What is short term car insurance, and why would one want it? Well, short term car insurance refers to temporary insurance for your car and may be useful for a number of reasons. Short term car insurance offers full, comprehensive coverage for a car and covers anyone who drives the vehicle. This is great when you’re lending your car to a friend or visitor who is not listed on your car insurance policy. Short term car insurance also works for you when you’re the one borrowing or driving someone else’s vehicle and want to cover all angles. It affords peace of mind in these situations since it will cover liability in the case of an accident while driving a borrowed vehicle. This is especially useful when traveling, be it out of state out of the country.

Short term car insurance can be for as short a time as one day, and extend for a period of twenty-eight days. So, you could even use it for a single day or event, say when a young member of the family is taking their driver’s test, or you are moving and borrowing someone’s truck, or maybe heading for a vacation in a borrowed RV. Learner drivers, young drivers under 21 who find it exorbitant to get car insurance, and classic car owners or drivers who only take the vehicle out once in a way for a rally or special event, are all perfect candidates to avail of short-term car insurance.

And more often than not, short-term car insurance also covers breakdowns. So, what are some things you should know about getting short term car insurance? For one, it will not affect the no-claim policy on the main insurance associated with the car a big relief especially when it’s your car that is being driven by another! You can get the coverage instantly, as soon as you purchase, with no waiting period, which works especially well in situations where there is an immediate need or emergency. It would also be advantageous to someone who doesn’t have the money or ability to put up the funds, upfront, for an annual car insurance policy. While you can get insured the moment you buy it, with a short-term car insurance policy, it can also be purchased up to thirty days in advance, which helps when you’re on a planned business or leisure trip and want to make sure you’ve got all your bases covered.

You need to have car insurance in order to drive your car every state mandates a certain basic insurance coverage. If you don’t have the money to spend on additional coverage, then, even though most experts and car insurance groups would not recommend it, you can go with what is the minimum mandated coverage for your state. But if you have a nicer or newer car, and you don’t want to take a risk by having only the bare minimum, or even want full coverage for a younger or newer driver in the family, well, don’t despair! You can still get yourself cheap car insurance that won’t break the bank.

Today, there are numerous players in the car insurance space, including the well-known and established car insurance groups like State Farm, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, to name a few. There are also players who have established themselves later on, and built a reputation for offering highly competitive rates, oftentimes the cheapest and most affordable option, like Geico and Progressive. There are also numerous smaller players that specialize in providing cheap car insurance, and you can find most of them online.

Researching online is really the best way to go when you want to compare and shop around between the various car insurance groups’ offerings. Not only can you head to individual car insurance group company sites and do an online check to see what kind of rates they offer for your bracket and driver demographic, you can also make use of the information on aggregator sites that have offer you side by side comparisons from many different players, so you can make sure you’re aware of what the cheap car insurance options available to you are. They even categorize them across different demographics like accident-free drivers, low income drivers, young drivers, seniors, and of course, neighborhood or zip code, and states. The last is needed given that some states have no-fault clauses (example, Florida) or a ton of regulations governing car insurance and insurers (Massachusetts), which makes it trickier and also costlier for the car insurance groups.

Opting for a higher deductible, bundling your car insurance with other insurance (homeowners insurance, for example), skipping collision for an old car, and perhaps most important, maintaining good credit by paying bills on time and not defaulting on loans are all good ways to help keep your car insurance costs down and get cheap car insurance for yourself.

It is not up to the owner or driver of a car as to whether to carry insurance for the vehicle or not. It is a requirement, and by law, you cannot drive around in a vehicle that is uninsured. So, this means that when you’re buying a car, borrowing one, trading one, or even selling it, it is imperative to know for sure that the car’s papers, including insurance, are in order.

