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

Wondering how long you have after a car is registered to get insurance? Do you have to have insurance to register a car? The answer is that the insurance should be taken care of first.

• 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 the 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.

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.

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

You can typically calculate what your registration fee will be on your official DMV website by entering your license plate number and VIN.

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 auto 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.

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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 be registered and insured by law.

• Auto 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 will be required to get new registration and insurance coverage for the new state.

Most of the states in the U.S. require you to provide 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 proof of vehicle registration. The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has information on all registered vehicles in their database and can quickly retrieve them when the need arises.

The DMV works with the police and other authorities to identify people with suspended or expired registrations.

Compare auto 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 allow for several years before renewal.

The requirements for vehicle registration vary in different states, and insurance companies must follow these differences when underwriting their insurance policies.

Some states do not recognize insurance coverage 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.

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 project cars or ones in storage. Mandatory registration rules are in some states but not in all of them.
• Proof that the car has been in the state for 10 months – An insurance company would only insure a car that has been in the state for at least 10 months.

Registration of vehicles is a general requirement of both the state and some insurance companies.

Insurance Coverage or Car Registration

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

You need to produce 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.

In some states, the drivers have a maximum period of three months to renew their registration after which the DMV revokes 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 vehicles expects you to register your vehicle within your respective county within 30 days.

Insurance Coverage for Unregistered Cars/Those without Proof of Insurance

Auto insurance and registration are two different entities. Insurance coverage 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 are covered but not registered, the insurance company will pay for the claims but authorities 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 are 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, the DMV requires you to get insurance and registration in that state within a stipulated period depending on where you are visiting.

Students visiting a different state for studies may use their parents’ cars, which are registered in their names. In this case, the parents may arrange to transfer the registration and insurance details to their children in different ways such as:

• 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.
• The 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 in case nothing is tying the parents to the car.

Several instances may lead to the suspension of your vehicle due to auto 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 your car registration include cancellation of auto insurance policy, failure to provide proof of insurance coverage upon request, and fraudulent insurance policy.

So, can I get insurance without my car being registered? Do you need auto insurance to register a car? The answer to both is “yes,” as insurance should be taken care of before registration.

Can I get my car registered without insurance? In most cases, the answer is “no.” So when wondering if you should get insurance or registration first, the answer is always insurance. This will allow you to avoid any fees or legal issues down the line.

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