US car insurance for a visiting foreigner
June 3, 2006 12:44 PM Subscribe
How do I find affordable car insurance for a used car that I plan to buy in the US to tour around in? I will be visiting from the UK without a US driving license, or a permanent US address (unless I twist a reluctant friend's arm over that). Someone said that in some states cars are sold with basic insurance -- would it be useful to start there?
Well, when I bought my new car in Washington state, the dealer gave me the number of an insurance agent and I bought insurance for the car in the dealership showroom. Is that what your friend meant?
Anyway, you can definitely insure a car with a foreign driver's license, as I insured the car on my Canadian driver's license. However, it is expensive. (my rates were halved by acquiring a US driver's license and one year of driving history).
You need an address on the insurance application. (the typical question is, what is the address where the vehicle will be parked at night). This determines the insurance rate (which varies not only by state, but by neighbourhood). I don't know what happens if you don't have such an address. Registering and plating a vehicle without an address in the state of registration would also be tough.
posted by crazycanuck at 3:30 PM on June 3, 2006
Anyway, you can definitely insure a car with a foreign driver's license, as I insured the car on my Canadian driver's license. However, it is expensive. (my rates were halved by acquiring a US driver's license and one year of driving history).
You need an address on the insurance application. (the typical question is, what is the address where the vehicle will be parked at night). This determines the insurance rate (which varies not only by state, but by neighbourhood). I don't know what happens if you don't have such an address. Registering and plating a vehicle without an address in the state of registration would also be tough.
posted by crazycanuck at 3:30 PM on June 3, 2006
It's going to be tough to get cheap insurance on a car without a US address, a US driving license and especially without a US driving history. You may find that car rental rates work out to be a pretty good deal, especially considering that it includes free roadside assistance if you have a serious crash or breakdown. I moved to the US from the UK a few years ago, and my insurance rates were astronomical at first, due to the lack of driving history.
posted by Joh at 11:14 PM on June 3, 2006
posted by Joh at 11:14 PM on June 3, 2006
How long are you going to be in the US for? Longer than the Visa Waiver? More than a year?
posted by crabintheocean at 11:50 PM on June 3, 2006
posted by crabintheocean at 11:50 PM on June 3, 2006
Response by poster: Thanks for the all the work people have put into answers, and the supplementary questions. Plan A would be a tour of 3-5 months, Plan B would be to try and pick up a year's computing teaching at a university -- it depends partly on the health of our elderly parents.
I hadn't thought that renting would be cost effective, though it might fit well with Plan B if we could live without a car weekdays. OTOH Plan B would make insuring our own car easier, as we would have a permanent base.
I could presumably add a US driving license to my collection if that helped -- but I can't produce a US driving history.
posted by Idcoytco at 3:31 AM on June 4, 2006
I hadn't thought that renting would be cost effective, though it might fit well with Plan B if we could live without a car weekdays. OTOH Plan B would make insuring our own car easier, as we would have a permanent base.
I could presumably add a US driving license to my collection if that helped -- but I can't produce a US driving history.
posted by Idcoytco at 3:31 AM on June 4, 2006
You will need an address in order to purchase a car in the first place. As far as I am aware every US State requires that you have a car title and tag in order to legally drive. They don't just issue tags to vagrants off the street, you would need something to put on their forms.
posted by Megafly at 6:17 PM on June 5, 2006
posted by Megafly at 6:17 PM on June 5, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
My first thought on hearing that was "that's not true" but IANAIA. I have, however, insured cars in three states and I'm not aware of anyplace where you can buy a car that comes with insurance. I guess I have a few questions
- is there a reason you are buying a car instead of renting [where insurance comes with it if you buy it] or leasing [I don't know about insurance on leased cars]?
- will you be "based" in one location so that you could, for example, get a post office box? Insurance companies will want someplace to send bills and keep track of you, so it seems unlikely that you could get insurance without having some sort of address. Also, insurance in the US is base don a lot on where you live -- it costs me a lot less to insure a car in Vermont than it did in Washington state, for example -- so this may come in to play.
This page was one of a few I found explaining to foreign students what car insurance is like in the US. I'd suggest getting on a site that sells car insurance to Americans and trying to find one with online reps and asking them via chat. I don't have enough of an insurance overview to know what all the specific rules are, but you know that they would.
posted by jessamyn at 3:04 PM on June 3, 2006