OAI: NH Auto Insurance Legislation Highlights Licensing Issue

    RANCHO CUCAMONGA, CA, January 23, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- A bill introduced to the New Hampshire Legislature that has received little attention this session would require motorists who are not residents of the United States to obtain car insurance before driving, even though residents of New Hampshire are not technically required to do so.

Although the legislation may have little chance of passing, it highlights the counterintuitive fact that a person's not having an American license doesn't necessarily mean he or she can't buy coverage.

While some might think that getting car insurance with no license would be impossible, many companies do offer this option, as long as applicants can prove that they have obtained driving privileges in the country that they are from.

Many insurers accept visiting drivers' matricula consular as proof of driving privileges, for instance, although lawmakers in some states, like North Carolina, have pushed for this to be changed.

And in Utah, non-residents can get insurance as long as they obtain a driving privilege card, which is not technically a license but allows non-residents in the state to operate on the roads legally.

The biggest concern for drivers who do not have a license issued by a state in the U.S. is that they will not have a driving record that insurers can readily access. This will impair coverage providers' ability to effectively gauge the risk of the applicant. And as a result, they are likely to be considered a high risk by default and may end up getting charged higher-than-average rates.

The New Hampshire bill would also require non-US residents to purchase coverage in order to rent a car. Any person who rents an uninsured motor vehicle to a driver who is a resident of a country other than the United States would be fined $100.

Source: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/

To learn more about this and other car insurance issues, readers can go to http://www.onlineautoinsurance.com/buy/no-drivers-license/ where they will find informative resource pages and an easy-to-use rate-comparison generator.

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