Alabama Car Insurance Requirements

If you don’t keep your Alabama car insurance current, you could be made to pay for insurance on a vehicle that you can’t drive.

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Trying to drive without Alabama car insurance could leave you with an insurance premium to pay and no car to drive.

Each state likes to do things their own way. They all have different insurance requirements and consequences for not carrying insurance. The only thing that they all have in common is that they all require drivers to carry a minimum limit of liability insurance.

Alabama’s required liability insurance is not the highest or the lowest requirements seen across the nation. But, if you fail to keep insurance on your vehicle multiple times, the state goes so far as requiring you to pay for insurance coverage on a vehicle they will not allow you to drive.

What Alabama Car Insurance is Required?

For a person to be able to drive they are required to have Alabama car insurance that has at least:

• $25,000 in liability coverage for bodily injury or death to another party (one person).

• $50,000 in liability coverage for bodily injury or death to another party (total).

• $25,000 in liability coverage for damages that you cause to another’s property.

Without this coverage you are not allowed to drive or even register your vehicle in the state of Alabama. It is also illegal for you to allow another person to drive your vehicle if you do not have Alabama car insurance on the vehicle.

How is Alabama Car Insurance tracked?

The state of Alabama does not use an electronic tracking system to track all of its drivers as to whether or not they have insurance. Instead they send out questionnaires to drivers that have to be returned within a specific timeframe. If they are not returned, the vehicle registration is suspended.

Questionnaires are sent out to:

• Drivers who have been issued a ticket for having no Alabama car insurance.

• Drivers who have had their license suspended or revoked.

• Owners of vehicles whose vehicle registrations have been suspended sometime within the last 4 years.

• Owners of vehicles that are registered in the state, chosen at random.

What are the Consequences for Not Having Alabama Car Insurance?

If you are caught without Alabama car insurance your vehicle registration will be suspended. To reinstate the registration the current fine is $100 for the first offense. This $100 is in addition to any fines that you may have if you were issued a no-insurance ticket by a police officer. Once you pay the reinstatement fine and provide proof that you do have Alabama car insurance now, the state will reinstate your registration.

If you just didn’t learn your lesson the first time, the reinstatement fine doubles to $200 if you get caught without Alabama car insurance again. When you pay this reinstatement fine and provide proof of current insurance, the state won’t immediately reinstate your registration this time. Instead, you get to sit out of the game for 4 months (from the effective date of the suspension) before they will reinstate.

In other words, if you pay the fine and get the insurance before the 4 months are up, you will be paying for insurance on a vehicle that you cannot legally drive. It may just be my silly way of thinking, but it is probably just easier (and cheaper) to keep continuous Alabama car insurance on your vehicle.

You can find additional information at the Motor Vehicle Division of the Alabama Department of Revenue in regards to your Alabama car insurance.