Car Insurance When Moving to Texas

A Texas policy comes before the registration

Moving to Texas means a Texas auto policy, and the policy comes first because the registration office asks to see it. The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles gives a new resident 30 days from the move to register the vehicle, and the Texas Department of Public Safety gives 90 days to get a Texas driver license.

Both deadlines run from the move. The Texas Department of Public Safety also asks a new resident to have every vehicle registered with the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles before applying for the license, which fixes the order.

An out-of-state policy does not become a Texas policy by crossing the line. The garaging address, the required offers and the policy form all change.

What Texas requires a driver to carry

Texas sets a liability floor and names what counts as evidence of it. Texas Transportation Code §601.072 sets that floor at 30/60/25: $30,000 for injury to one person, $60,000 for injuries in one accident, and $25,000 for damage to another person’s property.

Texas Transportation Code §601.051 requires evidence of financial responsibility before a vehicle is operated on a public road, and a liability policy written at those limits or higher is the common form of that evidence.

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles tells a new resident to have that coverage in place before going to the county tax assessor-collector, which asks for the insurance card.

Texas liability limits are a floor, not a recommendation: Minimum Auto Insurance in Texas

The order the three steps go in

Insurance, registration, license: each office sets the order by what it asks for.

1. Buy the Texas auto policy, with the Texas garaging address on it, effective the day the vehicle arrives.
2. Register the vehicle within 30 days of the move, at the county tax assessor-collector office, with the insurance card, proof of ownership and a completed Form 130-U, the Application for Texas Title and/or Registration. A vehicle a new resident brings into the state carries a $90 new resident tax, paid with that Form 130-U (Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, New to Texas).
3. Apply for the Texas driver license within 90 days, in person at a driver license office, surrendering the out-of-state license (Texas Department of Public Safety).

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles also requires a passing emissions inspection before registration in the counties where the emissions program applies.

What the move changes on the policy

A Texas policy carries offers an out-of-state policy never had to make. Personal injury protection is included on every Texas auto policy unless the insured rejects it in writing, which Texas Insurance Code §1952.152 requires and the Texas Department of Insurance auto insurance guide repeats.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage follows the same pattern. Texas Insurance Code §1952.101 bars an insurer from issuing a Texas auto liability policy without that coverage unless any insured named in the policy rejects it in writing.

Personal injury protection has its own page: What Is PIP Insurance?

Liability limits are separated by part on another: What Is Bodily Injury Liability?

The address the policy is written at

The address on a Texas auto policy is where the vehicle is parked overnight, not where the mail goes. Texas insurers file by rating territory and a territory is built out of counties (Texas Insurance Code §2253.001), so the garaging address is an underwriting fact rather than a formality.

Three address details an insurer asks a new resident about:

• The street address where the vehicle sleeps
• The date the vehicle arrived at that address
• Whether the household has moved permanently or on a temporary assignment

A post office box is not a garaging address, and a vehicle garaged at one sits outside what Aulona Insurance Group can place.

What happens to the old policy

An out-of-state policy stays in force until its insurer ends it, and canceling it early is the mistake that creates a gap. The Texas policy has to be effective first, on the same day or earlier.

Three things to settle with the former insurer:

• The exact date the out-of-state policy ends, confirmed in writing
• Any refund of unearned premium, calculated by the insurer after the end date
• Whether the insurer writes in Texas at all, since many policies cannot move to a Texas address

A day between the two policies is a lapse, and a lapse is rated for years afterward even when no citation was ever written.

The three deadlines after the move

Each row is a separate office with a separate deadline.

Step	Who sets it	When	What it asks for
Texas auto policy	The insurer	Before the registration	The garaging address and every driver in the household
Vehicle registration	Texas Department of Motor Vehicles	Within 30 days of the move	Insurance card, proof of ownership, Form 130-U, emissions inspection where required
Texas driver license	Texas Department of Public Safety	Within 90 days of the move	In-person application, the out-of-state license surrendered, vehicles already registered

The registration deadline arrives first, so the policy is the first call.

What to have ready before you ask an agent

A move changes the address, the license and the vehicle record together.

Bring these to the call:

• The declarations page from the out-of-state policy, showing limits and the end date
• The seventeen-digit VIN for every vehicle coming to Texas
• The driver license number and state for every licensed driver in the household
• The Texas street address where each vehicle will be parked overnight, and the move-in date
• The lienholder or lessor name for any financed or leased vehicle

Luka Cenaj, the agency’s licensed principal, goes through the move and the coverage on a recorded call before anything is bound.

Where Aulona Insurance Group is not the right fit

Aulona Insurance Group places Texas personal auto coverage statewide, for standard and non-standard risk, and several categories sit outside the markets the agency holds.

Outside the markets Aulona Insurance Group holds:

• Recreational vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, trailers, golf carts, buses, hearses, and heavy or semi trucks
• Vehicles with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $150,000 or more, and vehicles built before 1981
• Vehicles without a seventeen-digit VIN, and any vehicle garaged at a post office box address
• Storage-only and gap-only policies, and non-owner policies other than a non-owner SR-22

A vehicle used for business, or titled to an LLC, corporation, partnership or trust, is placed as commercial auto instead.

Aulona Insurance Group places the coverage this question is about: Texas Auto Insurance