g1ant

It now looks like our permanent move to Texas will not be until 2006.

So far, I have a house in Texas that is rented out. I passed my Texas driving test in May 2004 so I have one year on it already.

Bearing in mind the high cost of auto insurance for "new" drivers (I've had a clean licence in the UK now for 30 years), would the following help me financially in the long run or would it be a waste of time and money.

The plan is this. When I'm in Texas in July, I buy an absolute beater of a car for maybe $100 or so. Insure the car third party and park it up behind my mate's house for a year.

Then when I go looking for a proper car and insurance in a years time, I have two years on my licence and one year of insurance history.

Good idea? or waste of time?

Alex.

dbj1000

Hmm. Remembering back all the way to last year, our first auto insurance with Progressive was around $3,000 per year per vehicle, but we had no Texas drivers license.

Once we had our licenses that dropped to around $1000 per year. Once we combined our home and car insurance that dropped again to around $730, which is what we pay now. We found that both the AAA insurance and our current company (Safeco) accepted a faxed no-claims statement from our past insurer in the UK.

So, assuming you're at about the second stage above (Texas license) I can see no advantage at all in paying for a year of insurance on a car you won't drive.

If you've found an insurance company that insists on a year or more of insurance history then shop around. In particular, talk to the company that's insuring your home. They're most likely to be prepared to give you a good deal. Don't start out by telling them that you've not had insurance in the US before. When they ask, tell them that you have a clean driving record in the UK and can provide documents to prove it. If that isn't sufficient, immediately ask discuss this with a supervisor - all to often the grunts in these companies will switch right off if you mention a non-standard situation like this.

Good luck!

Ray

Your still thinking the UK system ..forget it .. no such thing as third party here..

AdobePinon

Yeah, but you could insure for just fire and theft. It would be cheap, but whether it would have any real advantage, I don't know. Probably just pissing money away. Manc would know.

Ray

Not here in FL ... but who know in TX

Manc

Fire and Theft is just Comp (or sometimes called 'Other than Collision')

I don't think that's sufficient to maintain continuous insurance on it's own. (It wouldn't be here anyhoo)


throw 20/40/10 liability limits on it and park it up.

USBound

I got liability (CA minimum) on my beat up old chrysler .. cost around $63/month ... after 6months I bought a Ford Expedition fully expecting to pay $3000/year insurance... contacted a few companies and ended up going with Infinity costing $1430 for the year, liability for both cars + comp for the ford.... I've been told this will only go down too.. guess they must like insuring the gas hoggers here :-P

BritGuyTN

liability is third party over here

Manc

goes by PLPD too.

Patrick

Here are my thoughts on car insurance


****%%####!!!!!*****&^(**&^^%$$##@@@!!@!!!!!!@@##$ $$

Wintersong

Damn. You beat me to it

Big D

we used allstate here in Texas and for some reason they took into account our UK insurance and wanted proof of no claims - took our premium from over 1k to 400 bux for 6 months - might be worth talking to them