99% of the time, in order to cancel a policy, the insured will need to sign a cancellation request before the agent or carrier can cancel the policy. The other thing to remember is that you need to formally cancel your old policy. If you don’t do this and just stop paying instead, you’ll get reported for non- payment, which will mess up your credit score, which will, in turn, increase your premiums and affect your financial health in other ways, too. Be sure your old insurance company sends you written confirmation that your policy has been canceled. Howoftendopolicies change? State insurance laws don’t change very often—maybe once a year, maybe even less. The policies themselves can theoretically change pretty often, though. It all depends
HORROR STORY: INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT Jacob went to visit his brother, Ryan, who was living abroad. He got an international driver’s license, but not auto insurance. One day, Jacob borrowed Ryan’s car. But driving in the new country was more difficult than he expected, and he wound up getting into a minor accident that caused some damage to both the car and to himself. The good news is that Ryan had car insurance. The bad news is that the policy didn’t include collision insurance or bodily injury, so Ryan wound up having to pay about $1,500 to fix the car, and Jacob had to pay for his own medical expenses. I don’t know if Jacob also paid Ryan back for the car damage, but one can hope he did the right thing.
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