When financing a vehicle, do I have to buy full coverage insurance on the vehicle before I drive it off the car lot?
by 
meganicole86
ANSWERS: 8
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This may vary by state. In my experience in Texas, if you have insurance on a car and you trade it in on a new one, the insurane will carry over automatically and you have a couple days to notify your insurance company about the new car. Premium may be higher. If old car did not have collesion, comprehensive, ... the new one would not. If you finance a car the finance company generally requires full coverage. Best bet is to call your agent before driving away in the new car; they can generally make temp arrangements fast. Be careful of letting dealer arrange insurance; thay can be very high.
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I would contact your agent prior to picking up your car. Like the OneUp posted here, laws can vary by state, and it's better to err on the side of caution than have to go back to the dealer again to get your car. Where I live in the State of Maine, we can not even drive the car off the lot unless we can prove that it has insurance. This means once we make a deal on a car and before we contracturally "buy" it, we have to get a binder from our agent before we the dealer can hand over the keys. Either that, or we have our insurance agent fax over a binder. Heck, we can't even drive a car in Maine without an insurance binder in it! If we get pulled over and don't have proof of insurance, we can get a ticket. Geesh...
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In California it is against the law to drive without insurance. I'm not sure what you mean by "full coverage", because there is a minimum required by the state, and then the sky's the limit above that.
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Any bank that loans you money will want their intrest covered. So yes any time you finance a vehicle part of the contract will be that you have physical damage coverage on the vehicle.(full coverage)It does not matter what state you are in or what the law is. This is a contractual obligation from the bank. As the guy above says though if you have another vehicle or traded in another vehicle with full coverage then you can present that proof of insurance to drive it off of the lot. From there it depends on your insurance companies rules for newly accuired vehicles. usually from 7-21 days for most companies you would have coverage up to the previous limits or current limits if other owned vehicle.
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IF the dealership takes care of the financing, they will want to call your insurance agent for verification of your insurance. In some states, whatever coverage you have on a vehicle you trade in would extend to the "replacement" vehicle. But, only the same coverages......no comp. and collision if you didn't have it on the trade in. It's always a good idea to get a quote on a different vehicle before making the deal.......that eliminates the possible shock after your already committed.
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IF YOU HAVE INSURANCE ON ANOTHER VEHICLE, THEN YOU NEED TO TRANSFER IT TO YOUR NEW CAR. IF NOT YOU NEED TO FULLY INSURE THE VEHICLE THAT YOUR BUYING BEFORE DRIVING IT OFF THE LOT. FOR ALL CONCERN.
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Heavens there is too much information on here and people want to get carried away. Here is the closest thing to a right answer you will get. Yes and No =)... This will depend on your carrier and coverage. If you have another vehicle with Comprehensive & Collission coverage with any major insurance carrier then coverage will extend to the "replacement vehicle" or "newely accuired vehicle" for x amount of days(varies by carrier) what they want is for you to let them know about the new vehicle ASAP but if you purchace a vehicle on a Saturday and your agents office is closed they will accept the Dec page from your other carrier or your insurance card as long as the comp and coll coverages are shown on the card. So if you do not have a insured vehicle or if you carry Liability only then yes you will have to purchase the policy before they will let you off the lot in order to cover the banks intrest in the vehicle.
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Where I live you sure do. By law, you must have at least liability coverage on your auto to drive it. The financing company will often insist that the insurance also covers collision.
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