Can I backdate my auto insurance?

Car insurance is financial protection for drivers if a car accident causes damage or loss. An insurance policy is a contract that outlines both the insurance provider’s and the policyholder’s financial responsibility concerning the expenses resulting from an accident.

Unfortunately, getting caught in a car accident without insurance doesn’t have a happy ending. Though you can still go on and secure an insurance policy, it won’t be much use for anything that happened before the effective date marked on the policy.

Is it possible to backdate car insurance?

Can auto insurance be backdated? Backdating an insurance policy would involve both you and the insurance company making the statement that the vehicle carried insurance before the actual purchase date of the coverage. As insurance policies are legal contracts, this statement would be a lie. In effect, you would be committing fraud by backdating the policy.

In addition to the legal concerns with fraud, an ethical and reputable auto insurance company won’t agree to backdate a policy because of the risks it poses to the company. The company has no idea what accidents or incidents occurred before the purchase date, opening up the insurer to serious liability consequences.

Though you can’t purchase insurance retroactively to cover a specific event or prevent a coverage lapse, you still have options to secure car insurance. Rather than stressing about what will happen if you have an accident without insurance, you can quickly and easily purchase adequate protection by conducting an online rate comparison and filling out an application.

Why Auto Insurance Companies Won’t Agree to Backdate Your Policy

Though most states require basic liability insurance for drivers, according to the Insurance Information Institute it’s tempting to ignore these mandates and take a chance of driving without it. It’s also easy to forget about renewing an insurance policy and experience a lapse in coverage. These tend to be some of the more common reasons people want to backdate an insurance policy, but these other situations could also occur:

• Immediately after buying a used car, you drive away and get into an accident that causes serious damage and personal injury.
• You didn’t pay your car insurance payment on time, and you canceled the coverage, but you got into an accident just after the cancellation.

These situations would leave you personally responsible for the losses and cause serious financial heartache. Though it would be easier for you to have an insurance policy backdated to get compensation,  auto insurance companies won’t backdate your policy for the reasons listed below.

It’s worth noting that if you buy a car and already have coverage on another car, your insurance company will automatically extend coverage to that car. However, you have a limited amount of time to report the new purchase.

Legal Issues

The resulting losses from a car accident, no matter how minor, can be financially overwhelming. Car insurance assists with these responsibilities by helping the driver pay for the expenses of bodily injury or property damage that occur in an accident. Coverage also extends to paying for damages done to another’s property during the accident.

The significant financial risks to drivers have led most states to enact minimum car insurance requirements, When you get caught driving without proof of insurance, there are serious consequences. It doesn’t matter how short or long the lapse in coverage is; legal concerns arise when you don’t have valid insurance. Rushing to an insurance provider and quickly backdating a policy is insurance fraud, and would allow illegal activities — like driving without insurance — to go without consequences. In California, backdating an auto insurance policy is a federal fraud offense.

Losses for the Auto Insurance Company

Selling insurance policies is profitable, provided the risk is worth the investment. Every insurance company will take a good look at the potential risk a buyer presents before deciding if the insurance relationship will be financially gainful for the insurer.

An auto insurance company takes the money made by the rates paid by the clients and uses these funds to pay the claims of drivers involved in a car accident. A good driving record indicates low risk and fewer worries of paying out a claim, leaving the company benefiting from extending an insurance policy.

Backdating a policy can’t preemptively remove a level of risk from the relationship. If the date is set to when you had an accident, the insurance provider’s guarantee of a payout to cover the accident is a financial loss. Because of this lopsided relationship, no reputable insurance provider will backdate a policy.

Even if an insurer backdates a policy for you, rates will increase since the company would include risk-based costs for any unknown incidents that could have taken place before policy purchase.

What is the alternative to backdating auto insurance?

There are options for drivers who have a coverage lapse in their policy. In cases where a driver didn’t pay the policy on time, a provider can legally reinstate coverage by signing a statement of no loss, a legal document testifying that there were no accidents or losses during the period the policy was not in effect. In essence, the no-loss form prevents coverage on claims filed between the cancellation and reinstatement dates.

Typically, there is a 30-day window allowed for the coverage lapse if a car insurance company will reinstate the policy, but policy payments must be up-to-date

Avoid Needing to Backdate Auto Insurance

Avoid policy cancellation problems by making timely payments. Purchase affordable car insurance by shopping for the best rates and searching for policies with discount options to keep you from worrying about the need to backdate an insurance policy.