How to Check If a Car is Insured
Last Updated on April 6, 2023
Are you curious if a car has insurance? Fortunately, there are ways to check.
You can check if your car is insured by contacting your own insurance company and asking for up-to-date policy information.
Alternatively, you can find out if someone else’s car is insured using the Motor Insurance Database (MID). Or, you can contact the DMV or police, assuming you have a valid reason to check the other person’s car insurance.
Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about checking if a car is insured.
- Ways to Check If a Car is Insured
- Contact Your Insurer
- Check Your Insurance Company’s Website
- Contact Your Insurer for Details About the Other Driver
- Contact Your State DMV
- Enter the VIN Into the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) Website
- Contact the Police
- Contact the Secretary of State
- Request a New Insurance Quote
- Drivers in the UK Can Check the Motor Insurance Database (MID) for Free
- Final Word
Ways to Check If a Car is Insured
There are several ways to check if a car is insured. These ways can help check if your own car is insured. They can also help you check to see if another car is insured.
Some of the ways to check if a car is insured include:
Contact Your Insurer
If you’re checking if your own vehicle is insured, start by contacting your own insurance company.
Your insurance company can provide up-to-date information about your policy, any recent changes you made, your expiry date, your renewal date, and more.
As long as you are legitimately looking up the insurance for your own vehicle, and that vehicle is registered and insured in your own name, you should be able to quickly verify insurance information by contacting your own insurer.
Check Your Insurance Company’s Website
Don’t want to call your insurer? Check your insurance company’s website. Try logging in using your email address or username. All major insurance companies have apps and online dashboards allowing you to verify your insurance status.
You cannot check another driver’s insurance through your own online dashboard. However, you should be able to view details of your own policy, including your cancellation date, date of renewal, and other information.
Contact Your Insurer for Details About the Other Driver
If you were recently involved in a collision with another driver and made an insurance claim, your insurer may have insurance details for the other driver.
Your insurer may be able to tell you if the other driver was insured or uninsured, for example, and how much coverage they had.
As long as you have a license plate number from the driver who hit you, your insurance company should be able to verify that driver’s insurance to proceed with your claim.
Contact Your State DMV
Each state has a department of motor vehicles (DMV) or equivalent organization in charge of tracking driver registration and insurance.
If you need to check insurance on someone else’s vehicle, then contact your state DMV (or the state where you’re searching) to verify insurance.
Generally, the DMV requires you to provide a reason for your request. For example, you may have been recently involved in a collision with that motorist. You may also need to provide your own contact information, details of the incident, or a case number to access insurance details. The DMV may deny your request if any of this information is incorrect.
Enter the VIN Into the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) Website
The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) partners with insurance companies, consumers, and law enforcement to fight insurance crime. The organization has an online form called VINCheck that makes finding details about a vehicle easy.
You can use the NICB’s VINCheck form to find if a vehicle has been declared an unrecovered stolen or salvaged vehicle.
The NICB’s VINCheck service is free to the public. As long as you know the VIN of a vehicle, you can enter the VIN into the online form to get more details.
Contact the Police
Local law enforcement might provide you with insurance details about a vehicle if you were recently involved in an accident.
The police may need to know details about the accident, including information about the other driver and vehicle, before providing you with insurance details.
If you were not involved in an accident with the other driver, the police might need another verifiable reason to approve your request.
Contact the Secretary of State
Some states allow you to contact the Secretary of State’s office to get more information about your car’s or another car’s insurance.
You may need to provide a license number, VIN, or license plate number to verify a vehicle’s car insurance status. You may also need to provide a valid reason for your request.
Request a New Insurance Quote
When you request a new insurance quote, your insurer may give you an online report on your current insurance status.
If you want to check insurance on your current vehicle, consider requesting a quote from an insurance agent or company. Insurance agents may be able to produce a report on your current insurance status and other relevant information.
Drivers in the UK Can Check the Motor Insurance Database (MID) for Free
The United Kingdom has a nationwide motor vehicle database called the Motor Insurance Database. Anyone can use this database to verify their own car insurance or check another driver’s car insurance (assuming they were recently involved in a collision with the other driver and need insurance information for that reason).
The Motor Insurance Database (MID) is a free online service to check if a car is insured. It’s easy to use to lookup your own vehicle or someone else’s vehicle:
- Enter your vehicle registration number into the online form.
- Confirm that you are authorized to access the vehicle’s insurance information because you’re the registered owner, are permitted to drive the vehicle, or are permitted to access insurance information for that vehicle for any reason.
- If looking up someone else’s vehicle with MID, you must verify you are the injured party or a representative of the injured party in a motor vehicle accident. You must enter specific details about the incident. Otherwise, your request may be denied.
The MID is exclusively available to registered drivers in the United Kingdom. There is no equivalent service in the United States, although the MID is similar to each state’s DMV.
Final Word
To check if a car is insured, contact your insurance company, local law enforcement, or the DMV.
Generally, you cannot check another car’s insurance status unless you were involved in an accident with that vehicle. However, you may be able to check insurance on your own vehicle or on vehicles registered in your name.
Use any of the methods above to check if a car is insured today.
