Why Does My Insurance Care If I Was Insured Before?

WV & OH ONLY

"I went without car insurance for a few months after I sold my truck. Why does a new insurance company care whether I was insured before?"

Getting charged for a stretch when you couldn't afford insurance feels backwards. I get it.

A gap in your car insurance can raise your price at many companies, because they treat prior insurance as one clue about risk, and every company weighs it differently. In West Virginia, a company can't turn down your application just because you weren't insured before. It can still consider documented underwriting information when it decides what your risk looks like.

A gap shouldn't follow anybody around like this. We'll work to find you the best rate there is right now.

Some companies care a lot about a gap and some care far less. We quote with 13 companies, and a break in coverage is a very good reason to compare them.

I'll be upfront: I wrote this hoping you'd call. If you've had a gap, you're the person I most want to shop for, because the difference between companies can be real.

WV & OH ONLY

A company is trying to judge how likely you are to have a claim and how you're going to handle a policy. It can't see the future, so it looks at your past. Whether you've kept coverage in place is one piece of that past. Fair or not, a lot of companies look at it.

They can check. LexisNexis describes a product called Current Carrier that identifies who has insured an applicant, and it says the product helps insurers find a possible lapse. It's built from insurers that contribute data, and not every insurance company uses that product. Still, assume a gap can be found, and tell the truth about it.

Not for that reason alone. West Virginia Code 33-6B-3 prohibits declining an application for private passenger auto liability because you haven't previously been insured, or because you went without coverage for a period before applying. The same section says it doesn't stop a company from using legitimate, documented underwriting data to make its own assessment of the risk.

So those are two different things. Turning you down for the gap is off the table. Your price can be another matter. I haven't found a West Virginia or Ohio law that stops a company from pricing for a gap. That's not proof there's none, so ask me about your specific situation.

West Virginia has a specific protection. Under West Virginia Code 33-6-40, no one may deny, refuse to renew, cancel or charge more solely because a service member's active duty caused a break in continuous coverage. Companies are supposed to treat you as if you stayed covered. The protection includes National Guard service. It doesn't apply if the gap started before active duty and had nothing to do with it.

If that's you, tell me. Bring your orders.

Tell me that too, and tell me the dates. Not having a car is a different story than having a car with no insurance on it, and there's a legal difference. West Virginia requires insurance on a registered vehicle, and Ohio requires proof of financial responsibility to operate one or let someone else operate it. How a given company treats a gap with no car is up to that company.

It's worth fixing. LexisNexis says Current Carrier is a consumer reporting product, and that means you can dispute inaccurate information with it. Find your old declarations page or a letter from your old company showing the dates. If a report was part of why your price went up, you should get a notice saying so.

A switch between companies can also look strange if one policy ended on a Friday and the next started the following Monday. Keep your paperwork.

• Don't cancel your old policy until the new one starts
• Shop before your renewal date and not after
• If you're selling a car and buying another, call me before the first one is gone
• If you can't pay this month, call me before the due date. We've got more options before a policy ends than after

There's more on this in common insurance mistakes.

Get insured, today if you can, and start building your history back up. Every month you stay covered is a month in your favor from here on. Don't drive uninsured while you think about it.

Had a gap? Don't be embarrassed about it. Call me and let's find the company that cares about it least.

WV & OH ONLY

Next in the series: Part 31, Why Do They Want So Much Money Down?