Will you get an insurance or registration first for your car? The answer is quite simple, before you can register your car in most states in the US, insurance is keen. This is not applied to all states though but majority of them requires you to have an insurance before registration takes place.
In these states such as Arizona, Mississippi, Virginia, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Tennes-see, Washington and Wisconsin, you don’t need to provide a proof of insurance to get your car registered.
Every car owner show be able to proof the cars they own are legally theirs and thus where the registration factor comes into play. Also, this process helps taxes and other fees to be paid on your vehicle happen. The insurance will serve as a proof to cover any form of expenses in terms of accident or damages.
When you purchase a vehicle, you are required to register it in the state you resident. This gives you the chance to drive on the public street of US. With that, most states will expect you to provide an insurance on your car before they register it.
In this article we will be diving into two main questions here. Thus, if you need to get an insurance or registration first and if you can also register your car without insurance.
Will you get an insurance or registration first?
As stated above, most states won’t approval your car registration without a proof of insurance. On the other hand, a few are not keen on getting insurance before you have your car registered. It’s illegal to drive on the public street with an unregistered vehicle. Every vehicle before authorized to move on the street of US must be registered with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
However, it’s best to find out if the state you resident requires an insurance before car registration. This because the regulations governing car registration varies in every states. It’s proper to find out more on how things are done when it comes to registration of cars in your state.
For example, as a replacement for insurance card, Hertz in Illinois, who is a large rental car company provides a letter indicating they are “Self insured” and personally responsible for liability.
Illinois law also provide that anyone can use – put $40K in trust to pay for liability claims and you meet the requirements of the law. That matches the $40K liability insurance that is the required minimum coverage. As such, there are many people who purchase more than that to protect themselves against loss. Which looks just like any other insurance.
States like New Hampshire requires a proof of financial responsibility instead of a liability insurance. This is to show that in case of accident, you can cover the cost of repair and other expenses.
In this situation, we can say that yes you need an insurance coverage first certain states before car registration is done. And since each states as it own regulations, you must meet the minimum insurance coverage requirements within that state before registration.
Car registration without proof of insurance
On the other side of this discussion, we can also say there are a few states that is insurance free before car registration. Instead of providing a proof of insurance coverage, these states might request other things to complete your registration.
At the beginning of this article, we made mentioned of states that exempt insurance in order to register a vehicle. Since insurance is a mandatory activity of every car owner, it’s best to get your car insured after registration. But even without insurance, you can still drive in New Hampshire and Virginia, all you have to show is a proof of financial responsibility.
How to register a car
This process is very simple provided you all necessary documents on your car available. Also, know the regulations surrounding car registration in your state in terms of the document requirements.
Let’s take a look at the common requirements for a car registration. They include;
- Proof of insurance
- Driver’s license
- Car title and other documents to show ownership.
- Proof of residence
- Bill of sale
- Others.
When you have all your documents ready, visit a DMV office in your state and complete some paperwork and test.
In conclusion, we can arrive at the decision that most states requires insurance first before registration. Alternatively, you can also find a few states that doesn’t require insurance before registration. The best path to follow is making a thorough research on your state in terms of car registration.
Before you drive on the public streets in the US, you need to register your car and have an insurance. Except for Virginia and New Hemisphere that doesn’t require insurance even after registration, the rest does.
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