Auto Insurance & Registration: Does my car need to be registered to get insurance?

• You must purchase auto insurance to satisfy vehicle registration requirements through your state
• In some states, you must show that you have auto insurance issued before you’ll be given permanent license plates
• Many states have now enacted an electronic verification system so that coverage can be verified in real time
• If you fail to pay your registration fees on time or by the end of grace period, your registration will be suspended
• If you drive without registration, you could be pulled over and your car could be impounded

You can’t just purchase a vehicle and then drive it all over the city without first taking care of business. As soon as you become a vehicle owner, you’re going to take on the burden of having to title and register the vehicle.

All personal autos have to be titled to be operated on public roads. To register your vehicle and title it, you’ll have to fill out paperwork at your local motor vehicle agency.

If you don’t register the vehicle in your name, there would be no way for law enforcement or state agencies to identify who the legal owner of the vehicle is. In most states, you’re given just 10 days to put the car in your own name after you’ve purchased a car.

If you let your registration expire at any time while you own the vehicle, it could put you at financial risk.

You must have insurance for your new vehicle, as well. Compare car insurance quotes right here by entering your zip code above!

What is the purpose of a vehicle registration?

When you become the legal owner of a vehicle, the car has to be registered in your name. The entire purpose of the registration is to associate the VIN of a vehicle with a specific individual or entity.

Some cars are only registered to one person and others are registered to multiple parties. It all depends on how ownership is shared.

It’s the person who’s tied to the registration that is responsible for paying for toll fines, parking tickets, and damage caused by the vehicle.

The registered owner must also provide evidence of insurance and satisfy all insurance laws in the state. Anytime laws are broken or there is a penalty, it’s the legal owner who must pay.

How much does it cost to register your vehicle?

Registration fees and other taxes vary from state to state. You could pay less than $100 to register an older vehicle or hundreds of dollars to register high-value vehicles.

You can typically calculate what your registration fee will be on your official DMV website by entering your license plate number and VIN. The money that you pay goes to all of the following:

• Local government
• Highway Patrol
• Department of Motor Vehicles
• State highways
• Air resources
• State agencies
• State General Fund

Do you need proof of insurance to register your vehicle at the DMV?

One of the most convenient aspects of buying a car at a dealership is that they file all of the DMV paperwork for you.

You’ll get your temporary plates at the lot and the DMV will mail you tags within the next few weeks. The fees that are due are then added to the amount you finance or your final sales price.

Before you can drive off with the new car, the dealer will probably ask you for proof of insurance. If you’re paying cash for the vehicle, you’re only required by law to show that you have liability insurance and all other mandatory coverages in the state.

When you’re financing the car, you’ll also be asked to show evidence that you have full coverage.

When you buy a car from a private party, you’ll have to do the legwork on your own. You’ll have to go to the DMV and do the following:

• fill out applications
• provide documents
• pay the fee

Having all of the documents that the DMV agent needs to process your request is a must. In some states, you do have to show a valid auto insurance ID card when you’re registering a car for the first time.

What happens if you don’t pay your registration?

You have to pay your initial year right away to activate your tags. After that, you’re going to be billed once every year to pay your registration dues.

If you don’t pay by the due date, you are usually given an extra 10 days to submit your payment. You may have a grace period but that doesn’t mean that you can legally drive your car. Consider your registration suspended until you’ve made your payment to renew.

Non-payment of your registration dues isn’t the only reason that your registration can be suspended.

Another reason that you could be left with suspended tags is that you’ve let your auto insurance lapse. When your insurance lapses, you’re not complying with the law. Failing to pay your insurance premiums could easily leave you with no plates.

What happens when your tags are suspended?

You never want to get caught driving without plates.

If you take a drive and you risk it, you could be more than just pulled over and warned.

In many states, officers are required by law to tow any cars with suspended registrations to the impound yard. If the car is impounded, you have to pay not just a towing fee, but a large impound fee as well.

If your registration is suspended is your insurance still valid?

Normally speaking, your expired registration wouldn’t affect your car insurance coverage. While it is against the law to drive without tags, it’s also against the law to speed or run a stop sign but your insurance will still be valid if these actions resulted in an accident.

If you file an auto insurance claim for having an accident while you’re driving a car with suspended plates, the insurer will take the claim. In most cases, they will pay out if it’s a third-party or even a first-party claim for damage to your car.

You have to be sure to keep your insurance payments up-to-date so that your insurance doesn’t lapse, too.

Having a ticket for driving without valid tags could affect your insurance. The surcharge for the violation isn’t huge, but it’s big enough to inflate your premiums.