A simple and easy way to do this is to check out the vehicle history report, which can be accomplished if you know the car’s VIN or vehicle identification number. Now should you be the potential buyer of the vehicle, then getting the vehicle history and information affords you a certain peace of mind, and you will know that everything is in order. And even when you’re the seller, by furnishing the vehicle history report (VHR) to serious bidders, you are helping your own cause and proving the clean record your vehicle has or at least, validating the vehicle’s history as per the information you already shared. If the VHR has any questionable information that maybe even you are unaware of, you can have it looked into to ease the mind of your buyer. After all, if you bought the car from a friend or were given it by a relative, you yourself may not have full knowledge of its past history.

Another instance when you would want to know whether a vehicle is insured, is in the unfortunate circumstance that you are involved in an accident with another vehicle if the other driver flees the scene or refuses to furnish you with insurance information in the event of a dispute, you can simply use the vehicle’s license plate details to track down the information. Your local DMV should be able to help with this, and if not, the police will be able to guide you. Thus, using either a car’s vehicle identification number or else driver name and license plate number, you should be able to get information on whether the car has insurance that is current and valid. However, most of the time you will probably just exchange insurance information with the other driver and here too, you should do your own check car insured at present, and what the coverage is.

You might wonder why you would ever need to find out if a car is insured. After all, if the car is yours, you probably are already well aware of every detail of the insurance, especially the costs and coverage. But how about in those instances when you are not the owner of a car, but perhaps the potential buyer, or a temporary driver. Or perchance you’ve inherited the car, or found it amongst the belongings of a recently deceased relative’s, and aren’t quite sure of its antecedents, and whether you should be driving it around. Wouldn’t you want to be secure in the knowledge that the car you’re driving is insured?

And in the case of a potential purchase of a vehicle, wouldn’t you want to know the car’s history, including accident record, any damages, recalls or customer complaints, structural damages, services and repairs, title information, odometer readings, whether it has or even had a lien on it, and that it is not or has never been stolen that it actually is the property of the person who is selling it to you? Sure, the car’s papers should be able to prove these details to an extent, but there is no harm in being absolutely certain and the way to do that is by running the car vehicle identification number, aka VIN, and obtaining its vehicle history report (VHR). And in case you are not the first owner of a car you are planning on selling, and yourself do not have complete knowledge of the vehicle’s past, whether it has been in an accident, was ever reported stolen, etc., you can improve your chances of sale with an interested party by being transparent and furnishing the vehicle’s history.

First off, where do you find your car’s VIN information? The driver’s side, inside dash is the most common place where the VIN will be etched, followed by the front of the engine, under the car’s hood. Other places to check if these two don’t yield results is the trunk under your spare tire, the rear wheel well, or the driver’s side door jam. You can find websites or services online that will give you a VHR for free, and though that may not be the complete history, it will give you a glimpse of the big picture. For a thorough report, you can go for a paid service.

So, you’ve decided to skip the whole car buying routine, and are instead leasing a vehicle. Well, there are distinct advantages to this choice. For one, it is overall less money you put on the table. For another, leased cars are generally much newer, if not brand new, and they also are a way to drive around a more expensive and fancier car that you maybe would not splurge or even be able to afford as a purchase. And these days, the economics are in favor of a lease, given that rates of interest being extremely favorable for leasing.

When you lease, you get to drive a nice car, for a stipulated period of time, and then hand it back to the dealer when you’re lease is up. But how does insurance work, in such a situation? Is it like when you rent a car, and it is something you get or purchase alongside the car lease? Or is it more like when you’re the owner of the vehicle, and you get insured? The answer is that you must absolutely have lease car insurance for your leased vehicle, and that coverage must be purchased and in place from the moment you start driving the car.

Now, while a lease on a car is a great way to save money, this savings does not apply to the insurance. In fact, a lot of times, having a certain level of insurance is a requisite and part of the lease agreement. Which, if you think about it, makes perfect sense. Since you are not the owner of the vehicle, the company leasing it out has to make sure it is covered in the event of theft of its property or if the leaser gets in an accident. Without adequate insurance coverage, leasing companies would find themselves liable a lot! So, expect to have to get proper coverage, befitting the make, model and newness of the car you’ve chosen to take on and lease.

