How to get car insurance before buying a car

In the excitement of picking out a new car, insurance sometimes gets forgotten. That slip of paper that usually hides in the glove box, and hopefully never needs to be removed, is easily forgotten, but it’s definitely needed when acquiring and registering an automobile. We’ll walk you through what you need to know to get car insurance before buying a new vehicle.

Do the research

Ideally, this process should start well before you’re making any final decisions. You’ll want to factor in the cost of insurance when determining what you can pay for your next vehicle. Some models carry very high premiums, and if that’s the case you may want to reconsider your choice. Getting a quote or two before setting your heart on your dream car is just good insurance on insurance.

You can do this research without knowing the exact vehicle you’ll be buying. If you have an existing policy with an insurance company you like, give them a call or visit their website to get the ballpark cost of adding this new potential car to your policy or replacing your existing car if it’s being retired. There are some sites that will search across multiple companies for you, allowing you to compare. It’s possible that one insurer charges a lot for a certain model or submodel while another calculates the risk differently and offers a better rate.

As with any auto insurance, your age, sex, yearly mileage, and parking location all factor in to the price. If this car is joining your fleet as an addition, you may also be eligible for a multi-car discount. Because of this, it may make sense to move an existing policy to another carrier that offers a better overall rate for all of your cars.

Buy the policy, even if it’s temporary

Once you settle on the specific car you intend to buy, the insurance company will need the vehicle identification number, or VIN. This will allow them to give you a precise quote and issue a policy. If you’re sure that you’ll be signing on the dotted line, you can go ahead and pay that first premium and get proof of insurance emailed to you.

That may not be necessary, as most insurers will let you call up any time and add a vehicle to your policy. So keep that in mind if you’re going to see a car you may or may not end up bringing home.

The easiest route is to call up your existing auto insurance provider and have them add this new vehicle to the policy. The nice thing is that there’s nothing locking you into one insurer or another. You can always add the…