New Mexico Car Insurance

New Mexico car insurance has fairly simple requirements that the state keeps track of electronically.

The “Land of Enchantment” and low insurance requirements.

The state of New Mexico doesn’t ask for much. They only require that you carry a small amount of liability insurance; just in case you do cause an accident. For those that live in the state, the minimum New Mexico car insurance requirements may seem like a lot; but compared to what other states require, it’s not.

Minimum New Mexico Car Insurance Requirements

New Mexico car insurance requirements only call for bodily injury liability coverage and property damage liability coverage.

The bodily injury liability is the coverage that pays for the medical expenses of the other person that you hit. New Mexico car insurance law only requires that you carry $25,000 in coverage for the medical expenses from one person. For the total medical expenses for all parties that were not in your vehicle, you are required to have $50,000 in coverage.

Property damage coverage for New Mexico car insurance is at a measly $10,000. This is barely enough coverage at all and would hardly cover the cost to repair a single vehicle. This is definitely not enough coverage to pay for damages to multiple vehicles or if the vehicle you hit is a total loss.

If you are looking to save money just by going with the minimum New Mexico car insurance requirements, you need to be putting the money you saved away. Because if you get in an accident, you will need that saved money to pay for the damages you cause that are beyond the $10,000 your insurance company will pay for.

If you aren’t good at saving money for a rainy day, you may want to purchase more coverage than this.

Tracking New Mexico Car Insurance

The New Mexico Insurance Identification Database tracks all of the registered vehicles in the state and whether they have insurance coverage or not. The database can be accessed by the Motor Vehicle Division (MVD) of the state, the court, and police officers.

If you receive a Notice of Noncompliance from the MVD, you will have to work with your insurance company to have them send the state your insurance information. Without this proof of coverage from your insurance company, the state will suspend your vehicle registration.

Penalties for No New Mexico Car Insurance

If you are driving or have a vehicle registered in New Mexico and you do not have insurance coverage your vehicle registration will be suspended. You could also face other fines and criminal penalties, depending on the situation. The state or the officer working on your case will advise you of the penalties that you face.

To get your vehicle registration reinstated after suspension, you have to purchase an insurance policy that meets the minimum New Mexico car insurance requirements. Once you have purchased this policy, your insurance agent will update the Insurance Identification Database telling the state that you have insurance.

Now that you have New Mexico car insurance, you can visit any MVD office (24 hours later) to reinstate your vehicle registration after paying the $30.00 fee.