In fact, while liability of a certain level is a requisite in most states, expect to have to buy and maintain more than the basic, since most leasing companies will have a requirement for liability that exceeds the state mandated minimum amount. You may also have to spring for collision and comprehensive coverage in order to be able to lease a car, since unlike when you’re the owner and can decide to forgo that level of coverage and take a chance, that won’t work as a leaser.

Florida ranks fourth in the United States, and it is considered as one of the most expensive states to insure a vehicle. So getting car insurance in the state can be an expensive affair, especially when you’re moving there from a state where the rates are much lower and the regulations less stringent.

What makes Florida more costly than the majority of the states in the continental United States, when it comes to car insurance? Well for one, Florida has a high number of senior or elderly drivers it is the retirement capital of the country after all! The state also has no-fault laws which obviously impact car insurance rates. But don’t dismay there are definitely ways to get affordable car insurance quotes in Florida that won’t break the bank or make you regret owning a car. All you need is some patience and a little time to go comparison shopping for the best car insurance quotes Florida.

You will be asked the following details when you’re getting quotes on car insurance, so make sure to have the information ready: zip code, age, marital status, driving record. All the major car insurance companies, like State Farm, Geico, Allstate, Progressive, Travelers, MetLife, and Liberty Mutual, amongst others, offer car insurance in Florida. In order to make sure you are getting the best possible deal for yourself, go to all the car insurers’ websites, enter your details and get yourself a quote. You may find that there are significant differences in quotes from the different companies. Why, you ask? Well, even though they all ask you for the same information, each insurer weights them differently, so the overall costs will definitely vary. And by person. So the great deal your friend got may not work out to be the best for you. Also be aware that different cities within the state of Florida will have different rates of insurance, as will the type of neighborhood you live in.

It is always better to have more than the state mandated minimum coverage, so here’s what Florida requires as the basic coverage for drivers to insure their vehicles in the state. $10,000 in property damage liability per accident, with $10,000 in personal injury protection are required. The personal injury protection is important to note for a state with a no-fault clause, since this means that whoever is at fault in the case of an accident is irrelevant, and drivers must claim from their own insurance company for personal injury protection.

The sunshine state, as Florida is commonly referred to, is also a haven for retirees. A large number of older American citizens, especially those of some affluence, or from the colder regions of the country, are increasingly choosing to retire to Florida, or at least spend the winter months in homes that they have and own in the state. What does this mean in terms of car insurance? Well, elevated cost of getting a car insured. An additional and important factor for Florida coming in amongst the top five most expensive states in the country to get a car insured, is that it is a no-fault state. What this means is that in the event of an accident, no matter which party was at fault, each driver has to file a claim for personal injury protection from their own insurance company, and not, as in states without the no-fault rule, the insurance of the driver responsible for the mishap.

Does this mean that anyone wishing to get car insurance quotes in Florida must resign himself or herself to the idea of paying a chunk of change for insuring a vehicle? Actually, no. What becomes important in this scenario is to go hunting for the best deal and compare between the car insurance quotes offered by different insurers in the state. It is usually best to do this online, as it is quicker and easier than having to talk to different agents or visit numerous offices. Per company you’re comparing, you can expect to spend around 10 minutes, so if you are doing a comparison between 5-6 companies, you should be done with the process in under an hour. Not a lot of time at all, considering you could probably save yourself a few hundred dollars on your annual car insurance.

Every company will want your zip code, age, marital status, driving history, including accidents and tickets information. Do keep in mind that each of these factors will influence and affect the quote you get for car insurance. And also know that not all the factors are the same in the eyes of the various insurance companies some might give more weight to one factor, while others will give more percentage points to another. Hence, despite you entering the exact same information across the different websites, you could potentially end up with vastly varying quotes, with differences of a thousand dollars or more, annual.