car insurance advice
 

OK, If anybody is familiar with car insurance issues in Pennsylvania, chime in. I did a very stupid thing--I let my car insurance lapse. There was no reason, I just got swamped and forgot to send in the stupid payment. I remmebered, slightly too late, and phoned in the payment this evening, less than 24 hours after the cancellation time of 12:01AM July 5.

The quesition, of course, is, exactly how much trouble am I in? The PennDOT web site informs me that if inurance coverage lapses, they can suspend registration and license for 3 months. The only out is if coverage was restored in less than 31 days and the vehicle was not driven during the time there was no coverage.

I guess it depends on your insurance company. I've done that with Rho's car insurance before...nothing happened. Of course, Rho's car is registered in Maryland, but MVA has the same rules on car insurance as PennDOT.

You should be fine, Steve...but call your insurance company just to be sure.

It depends on whether your company is trying to trim policies or not. If not then no problem. If they are then they can drop you for non payment and you'll have to find another company. You will also pay a higher rate for 3 years with a new company because of being dropped, regardless of cause.

I'd definately be more worried about paying more for insurance because the insurance company screws you. The folks at the DOT aren't likely to have even noticed until at least a few months have gone by.

YMMV.

Not sure about Penn, but here in the Great White North (Minnesota), the DOT just don't care until you get pulled over. Then the fun starts. I'm pretty sure it's a two-hundred dollar fine, plus $35 bucks a day (and towing charges) until you get insurance. Wheee!

Well, all appears OK. It took till Monday evening for my payment to post, which to be fair is typical (they say it takes 24-48 hours for a payment to show on the account.) But of course meanwhile if I checked my acconut status is was screaming cancelled policy!! Not exactly reassuring. But everything appears fine, they haven't increased my payment or cancelled it or anything. I'm sure it was just late Saturday after a long day, but I did freak when I read the PennDOT web site.

Call it a cheap lesson then. You probably won't forget again.:D

tried one before...
 

gee you wont really forget this lesson :headshake i had tried one before ! heheh knock on wood that i wont happen again. heheh check http://www.insurancepaylite.com and see how other insurance companies priced! :lol: Only 5 or 6 years ago auto insurance premiums seemed very affordable with fantastic coverage to match. Well, if you're an individual or family who pays for insurance today chances are you're literally getting punched in the pocket book, and it hurts.

Call your agent. Probably nothing will happen as long as you quickly pay. The agent can probably backdate the coverage. Either you'll get a letter from Motor Vehicle or, there will be no problem.

This all sounds pretty heavy - don't think we have such a worrying procedure here. Normally insurance companies renew on the basis that if you say nothing cover is maintained. You still can then cancel and go elsewhere within a few days of anniversary date. If you did have a situation that insurance lapsed and there was a gap, nothing would happen.

You'd have to have an accident or be pulled up by the police, or other such incident for it to be picked up. Maybe not such a good practice as it encourages those who deliberately don't bother to get insured to get away with it... but on the plus side you don't end up becoming paranoid if it is a genuine error...

I bet he'll be fine. Let us know!

Y'all do realize that the original post is pushing three years old now?

hahaha... no, dammit!

what happened then?

Well, see, we have these little date indicators at the top of each post.....

Nothing particular happened. They took my money and continued to insure us.

at least i was right about that part.