How long do I have coverage? Grace Period on Home and Auto

If you own your own home, or a rental property and you pay your own insurance premium. You get the bill and the last date of coverage is the 5^th, but you get busy and you don't pay it on the 5th and you know you are in your grace period. So 10 days go by. It's the 15th and you think, oh, I better go in and pay for that but you are in the “grace period”. Will you still have coverage? Yes, you will still have coverage (or maybe, it depends). The insurance company will go back to the 5^th (the last day of coverage) and extend coverage as if your policy has never lapsed. But, and this is a big but, if you have a claim between the time the coverage lapsed in the midst of your grace period and your last day of coverage, the company will not accept the premium. ((Ouch that is not going to make you happy))

Grace periods only extend the amount of payment time, not the coverage date. The coverage date will be the last day of coverage stated on your declarations page. You may have 10, 15, 20 days of grace period to pay your premium. But if you have a claim in that grace period, the company is not liable for the loss.

Another question that comes up is on auto insurance. If I buy a new car, do I automatically have to call the agent before I drive the car off the lot or do I have coverage? If an insurance company has all of your vehicles insured, then you have 30 days to notify them that you bought a new car.(please note that if you do not have comprehensive and collision coverage on at least one vehicle then comprehensive and collision will not be on the new car until you call.) So, you are driving this car for two weeks, you have a wreck. If the insurance company has all your vehicles insured, then you are covered as if you had told them. On the 31st day, you will not have coverage. Why is it that they said that the insurance company has to have all your coverage you may ask? Well, let's say that you have one company, company A, and your spouse has company B. Now, who would be on the risk for the new car purchase? There becomes a coverage issue, so there is no coverage extended on the newly purchased vehicle you would need to call to add it on before you drove it off the lot. It's one reason why you should have all your coverage’s with one company.

If you have any questions about any of this, please feel free to contact me at Jerry@tulsaHomeAuto.com or give me a call at 918-254-2578, extension 227. If it goes to voicemail, just push extension 227 and you'll come right to me.

Have a great day.