Auto insurance for Texas domicile, Mexico living?

[Micah Geisel]

Howdy y'all! Anyone living in Mexico, but renewing their Texas RV registration online? What insurance do you have?

I live in my rig in Mexico, and it is registered in Texas using my Escapees address. The time has come to renew my registration online, which requires an active insurance policy. However, I've cancelled my US auto insurance, since I'm never driving my rig there anymore. Ideally, I'd be able use my Mexican insurance in the registration renewal process, but I'm guessing that's not going to work.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to have this conundrum! How did you folks solve it?

[Blues]

I noticed nobody has answered your question.  Have you found an answer elsewhere?  I'm curious about how this gets handled.

The only thing I can think of is buying a policy in Texas for just the minimum required coverage--30/60/25.  Assuming nobody has a lien on your vehicle, that's all you need if the vehicle won't be anywhere the insurance would actually apply. 

However, are you running afoul of any Mexican requirements to register the vehicle there, if it's never going to be in the U.S. again?

[Kirk W]

Since you are a member of Escapees, have you considered calling the business office to see if anyone there is able to help you? It probably depends on how the TX insurance law is written. Would your Mexican insurance pay if you did drive the RV back to TX? You could also call the Polk County Tax office since they handle vehicle registrations. (936) 327-6801

[Micah Geisel]

Thanks for your replies, folks! Following up on this, I spoke with a number of educated folks, and I can report the following:

* Active Texas insurance is absolutely required to renew registration... being insured in Mexico isn't enough! I even read the law: https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TN/htm/TN.601.htm#601.072

* I ended up purchasing a new minimum RV policy from Progressive for ~$225/year, using that to renew the registration, and cancelling it after a month, so only paying about $35 total.

That's the best option I could come with! Hope it helps others!

 

With regards to the question of running afoul of any Mexican requirements to register the vehicle there, that's a really great question, and I'll need to look into that now.

[Blues]

From what I've read, you should definitely look into making your vehicle legal in Mexico.  It looks like importing vehicles isn't a no-brainer.

When I suggested getting a minimum-coverage policy in Texas, I was anticipating keeping it in force year-round.  I was thinking it would be only a couple hundred bucks a year, but wasn't sure because my liability coverages are much higher than the minimum required, and therefore not a good comparison.

My only concern on cancelling it would be if you do that every year, it might raise some red flags among insurers.  I'm sure there are plenty of people who have insurance for only a month, in order to get the car registered, and then drop it.   But on future applications, they may get shunted to the SR-22 companies, where insurance is a lot more expensive.  I have no idea how it works, but it's something to be aware of--if saving $200/year now might cost you more than that when you buy insurance in the future.

Then again, you'd think an insurance company would be eager to insure you if their policy doesn't cover you where you are--they get the premium and know they'll never have to pay a claim.  Assuming, of course, that you don't drive in Texas, and there's no way they can be 100% positive you won't.  But since the premium is based on your driving in Texas, it shouldn't matter to them.

Just food for thought.

And by the way, good for you for looking up the law, but the statute you cited, Section 601.072, doesn't say Texas insurance is required to renew vehicle registration--it just gives the minimum amounts of coverage that meets financial responsibility requirements.