New Yorkers tend to complain about the high cost of auto insurance, especially in New York City. But at least New York City has the subway system. It is extremely comprehensive and you can actually live without a car in the Big Apple.
Spend some time tooling around Los Angeles however, and you've got a different situation entirely. Yes, there is a metro in the city of angels, but it is not nearly as comprehensive as the one in New York and worse, with the sprawl that is Los Angeles, you really cannot get around easily on public transportation.
Add in the obscenely high unemployment rate of 12.2% caused by the Great Recession and you have a serious problem. What you need is cheap California auto insurance. And you need it right now.
Now, before you decide to try illegal tricks to make your payments lower, you need to be aware that doing so will void your insurance should you get into an accident, thereby leading to potential bankruptcy and garnishing of your wages or even worse, possible jail for insurance fraud.
So yes, your brother-in-law's friend's cousin's girlfriend might have gotten a better deal by registering her car in Wyoming and then driving around on Rodeo drive, where she lives and works (and why exactly someone who lives and works in that area needs to get cheaper insurance, we don't know, but that's another column entirely), but if the insurance company can prove she really was living in California, she is going to be in some seriously deep trouble.
That said, there are ways to get cheap California auto insurance. First, you need to know the minimum coverage requirements. The bare minimum that the law requires you to carry for liability coverage in California is 15/30/5.
This is a pretty minimal number which basically means you need to be able to cover $15,000 of damages to anybody in the other car, $30,000 of damages over-all (i.e. two people could get $15,000 each, 3 could get $30,000, etc.) and just $5,000 for coverage of damage to the other car itself.
With the cost of health care, not to mention the expensive cars out in California, this is next to nothing. So yes, you can get away with this. But make sure that you have no other assets if you do.
If you own a home, if you have savings, IRAs, retirement accounts, etc. they can be attached if your insurance is not enough to cover the damage you cause. This is likely not going to happen however if you happen to have nothing worth going after.
But it is a concern. Please note that this advice is not to be construed as being of a legal advisory nature and the author does not purport to have any legal qualifications whatsoever. The advice should be taken at face value and checked with a qualified attorney if you intend to rely on it.
Once you've decided how much coverage you need, the best way to find cheap California auto insurance is to look online. The cost of coverage can vary by hundreds of dollars from one company to another and it pays to shop around. Either that or actually move to Wyoming. I hear Cheyenne is a lovely little town.
