Auto Insurance in the U.S.

[MrsCat 6]

I have to say, with all due respect to all present Washingtonians, I'm constantly amazed by how many Washington drivers do EXACTLY the speed limit while in the fast lane... It's not uncommon, when driving down to Seattle, to have all three lanes going the same speed!

I'll freely admit that I tend to be a bit of a lead foot. Not through school zones and urban areas though.

[redmen99 1]

Make sure you check with the DMV in DC to see what the requirements are. Here in PA, you need to have a SS card before you can get your license. To get your license, you need the SS card, and a few other pieces of id. You can't register your car or get your tags until you have your license and getting tags will take 2 weeks since they have to send the paperwork to the State Capital for review before they are issued. You also need to show proof of insurance when you go to register the vehicle. After your car is registered, then you have 10 days for the safety and emissions inspection. But luckily in PA there is no tax for his car since its over 2 years old.... he's still debating on whether he should sell his car in Canada or not.

[zenaxe 22]

In most places it will be insurance - then registration - you can't register a car without insurance - don't know if that varies by state. We both had a SSN when we got our U.S. insurance, but of course no real U.S. credit rating, our premiums were very similar to what we were paying in Alberta.

One other thing, before you leave Canada, go and grab a 5 year driver's abstract - AllState accepted that from us in lieu of a letter of experience.

When I was looking into this last year, ICBC advised to get the driver's abstract and also a claims history letter. They can be done fairly quickly and are quite useful.

ICBC 1 800 663 3051

Later...

[Carlawarla 1]

My husband had State Farm. He just phoned them up, asked them to put me on the insurance for both vehicles. They did so, without any extra charge. I've read on here some places were charging some people double the insurance to add their spouse. That's ridiculous and I'd be changing companies if that happened. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

Yeah...again, I won't just be added to my wife's insurance. That would be nice, of course, but it's not a possibility right now.

Thanks for all of your input so far, folks...it has been helpful. I'm quite glad I asked the question NOW, as there are some things I'll have to round up before I move.

[BermyCat 1]

Do you have access to USAA insurance? They took my Alien number until my SSN arrived and their rates are really reasonable.

~ Catherine

[Flames9_RN 358]

I posted the link earlier to get ur BC drivers record, for soem reason i think they emailed a copy to me. Never needed it as at that time we were with State farm, and they told us they were able to obtain my record from Canada, since they operated in Canada as well. Not sure if thats true, just know that I didnt have to provide them anything and was added to the policy with no problems

[Krikit 1,163]

So once you register your car in the state, THEN you get insurance? So what about the time between registration and insurance? You can't drive? I'll still be covered by my Canadian insurance, mind you, so that should last for about a month after POE.

My Canadian car insurer told me they would cover me for up to a month following my move. My husband called his insurer, GEICO, and they added me and my car onto his policy and told me to update them when I had my Florida driver's license and the new plates once I had the car registered. I believe I had to show proof of insurance when I registered the car.

And I do 50 MpH through school zones too...

That wouldn't be speeding here! I kid you not.... some school areas have a 45mph zone.... and that's slowing it down from 55mph.

[Gypsyangel 11]

Here's the DMV link for DC

http://dmv.dc.gov/serv/dlicense/get_non_us...en_convert.shtm

Sorry, I'm no help with the insurance question, but it seems that you could get insured by somewhere like Geico. They seem more flexible than other insurance companies when it comes to out of country people.

[derekkj 0]

Actually, I think Wyatt will be in VA not DC so here is the link to the "New to VA" section of the VA DMV:

http://www.dmv.state.va.us/webdoc/moving/newva.asp

FWIW, you don't actually have to have insurance to register your car in VA though you do have to pay a $500 Uninsured Motorist Fee.

Besides the insurance, Wyatt, you are also going to have get the car registered (which means getting an safety/emissions inspection first) and also paying personal property tax to Alexandria so you can get a decal to put in your windshield. And as I found out the hard way Alexandria police just LOVE to give tickets if you don't have the correct decal. Each county has their own decal so when D and I moved from Arlington to Alexandria back in September (all of 3 miles), one of the first things I did was register with Alexandria. And even though you have 30 days to do so, after only 2 weeks both D and my car got ticketed. I managed to get them overturned but it was just a pain to have to deal with.

Oh, and for both the 2003 Impala and 1995 Saturn, we pay $67.75 a month with Allstate. We got a discount for being married as well as a discount on our home owners.

Ain't moving a joy?

