Do I need car insurance if car will be parked for 2 months?

Some states will fine you if your car is not covered for a period while it is registered, so you might want to call the state and find out for sure. If your insurance company reports the lapse or the state finds out some other way, then you might get in trouble. They might tell you that you need to turn in your tags in order to let the insurance lapse. Then your apartment complex might not let you park it there (some have strict rules about cars being tagged).

Call your state and find out what they say.

Check with your insurance carrier, to be sure you can reinstate without any problem. You might also want to find out if it’s prudent to be completely uninsured if it’s exposed in an area where someone could smash into it and leave it badly damaged.

Here’s the question I would ask: what if while the car is parked it is damaged? Would you want to have insurance available to repair that damage?
If the car is a bit of a beater and you wouldn’t plan to repair any body damage that occurs while you’re away for 2 months – then perhaps going w/out insurance for those couple of months is fine.
As for me..unless it was being watched over by rabid squirrels and/or good friends living at the same apartment complex (or better yet, locked in a garage and then guarded by rabid squirrels) ..I think I’d want it insured.

Also, my husband (who’s a “car guy”) says someone should start and drive around your car a few times during your absence. He mentions that it can be bad (mechanically) for the car to be left without being driven for that length of time. If you plan to have a buddy come drive the car a few times to keep from having the battery issues or other problems on your return…you’ll want to continue the car insurance so that while they’re driving it that it’s still “legal”.

FYI – info on what to do to prepare to leave your car stationary for two months here—to prevent mechanical issues on your return.

Why not spend the money to park your car in a supervised garage that has its own insurance?

Thanks all. yup it’s a beater so if someone smashed it I wouldn’t care (i only have liability insurance anyways).

Good point about the tags, i guess I’ll just call up geico and see what they say, though I suspect they’ll do anything to keep my paying.

Some states are financial security states and require you to keep the insurance in place. If it expires they suspend your drivers license. Also, some insurance companies will not rewrite a policy if it expires for lack of payment.

Take that good beer money and pay your auto insurance. You forgot about coming back home and discovering that your vehicle has been stolen.

You need auto insurance to at least cover theft of your vehicle.

OMG. I didn’t think it was worse than having laws that require buying insurance. I Washington state, liability insurance is required to drive the car, but it’s only checked if you actually get pulled over by the police while driving.

I think it’s sheer madness to recommend or require that you buy liability insurance for a parked car.

More institutionalized robbery masquerading as rightness.

Check with your insurance company. Mine has a program where you can cancel liability for up to 6 months if the car is off the road. You tell them the date and odometer reading when you park it and then the date and mileage when you decide to turn it back on. This program is for “snow birds’ who only use the car 6 months out of the year but want to keep it when they return.
Ask. The phone call is free.

what @Adirondackwannabe said. I believe that in NYS, if it’s expired for more than 30 days, you go to a high risk pool. Most companies will not take you. I would say if you are going to park on private property, like in a driveway, then turn in the registration if you want and have no insurance. However, nobody will be able to drive the car or warm it up for you, which is probably necessary. You should keep it in force, just my opinion, especially if parked on the street. If someone hits your car or steals it, you’re up the creek.

Like others have said, you have to talk to your insurance carrier and look into laws for your state. If you are still making payments on your car, the bank may require you to have insurance and will add their own (very expensive) insurance costs to your car payment. At least, that’s what happened to my dad when he told me to get my own car insurance after college and I procrastinated for a while.

Also, like others have said, the state may require your car to be insured. In CT, if your insurance lapses you are fined. If the insurance isn’t reinstated within a certain amount of time (or if you fail to pay the fine), your registration is suspended.

Even if you can avoid fines while letting the insurance lapse, you’ll probably be charged a higher rate when you do go insurance shopping again like @jca said. I know it seems silly, but for many reasons it’s better to just keep the insurance. You could always call your insurance company and see about reducing your coverage to the bare minimum while the car is parked if you want to save some money during that time.