Imagine a world where there is already money kept away to help you fully or at least partly restore a lost, stolen, broken, or burned item of yours? Wouldn’t you subscribe to such a world? Wouldn’t it be an ideal world to live in?
Well, insurance provides us with that kind of world, and this is why it is always advisable to insure your properties, such as your houses, cars, family, and even as far as insuring your life. This is important.
However, in insuring a vehicle, do you have to be the registered owner of a vehicle to insure it?
No, you don’t have to be the registered owner of a vehicle to insure it. You can insure a car that you do not own, but you must inform the insurer that you are neither the registered owner of the vehicle.
What is Car Insurance?
Car insurance or any form of vehicle insurance is simply a cover or failsafe provided against injuries, damages, or harm in whatever form towards a car or vehicle.
The reason for car insurance is primarily to provide what experts call financial protection against expected circumstances that can cause terrible damage to your car.
Car insurance usually covers things like damages from accidents, traffic collisions, and any other form of obligation that can stem from happenings around your car.
Asides from car insurance, you can insure other things, such as your house, your land, your business, company, investments, and even your life.
The meaning of each of these insurance also tallies with that of car insurance in that they are financial protection against expected/unexpected losses towards the insured property.
When Should You Insure a Car?
The best time to insure a car is before officially purchasing it. You should already have a car insurance plan ready before going to pick up your new car from the car sellers, especially if it is your first car purchase.
In some states, you are not even allowed to drive your car around without having insurance, while some other states give you a grace period ranging from one week to a month for you to get insurance for your new vehicle.
People also ask how long they have before they can insure a car they have just purchased, and the only right answer would be ‘right away.
The best time to insure a car is before even picking it up from the sellers. The next best time to insure the car is immediately after purchase.
Although some states give you the grace of a few weeks to insure your car, it is not advisable to wait that long.
Do You Have to Be the Registered Owner of a Vehicle For You to Insure It?
No, simply put, you don’t have to be the registered owner of a vehicle in order for you to buy insurance for it. You can insure a car even if you aren’t the owner, and it isn’t your name on the registration papers.
You just have to deal in good faith with the insurers by telling them exactly the truth; that you are not the owner, nor are you the registered keeper of the car you want to insure.
This means that you can insure a vehicle for your spouse, your child, your parent, your client, or even your employee. You don’t have to be the registered owner of a car before you can insure the car.
A registered owner here means the person whose name appears on the registration documents of the car.
It is important to state here that, even though it is very possible to insure a car that isn’t registered to you, some insurance companies do not allow it. They insist that you must be the registered keeper or owner before you can insure the vehicle.
What are the Best Ways to Insure a Car?
There are several ways to insure a car. You can insure the car using third-party car insurance, or comprehensive car insurance, coverage from collision, personal injury coverage, and then you can take an uninsured motorist protection.
The common way to insure a car is using a third-party car insurance method, which means that any type of damage caused by another person other than yourself, i.e. third party will be indemnified.
However, the best way to insure your car is the comprehensive car insurance method.
This type of car insurance means that your car is comprehensively insured, against third-party injuries, and even injuries caused by your sheer negligence.
Other ways of insurance are just insurance in parts and by events. For example, the collision coverage only covers your car in the event of an accident or collision; the personal injury coverage covers you or anyone else in the car at the time of the accident, etc.
Benefits of Car Insurance
Asides from the fact that it is mandatory by state laws, there are several benefits of insuring a car. Some of them are explained as follows:
Recovery of Damaged or Lost Vehicle
When your car is insured, damages are covered, as well as when your car goes missing or gets stolen. The insurance policy that you have taken on the car will cover these unfortunate incidents and help you recover.
Legal Protection
When you have the right and proper car insurance policy, you are protected legally from whatever clauses you might have missed on the car that might put you in a tight spot in the future.
Personal Injury Coverage
The right car insurance policy will cover costs associated with injuries to the driver and passengers in the event of the insured car falling into an accident.
Repair and Replacement Benefits
Your car insurance policy usually gives you benefits such as repairing damaged parts of your car. Although this depends on if such damage is covered by the insurance policy, which is why having a good insurance policy is just as important as having one at all.
Your insurance can cover windshield replacement and various other replacements in your car. It all depends on your kind of insurance coverage.
Free Garages
If you have a car insurance policy with an insurer that has garages all over the country, you benefit from that by receiving free services at the garages. Well, not exactly free, as the costs must have been covered in your premiums.