Insurance Question

[TM3]

What's up FF peeps? Quick question for anyone in the 'know'.....

I know that when you have a lien on your vehicle, they require you to carry full coverage on the car. My question is this....how often does the lien holder check with the insurance company to see if the vehicle is still insured? Say if I went half a month without insurance on the car, how would they find out? Would they find out? Would my insurance company tell the lien holder once I dropped the car? I've kind of been curious about this for a while.


NOTE: This is more of a hypothetical question. I am NOT planning on dropping the insurance on one of my cars while I still have it. I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to do anything (illegal)....like driving around without insurance. I've got two other Foci, and I only drive one of them. The other two just sit and collect dust, aside from the occasional start-up to get the juices flowing, hence the reason for my curiosity.

[Sponsor]

[wood_e]

I'm sure they check periodically since they technically OWN the car. The insurance co has the VIN of your car so it wouldn't be hard to look it up and check.

[Xetchx]

I know in the past you could probably get away with it for quite awhile but now adays with intercompany comunication the way it is I would say about half a month might be all you get. Then again that would depend solely on the size of you insurance company a small one may not really care about the lein holder while a bigger company will probably want to help there conterparts out by sharing this kind of info

[ob1murry]

Originally Posted by TM3

What's up FF peeps? Quick question for anyone in the 'know'.....

I know that when you have a lien on your vehicle, they require you to carry full coverage on the car. My question is this....how often does the lien holder check with the insurance company to see if the vehicle is still insured? Say if I went half a month without insurance on the car, how would they find out? Would they find out? Would my insurance company tell the lien holder once I dropped the car? I've kind of been curious about this for a while.


NOTE: This is more of a hypothetical question. I am NOT planning on dropping the insurance on one of my cars while I still have it. I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to do anything (illegal)....like driving around without insurance. I've got two other Foci, and I only drive one of them. The other two just sit and collect dust, aside from the occasional start-up to get the juices flowing, hence the reason for my curiosity.

The insurance company informs the MDV/MVA/whatever you call it there, once it is in their computer, the lien holder can see it whenever they want. Your problem wont only be with the lien olde,r it will be with the DMV, states have a retty strict stance for insuring vehicles that aren't paid off, no state believes you will not drive a car your paying off, if your owe money on it, you are required to have insurance, eventually you will get a ltter from the DMV requesting that you provide proof of insurance that starts on the day your last policy expired, I know here if ther eis no lapse in coverage, 0 in fines, if it is between 1 and 30 days, 150 in fines, and it starts to get pretty hefty after that, don't forget that if your out driving and a cop runs your tags and it comes back w/o insurance, he may confiscate your tags and impound your car too. So basically even if the car is just going to sit there, It's still illegal, and you will be subject to a fine, at least based on my knowledge, and thats just from the DMA, I don't even want to know what would happen if the lien holder found out, but I can't imagine it would be more than a month or two before you came outside and found that your car wasn't there.

[TM3]

Thanks for the info guys. Someone once told me that if the lien holder found out you were not carrying insurance, they would insure you at their rates, which I was told were astronomical. Of course this person is not a very reliable source, so who knows if that's true or not.

[Xetchx]

Originally Posted by TM3

Thanks for the info guys. Someone once told me that if the lien holder found out you were not carrying insurance, they would insure you at their rates, which I was told were astronomical. Of course this person is not a very reliable source, so who knows if that's true or not.

True, alooong time ago. Once apon a time you could buy your car an insurance at the same place and company. This isn't really the case anymore, insurance coverage has become such a speacilzed thing that most car companys don't wanna waste their time or money on it anymore

[Xetchx]

Not to disagree but, I have never in my life heard of anyone getting a letter from DOT or DMV about not having Insurance or have I heard of a cop knowing you don't have insurence by running your plate. If your lien holder doesn't find out your good, the cops will never know untill you get pulled over or get into an accident.

