Do I Have to Let My Indiana Auto Insurance Company Know Before I Buy a New Car?

Do I Have to Let My Indiana Auto Insurance Company Know Before I Buy a New Car?

Most people don't really understand the relationship between their Indiana auto insurance coverage and new vehicles. It's easy to say you need insurance for your vehicle, not quite so easy to know what to do when you buy a new one. Here's the 411 on buying new cars in Indiana, and what you need to do to make sure you've got auto insurance coverage the minute you leave the dealer's lot.

Buying a new car is exciting-but what's your insurance going to do once you get it home?

Before we go too much farther, check with your Indiana auto insurance company to see what their policy is regarding new cars. Some insurance companies give you a certain amount of time to let them know you have a new vehicle, during which your new car will be covered by the same policy that's been covering your old one. This saves you from having to call your insurance company from the dealership and let them know your family has added to their collection before you can sign the paperwork.

Yes, there have been cars that have been in accidents the minute they pulled off the dealer lot-but we don't like to talk about it. Let's just say it's good to know you're covered just in case.

If your insurance company doesn't extend coverage to new vehicles for a certain amount of time after their purchase you're going to want to make sure you have a new policy lined up for them before you take the aforementioned drive off the dealer lot. The best thing about your Indiana insurance company is that you should be able to add a new car onto your policy in twenty minutes or less just by placing a call from your cell phone. While you may not be thrilled about spending even MORE time at the dealership getting your paperwork in order you can at least have the assurance that you're going to be done making arrangements for your auto insurance in about half the time you spent filling out the forms that make your new car yours.

Be aware that even if your insurance does cover your car for a certain number of days after purchase you're going to be working with the same coverage limitations you had on your previous vehicle. That means if you only had liability auto insurance coverage before, you're only going to have liability auto insurance now-which can be a problem if you're financing your purchase. Most lenders are a little twitchy about extending credit these days (for obvious reasons), and they want to know they've got a best-odds chance of getting back their investment even if you total your new car tomorrow (which hopefully you won't, but you can see where I'm going with this.)

That means you're going to need comprehensive and collision coverage to back up your auto insurance claims, which may mean making that call from the dealership after all.

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