Hi
I moved from the UK to New Jersey in the USA in September last year to marry my wife. I have my green card and USA NJ driving license. My UK driving license is not yet expired.
She has 12 years history, drives an old 1995 Saturn lives in a good area and has never had so much as a speeding ticket. I have 9 years driving history similarly no incidents not even a speeding ticket.
My wifes car insurance premium rose by $1100 to $2600 by adding me onto it as a second driver. She was told that since I am only now starting to drive in the USA I am considered a new driver and considered a teenager in terms of the premium.
Wonderful. As you can imagine we can't afford this. Simply to use the car occasional or drive her to an odd party now and again, it obviously isn't worth it.
By asking for help here I hoping that someone here will know if
1)There are any car insurance firms that provide cover in New Jersey that DO take into account my UK driving history and thus won't consider me a new driver.
2)There are any car insurance firms that are geared up to covering British Expats specifically.
I'm new to the form and hope this post is in the right section and that someone can point me in the right direction.
Thanks.
Matt
Not sure if this helps but...
I live in MA and used MetLife for my Auto insurance. They recognized my UK history as clean and gave me the best rate saving me $2000/year. They might cover NJ too?
Welcome to New Jersey where the insurance will usually cost you more than your car )
I had the same problem and I called a ton of agencies, but to no avail - sorry but I hope you have better luck than I did.
Hi Pete S
Thanks they don't cover NJ. At least at a glance. I'm going to give them a ring.
Hi medickinson
I hope I can find one or I don't drive. US is so car dependent... I'll be at a loss. For both our sakes lets hope someone else can chime in with a suggestion for us.
Matt
Hey Matt,
Unfortunatly NJ is one of those odd states where the rules of the rest of the country seem not apply.
When I moved from NJ to MN my car insurance went down from $3500 a year for minimal coverage to $1000 a year fully comp.
NJ has one of the highest uninsured driver populations and they have to cover their losses.
Try offering to take a defensive driving course or something and see if they will give you a discount.
Michelle
Welcome, MattyUK.
NJ has some of the worst drivers, too, just a little better than Boston.
Bloody hell. My insurance premium for my wife and I is $350/year w/ one car, granted, we don't have the bells and whistles, but even if we did, it would be 600$/year. I have one ticket, my wife has 3. Actually we switched from State Farm to AIG and saved about $200.
Defensive Driving = 10% on the increased portion so thats a discount of $110 taking the total to $2490. Still too expensive since I'd have to fork out for the defensive driving course as well. That said I'd love to do one when I get the financial freedom to do so.
Bad drivers Granted NJ is like London statewide.
Uninsured I realize the uninsured aspect but honestly with these rates I can see why some take to the street without it. The situation self perpetuates. If insurance becomes unattainable and you still need to drive you are tempted to drive anyway, nay some find it critical too. Starve or take risk.... risk wins and rates go up forcing more to make the same choice and on it goes.
Point is if they recognised my clean driving history as valid we'd expect only a small increase of a few hundred. Maybe $500 tops.
However I can't afford to pay for their profiteering NJ drivers bad habits, thus I am stuck not driving unless some reasonable NJ insurance firm recognizes that I am not a teenager or a 'new driver' and have been driving for years safely and without any incident and provides regular NJ rates we might be able to stomach.
There surely has to be one out there.....
Matt
Matt, I don't live in NJ, but look at the components of the policy.
One part may be "Collision" or something like that. That would be to cover damage to your car. With an 11 year old car, it is probably not worth the cost. The other things to look at, are deductibles. Generally by putting on a higher deductible, you get a lower premium.
Also look at NJCURE (citizens united reciprocal exchange), it was formed to provide reasonable coverage before cheaper companies like GEICO started in NJ. I found their service to be good.
Hi londonsquare
That's a very good idea and I never thought of breaking down the policy features like that. Thank you.
Hi stelesque
Thanks I'll take a look at NJCURE later today.
Here's hoping!
Matt
Matty, that price for two cars for NJ doesn't seem bad at all. We didn't have particularly expensive cars when we lived in NJ and we were paying way more than that. I know when we moved over to NY state (Long island - the biggest carpark in the world!) we got an instant refund of $1000 - and that was only for half a year!
Hi Ben.
It's only one car. Me as a second driver for my wifes car on her policy. Two drivers but one car.
We expected between $200 and $500 increase to her policy amount. not $1100. Am I out of whack? If she had added her brother (US citizen same driving history as me roughly) the increase would only have been around that, whereas because it is a new NJ license (despite my UK driving history) they want to treat me as a new driver (aka teenager rates). That's my complaint really.
Ahh well I'm going to check out the options above later today.
Thanks for your input. Given the chance I'd be out of NJ in a flash. Can't say I like it much. Love USA but not NJ. Houses more expensive, drivers bad, insurance rates terrible and traffic to go insane over. PA is taking my interest from what I've seen of it.
Regards
Matt
I think round here you have to insure all drivers with a licence in the household, whether they actually drive the car or not. It's just assumed they will at some point. The insurance also covers anyone with permission. I dunno, beest takes care of this now as in the UK I used to come near to killing the agents, I think he feared for their safety here. ;) You need Manc's advice on this one, perhaps.
Hi Monster
You are right I found out that you DO have to have insurance IF you have a drivers license and ANY car is registered to your address, regardless of if it is yours or you want to be covered on it or not.
If any car is registered to your address then all household members with a valid license have to have some auto insurance cover.
We dropped collision. It is still high but we can wipe out savings to afford it. I'd rather that than surrender my license which has been so instrumental in opening bank accounts.
Matt