a record of continuous coverage, driving a paid-off 2006 Dodge Charger R/T. We found premiums in Insurance.com’s quote comparison tool ranging from $742 to $921 a year. The same companies would charge $764 to $1,692 a year if he had a lapse in coverage. A year of comprehensive-only coverage would cost from $200 to $300, depending on the company – not only easing the insurance process later on but keeping the car protected in the meantime. 0 Comments Should our daughter buy her own insurance policy? Posted on July 23 By Des Toups My daughter is 22, living at home. She is about to buy a car. What is cheaper as far as insurance, to have it titled in her name or in ours, the parents? Can she get her own insurance at that age? Your daughter can buy her own insurance. Before she turned 18, she would have needed a signature from one of her parents, but as an adult she is able to sign contracts for herself. But would it be cheaper for her to have her own coverage? Probably not. Most often it is less expensive to add a driver to an existing policy, where the impact of a young driver is offset by the wisdom, guidance, multi-car discounts, accident-free record and spotless credit of you, her parents. Let’s say Mom and Dad are in their 40s, live in Ashland, Ohio, and drive a financed 2013 Buick Lacrosse and a paid-off 2006 Acura TL. Full coverage (100/300/100 plus comprehensive and collision) would cost them about $1,048 a year, even with the daughter as an occasional driver of their cars, according to the cheapest rates we found in our car insurance comparison-shopping tool . Adding a 2008 Honda Civic to the policy with the daughter as its primary driver, also with 100/300/100 liability limits and $500 comp and collision deductibles, brings a cheapest quote of $1,814 a year for all three cars, a difference of $766. The daughter, buying a policy on her own, could match her parents’ full coverage policy on her own car for $960 a year. That’s a $200 savings – but Ohio car insurance is cheap, and no one in our example has tickets or accidents. A different state, a few citations or dinged credit could change the equation quite a bit. We’d encourage you to run the numbers yourself. Do we need to be on the title? For insurance purposes, your name would need to be added to the title on your daughter's car if you wished to add it to your existing policy. You have to have "an insurable interest" in any car on your policy. If she has her own policy, only she needs to be on the title. And if she goes that route, you as parents might save a bit on your own policy by dropping your daughter as an occasional driver on your cars. Insurance companies ask about all drivers in a household, but premiums are calculated only on those who are listed on the policy. A separate policy for your daughter would assure your insurer that there is no unrated driver on yours. 0 Comments Zip Code: Do you currently have auto insurance? 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