[Wyatt's Torch 45]

Actually, I think Wyatt will be in VA not DC so here is the link to the "New to VA" section of the VA DMV:

http://www.dmv.state.va.us/webdoc/moving/newva.asp

FWIW, you don't actually have to have insurance to register your car in VA though you do have to pay a $500 Uninsured Motorist Fee.

Besides the insurance, Wyatt, you are also going to have get the car registered (which means getting an safety/emissions inspection first) and also paying personal property tax to Alexandria so you can get a decal to put in your windshield. And as I found out the hard way Alexandria police just LOVE to give tickets if you don't have the correct decal. Each county has their own decal so when D and I moved from Arlington to Alexandria back in September (all of 3 miles), one of the first things I did was register with Alexandria. And even though you have 30 days to do so, after only 2 weeks both D and my car got ticketed. I managed to get them overturned but it was just a pain to have to deal with.

Oh, and for both the 2003 Impala and 1995 Saturn, we pay $67.75 a month with Allstate. We got a discount for being married as well as a discount on our home owners.

Ain't moving a joy?

Thanks for all of that info.

So I'm sure they'll consider me "covered" insurance-wise with my Canadian insurance, correct? They'd better... I don't think I could afford the $500 lump sum right away...

And what do you mean by personal property tax?

[Tina&Roland 4]

We were initially with Geico, which was about $300 for 6 months. Then we decided to switch to Amica because we needed homeowner's insurance. Usually you'll get a better rate when you have both home and auto with the same company. We just found out about Amica Mutual by reading consumer reports. If you need to file a claim, Amica's service is highly rated.

[The_Dude 1,142]

here in Cali I am pretty sure you don't have to have insurance to get your car registered... but I could be wrong... you do have to get insurance though.. if you are pulled over and you don't have it, you could be in big trouble...

Yes you do have to have insurance to register your car in california.

There is so much of this process that varies from state to state that I won't comment on that part. Regarding shopping for insurance, I would absolutely avoid Mercury insurance, or any of those companies that advertise on T.V. during the middle of the day

[derekkj 0]

Thanks for all of that info.

So I'm sure they'll consider me "covered" insurance-wise with my Canadian insurance, correct? They'd better... I don't think I could afford the $500 lump sum right away...

And what do you mean by personal property tax?

Well, the glorious commonwealth of Virginia taxes your car each and every year, yee ha! It's based on a percentage of the blue book value of your car and you pay it to whatever county or city you are living in. I think (like us) you are in the City of Alexandria and you can find more information here:

http://alexandriava.gov/Cartax

I am not sure how much it will cost you but we pay around $125 per year for the 2003 Impala but the Saturn is so old that it has no real value so they only charge $50 for the decal.

And I would definitely check with both your Canadian insurance and the VA DMV to see if your insurance carries over down here.

So in order to register your car down here you will need to pay for registration which is about $40 or so, plus a safety and emissions inspections which will be about $50 or so for both, then whatever your personal property tax is, plus whatever it will cost for your license itself which shouldn't be more than $32. Personal property tax aside, Derek was gobsmacked about how cheap it is down here as compared to Montreal. Flames, am I forgetting anything?

[Flames9_RN 358]

Well, the glorious commonwealth of Virginia taxes your car each and every year, yee ha! It's based on a percentage of the blue book value of your car and you pay it to whatever county or city you are living in. I think (like us) you are in the City of Alexandria and you can find more information here:

http://alexandriava.gov/Cartax

I am not sure how much it will cost you but we pay around $125 per year for the 2003 Impala but the Saturn is so old that it has no real value so they only charge $50 for the decal.

And I would definitely check with both your Canadian insurance and the VA DMV to see if your insurance carries over down here.

So in order to register your car down here you will need to pay for registration which is about $40 or so, plus a safety and emissions inspections which will be about $50 or so for both, then whatever your personal property tax is, plus whatever it will cost for your license itself which shouldn't be more than $32. Personal property tax aside, Derek was gobsmacked about how cheap it is down here as compared to Montreal. Flames, am I forgetting anything?

Sounds correct. Your VA license will probably expire on the date ur 2 yr greencard expires. BEWARE that they dont always remind you when it expires! I drove around here for a month not realizing it had expired, duh!! Only way i found out it had expired--is when I went to the liquor store and the clerk told me,lol The DMV almost made me do my whole license over again and loose my motorcycle endorsement, but they took pity on me.

We deal with USAA , they are awesome, but one has to phone around and compare. For us they were the lowest back in 2006 when we switched from State farm. Never compared after that, soo happy with their service, cant be bothered too,lol