Can you get auto insurance if you’re unemployed?

Car insurance is taken out for a specific automobile, not for a particular person. Whether or not you are employed, your car must be insured in order to be operated on public roads. To be frank, car insurance is even more important when you are unemployed because it relives you of the responsibility of paying for an accident out of your own pocket.

In some cases, you may be able to modify your car insurance to save money when you lose your job. For example, if your job was located 40 miles from your home, your insurance risk is lower when you are no longer making that round trip during high traffic hours. In this situation, being unemployed has reduced the risk of your driving, and that means you qualify for lower insurance prices.

In other cases, losing your job could result in your insurance rate increasing. If your previous job was close to home or even within walking distance, your insurance company may determine that being unemployed has increased the risk because you are now driving farther and more frequently, even during the hours when you had previously been on the job and unable to drive your personal vehicle. Whether or not your insurance will increase is determined by each car insurance company.

The rule of thumb for cars is that the vehicle is insured and the driver is simply tagging along for a ride. In most states, you must adhere to state minimum requirements for insurance on all vehicles that may be operated on public land, and many states, such as Florida, require that all vehicles be insured, even those which are not currently in operable condition.