Also how could a Insurance cmpany notify DOt or DMV about you dropping your coverage, it your right to drop it at any time to change service providers and you owe no responsibility to the previous provider to inform them you have/will be using somebody else. If that were the way it was I would still have my last insurance company saying I don't have coverage because I got tired of their way of doing busness and paid my bill then just stopped taking there calls

IMHO

[ob1murry]

Originally Posted by Xetchx

Not to disagree but, I have never in my life heard of anyone getting a letter from DOT or DMV about not having Insurance or have I heard of a cop knowing you don't have insurence by running your plate. If your lien holder doesn't find out your good, the cops will never know untill you get pulled over or get into an accident.

Also how could a Insurance cmpany notify DOt or DMV about you dropping your coverage, it your right to drop it at any time to change service providers and you owe no responsibility to the previous provider to inform them you have/will be using somebody else. If that were the way it was I would still have my last insurance company saying I don't have coverage because I got tired of their way of doing busness and paid my bill then just stopped taking there calls

IMHO

It happened to me. The insurance company will notify the DMV that your ocverage with them has expired, the DMV then requires that you submit proof of insurance. Since it is illegal to posses plates without insurance, they put out a pull order on your plates, you get stopped the cop sees that your plates are due to be pulled since you have provided no proof of insurance, your car is the left sitting on the side of the road with no plates, so they tow it. Most places are nice enought o let you call a tow truck and have it towed were you want, but they could just impound it.

You may not have an obligation to your previous provider, but you do have an obligation to the DMV. All the insurance company does it notify the DMV that you no longer have coverage with them, when you get a new company, they inform the DMV that you now have coverage with them, no harm no foul, but if the DMV never gets a new proof of insurance form, your up shit creek. I got a ltter requesting new proof of insurance, but thats as far as it went, my friend however wasn't so lucky. He had a civic that he had the oil changed in, he was driving down the road, loses oil pressure, blows the engine. Calls a friend to come get him, he comes back later to find the police taking his car, because a cop stopped and ran the late, came back with a pull order, because he s on his parents insurance who live in florida, while he was living here for some personal reasons, and the insurance company never sent the papers to the DMV here, no insurance = no tags = no car, it sat in the impound lot for two or three days because he needed to get the insurance company to first get the papers to the DMV, before he could go down and pay to get it out.

It isn't something that happens often, but it certianly does happen.

[Xetchx]

Originally Posted by ob1murry

It happened to me. The insurance company will notify the DMV that your ocverage with them has expired, the DMV then requires that you submit proof of insurance. Since it is illegal to posses plates without insurance, they put out a pull order on your plates, you get stopped the cop sees that your plates are due to be pulled since you have provided no proof of insurance, your car is the left sitting on the side of the road with no plates, so they tow it. Most places are nice enought o let you call a tow truck and have it towed were you want, but they could just impound it.

You may not have an obligation to your previous provider, but you do have an obligation to the DMV. All the insurance company does it notify the DMV that you no longer have coverage with them, when you get a new company, they inform the DMV that you now have coverage with them, no harm no foul, but if the DMV never gets a new proof of insurance form, your up shit creek. I got a ltter requesting new proof of insurance, but thats as far as it went, my friend however wasn't so lucky. He had a civic that he had the oil changed in, he was driving down the road, loses oil pressure, blows the engine. Calls a friend to come get him, he comes back later to find the police taking his car, because a cop stopped and ran the late, came back with a pull order, because he s on his parents insurance who live in florida, while he was living here for some personal reasons, and the insurance company never sent the papers to the DMV here, no insurance = no tags = no car, it sat in the impound lot for two or three days because he needed to get the insurance company to first get the papers to the DMV, before he could go down and pay to get it out.

It isn't something that happens often, but it certianly does happen.

Well that sux LOL Good to know tho thnx

[karguy427]

Your lienholder is an additional named insured on your policy. They would be notified by mail if the policy is close to being cancelled for non-payment.