If you’re not happy with your insurance rates, get instant quotes today using our online quoting tool. This tool gives you the power to find a deal. Enter your zip code below to compare quotes today!

What happens with my auto insurance if I can’t find my registration?

Can’t find your registration? You can easily have your registration replaced if it is lost by visiting your DMV. All states require all vehicles to registered and insured by law.

• Car insurance coverage is a general requirement while registering your vehicle in most states
• Most states give a maximum of 15 days from the date of purchase to register your car
• If you move to another state for more than a few months (either as a worker or a student), you require getting new registration and insurance coverage for the new state.

Most of the states in U.S. require you to provide a proof of insurance and registration, as well as driver’s license upon request.

Therefore, you may have a big problem driving if you do not have a proof of vehicle registration. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has information of the registered vehicles in their database and they would quickly retrieve them when the need arises.

DMV works with the police in various police and authorities to identify the people with a suspended or an expired registration of the plates.

Compare car insurance quotes today to get the best rate for the coverage you need.

Car Registration in a Different State

A proof of auto insurance coverage during vehicle registration varies from one state to another. Some states require car owners to renew their vehicle registration yearly while others go for several years before renewal.

The requirements for vehicle registration are different in various insurance companies following their differences in underwriting their insurance policies.

Some states do not recognize the insurance covers from another state, therefore, you will be required to acquire a different one upon arrival.

Why register your vehicle?

Some insurance companies require you to provide car registration details while purchasing their policies. Registration of vehicles is a general requirement of both the state and some insurance companies.

Some of the reasons why insurance companies require you to be registered include:

• Insurable interest – they want to ensure that the owners would suffer some losses if there were damages or theft of their car.
• It is a legal requirement – some states require registration of all cars except for the project cars or the ones on storage. Mandatory registration rules are in some states and not in all of them.
• Proof that the car has been in the state for ten months – an insurance company would only insure a car that has been in the state for at least ten months. Car registration documents would play a major role in identifying the same.

Insurance Coverage or Car Registration

After buying a new car, most people have a problem deciding on whether to get an insurance cover or the car registration first. DMV tied the two together to reduce the number of uninsured drivers using the roads.

You need to produce a proof of insurance during registration, either in the form of a printout or an insurance card. You may opt to go for a temporary insurance card in case there is urgency in the car registration.

Driving an unregistered vehicle as well as driving a car with an expired registration is a legal offense in the United States.

Traffic laws treat the two cases differently where the penalties for driving an expired registration go high with the increase on the lapse period since the registration expired.

In some states, the drivers have a maximum period of three months to renew their registration after which DMV revokes the ownership of the plate number. Some states allow up to 15 days registering a used/new car from the date of purchase in your residential state.

On moving to another state, the department of motor vehicle expects you to register your vehicle at the respective county within 30 days.

Insurance Coverage for Unregistered Cars/ Those without Proof of Insurance

Car insurance and registration are two different entities. An insurance cover is a contract between you and your insurance provider while the department of motor vehicles governs the car registration process.

If you are involved in an accident where you were covered but not registered, the insurance company pays for the claims though the legal authorities that may also give you a ticket for driving an unregistered vehicle.

Students and workers in other states also require car registrations in the state that they would be staying.

Working or Studying in a Different State

If you are working in a different state, own a home in another state, or staying in a different state for more than a few months, you become its resident.

Therefore, DMV requires you to get insurance and registration of the state within a stipulated period depending on where you are visiting.

The students visiting a different state for studies use their parent’s cars, which have the registration in their names. In this case, the parents may arrange to transfer the registration and insurance details to their children in different ways including:

• The state allows registration of both the parents and the children where the parents are the primary owners. In this case, the parents remain as the primary policyholders and the children the secondary ones.
• The state may allow the registration to stay on the parents regardless of the place of residence. The insurance companies include the children as the listed drivers and the parents the primary drivers.
• DMV registers both the parents and the children with the student now as the primary driver and registered owner.
• Parents can transfer ownership to the children as a gift or sale, and they become the sole owners of the vehicles. In this case, they will also be the only policyholders. It is the simplest option to have in case nothing is tying the parents to the car.

Several instances may lead to the suspension of your vehicle due to car insurance related problems, failure to pay taxes, and parking tickets, among others. Therefore, it is important to follow the set traffic laws to avoid penalties and risk losing your plate number.

Insurance related problems that would lead to suspension of car registrations include cancellation of car insurance policy, failure to provide proof of insurance coverage upon request, and fraudulent insurance policy.

To get the best car insurance covers at affordable rates, get as many online quotes as you can and make comparisons. Use our free rate tool today to find the best price for the coverage you need.