JosiesJourney

Hi all

Loving the helpful advice I have received so far in the forum so am hoping someone can help me on a query on car insurance.....we move to NJ from the North of England in a month and have obtained our IDPs. Our immigration consultant has advised that car insurance is really expensive there - hers cost $1500 for the year - is this a common sort of price? We don't have credit history over there yet so could that make it more expensive?

Any advice really appreciated :-)

J

Rete

Actually, that is a cheap price for New Jersey so she must have an older vehicle and no points on her license and/or accidents.

I don't believe your credit history plays into your cost of auto insurance but the lack of driving history will. Also the ages of the drivers, the type of vehicles insured, the number of miles estimated you will drive per year, the amount of coverage you decide to carry and if you will have collision and comprehensive coverage, as well, the amount of deductible, where you live and where the auto is housed will all play a part in the amount you will be charged for auto insurance.

MidAtlantic

Actually credit based insurance scores are used by most insurance companies as a factor in determining rates. Here is a helpful explanation: https://www.esurance.com/info/car/my...insurance-rate

This means that anyone with no US credit history is likely to have a loaded premium.

Some here have reported some success in having companies take account of a UK no-claims history. I recall GEICO being mentioned as willing to take it into account. In the end the only solution is to shop around, but make sure that you compare like with like.

Rete

I don't use einsurance and would never ever deal with Allstate for any type of insurance policy.

MidAtlantic

OK, but it still explains the use of credit information for the setting of premiums which is why I referred to it.

Jerseygirl

NJ is the most expensive state for auto insurance. See if your employer is a member of NJ manufacturers. Their rates are good...the service is excellent...they are by far the best.

Edit: We had homeowners insurance through them and had to claim for damage due to Hurricane Sandy. No problem they said...get the work done and send us the bill. They didn't even send an assessor to inspect the damage.

Jack8602

i paid $2,400 for my first year, i'm in Texas though and everyone here drives like complete bum pirates

Insurers will look at your credit as MidAtlantic has said.

It will eventually drop as you build history. Try and find an insurer who will acknowledge your UK history, i wasn't so lucky to find one that did in Texas.

mrken30

It may take some shopping around as it is difficult to find out who take previous driving experience and not US driving history. I ended up going with American Family many years ago.

Many insurers will give multi-policy discounts, so may be beneficial to take out renters/home owners insurance with the same company.

You can check your auto insurance score here once you get an SSN

https://www.creditkarma.com/auto-insurance-score

You can compare rates and find insurance companies here

https://www.nerdwallet.com/insurance...nsurance-rates

MarylandNed

Not even close. Michigan usually tops the list.

Top 10 Most Expensive States for Car Insurance: 2017 » AutoGuide.com News

Rathy

We just moved to Boston MA. We had insurance 10 years ago here with Geico. They have taken our no claims history and credit rating into consideration. The cost was around the 1500 mark.

MorsePacific

Honestly if anything they should look at your driving history as a UK driver and say "Well, she's going to be safer than 95% of the idiots on our roads, so here's some cheap insurance."

petitefrancaise

Liberty Mutual will accept UK no claims.

Chesten

Is it a state-specific thing? Because they wouldn't accept mine when I was shopping around a couple of weeks back, plus (separate issue) when I was looking immediately after arrival, before I'd done my TN test, they weren't interested in covering me temporarily on a UK license either. Or maybe I keep getting numpties on the phone?

That said, shopping around did pay off and I cut my premium by nearly 1/3 and improved my coverage too.

Ecto17

I can second the NJM recommendation. They saved us a lot of money compared to any other quotes we got. We arrived in June and are paying just under 4K annually for 2 suvs with very comprehensive cover. I think had we not had access to NJM then the next best quote was somewhere between 500-800 more annually for them both.

petitefrancaise

did you go through an agent or straight to them?


I keep saying this but getting AIG inbound USA for $450 is well worth it. One of the things they will do for you is shop around for insurances that will take your previous country no claims history. We saved that $450 on our first 6 months car insurance based on what I had been able to find myself. They will also sort out renters insurance, credit cards, mortgages.

They referred us to Liberty Mutual and it may well be that Liberty Mutual has a team hidden away somewhere that can handle foreign information. Ours was all in french too.