A Guide to Auto Insurance in North Carolina (NC)

Automobile registration first started in the early 1900's with North Carolina becoming known for having the largest amount of highways maintained by the state. Problems grew however with uninsured drivers becoming more prevelant until North Carolina auto insurance became required statewide in 1957. This has led to the state of North Carolina becoming a leader when it comes to the policy of using insurance and driver's registration to work together so that every driver has coverage from a qualified auto insurer.

North Carolina Insurance companies are required to inform the Noirth Carolina State Department of Motor Vehicles when a policy is cancelled or lapses. The state laws require that in order to operate a vehicle, you must have current, continued automobile insurance and that if you do not have current auto insurance you must surrender your license plates.

So the laws are quite stringent, but this does at least ensure both that the amount of drivers in the state who don't carry adequate North Carolina Auto Insurance is kept to a minimum, and also that when there is an accident it is far more likely that the financial headaches of a crash do not cause undue financial burdens on the participants.

In addition to the statutory minimum requirements that drivers have to have, the state of North Carolina requires that if you want to change your auto insurance provider that you have a grace period of ten days in which to notify the North Carolina State Departmemt of Motor Vehicles of a possible change and obtain other insurance with a licensed agent. If the driver fails to notify the state within the time period they lose their license plates for a minimum of one month, this is an incentive designed to take care of the problemot drivers having their auto insurance lapse and then not quickly get around to getting new cover.

In order to obtain your license plates after 30 days, you need to provide the new North Carolina auto insurance informaton and pay two different fees, which include a penalty fee beginning at $50.00, a service fee of $50.00, plus pay for new license plates. So it is abundantly clear that not only is not having auto insurance a bad idea from a legal and possible future financial perspective. It is also damaging to your bank balance in the short term!

There are minimum amounts of liability automobile insurance requred for a vehicle classified as a private passenger vehicle in North Carolina, which is $30,000 for one person and this jumps to $60,000 for two or more people and a total of $25,000 for any property damage that entails from an accident. The reason that so many strigent rules are required for auto insurance in North Carolina is that it is becoming more common for drivers to act irresponsibly if they are not held accountable for driving in a safe manner.

Insurance is a very good thing, after all in this economy, who has thousands of dollars to pay for someone else's hospital bill or repair their own car if an accident occurs? Not many people. And the truth is that medical bills alone can potentially run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and that doesn't even tak into account possible legal costs if you are also found to be liable for an auto accident in North Carolina.

At the DMV, automobile owners can pay with either a check, money order or with cash. The check however can't be a starter check and must be legibly written in black or blue ink (this helps to avoid fraud). If an operator or owner of a passenger vehicle feels that they were denied insurance unfairly due to circumstances beyond their control, they can apply to have a hearing to address their complaints. If a registered owner or operator of a vehicle has questions they can check out the state website.

It is a good firts step if you are looking to get good cover to get some quotes right now, and then you will more easily be able to guage the costs and the various differences between the different auto policies that the North Carolina Auto Insurance Companies offer in the state.



 

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