I am a foreigner (not US citizen or GC holder) who is authorized to
work in US. I travel a lot since I do contract jobs for companies.
(usually 3-9 months) I have an old car which I drive everywhere I go.
It is registered in Delaware.

I insure my car with GEICO. In last 2 years, I lived in about 6
different states. So far, I keep my car registered in DE and update my
address with GEICO. They re-rate my premium based on address and state
and they say they don't care where it is registered.
I cannot waste my time transferring my driving license and title for
couple of months to a state which I will leave anyways. I also want to
be fully legal in terms of insurance, no need to keep it low by not
changing to actual car address. So far, it worked fine with GEICO. I
don't know how this works but I did not have any issues with Delaware
DMV as my car was insured all the time.

QUESTION 1) Is this legal and how is this working? 

Now, I have received a job in Massachusetts (MA) and GEICO does not
work there. Now I am stuck! GEICO salesman said they cannot insure it
there even it is registered in DE. (I assume they do not give a quote
on it since they don't have info on it, otherwise an out of state
GEICO customer should be covered by GEICO if he has an accident in MA)

I checked MA insurance companies and they are all small businesses and
I doubt they would insure an out-of state car with a parking address
in MA.

I checked MA DMV (they call RMV -registry of motor vehicles) and if
have have to transfer my driving license and plates, it will cost me
about $400 and may take up to 8 weeks. This project will be for 3-6
months. So even I get it, it will be  just waste since I will not live
there after I am done.

QUESTION 2) How many days can I wait to report that I moved to MA?
(for GEICO and for DMV purposes)

I want to keep my DE plate and driver's license and also be legal in
terms of insurance.

In Boston, I see many cars around with out of state plates. I doubt
they tell they are mostly in MA to their insurance companies. However
they are mostly students but I am a professional, I want to make
things right, saving money is not a concern. But losing time and
losing my DE plate is my concern now.
I understand driving like this without telling anybody is an option.
But I already know that answer.

QUESTION 3) WHAT SHOULD I DO?
Please be specific, this is the most important one. Please do not
guess and only tell me if you are sure.
I will evaluate your answers based on application to real life. If it
is useful and helpful, that's what I want.

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 04 Nov 2006 20:07 PST

Hi holahop,

I believe the reason that GEICO doesn't cover MA is because MA is a
"no-fault" state, whereas DE is not. Have you talked to AAA?  They
cover most (all?) states, including MA.  Type in your zip code at the
following link to find the office nearest to you (then "Insurance" tab
at top, then "Auto Insurance", then "Agency Locations" at the bottom).

AAA
http://ww2.aaa.com/scripts/WebObjects.dll/ZipCode.woa/wa/route?stop=yes&

If they will cover you, you shouldn't have to worry about car
insurance again. I will look forward to hearing what they say, please
let me know.

Good luck,
hummer

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Clarification of Question by holahop-ga on 05 Nov 2006 17:05 PST

Thanks for your comment/question. I am an AAA member but never
considered them for insurance.

I will check with them on Monday and if they will to that, I will
accept this question as answered.

Hi holahop,

I was really happy to hear that you are already a member of AAA, and
given that I haven't heard otherwise from you, I'm assuming that all
went well Monday and AAA has turned out to be a suitable solution for
you.  Here it is again to make it an official answer.

I believe the reason that GEICO doesn't cover MA is because MA is a
"no-fault" state, whereas DE is not. Have you talked to AAA?  They
cover most (all?) states, including MA.  Type in your zip code at the
following link to find the office nearest to you (then "Insurance" tab
at top, then "Auto Insurance", then "Agency Locations" at the bottom).

AAA
http://ww2.aaa.com/scripts/WebObjects.dll/ZipCode.woa/wa/route?stop=yes&

Thanks again. If you have any questions or if I misunderstood your
clarification, please post another clarification request and wait for
me to respond before closing/rating my answer.

Sincerely,
hummer

Some of the Google search terms used:
state car auto automobile insurance de driver's license ma

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Request for Answer Clarification by holahop-ga on 25 Nov 2006 17:08 PST

Sorry this is not the answer.
AAA does not insure in any state where plate is not from the same
state. They are not like Geico at all. Geico at least insures you as
long as you keep correct address with them, they do not care about
your plate.

So I have nothing new here, and your assumtion is wrong. I was busy
and could not log in here to check and its not good to make any
assumptions before waiting for my reply.
I am back to out of state plate and insurance in MA and it seems there
is no solution to this other than driving without any changes.

---

Clarification of Answer by hummer-ga on 25 Nov 2006 17:26 PST

Dear holahop,

I'm sorry to hear that AAA didn't work out for you, I was sure it
would. I'll have another look to see if I can turn up any other
possibilities but if not, I'll ask the editors to remove my answer so
your question can be re-listed in the hopes someone else can find a
solution. Please be patient, given that it is the weekend, it may take
a couple of days.

Sincerely,
hummer

---

Clarification of Answer by hummer-ga on 25 Nov 2006 19:41 PST

Hi again,

If you are going to live in MA for only for 3-6 months, I'd hardly
call that changing your primary residence to another state. You should
be able to get AAA in Delaware and be covered in MA while you are
there temporarily.  When you called AAA, did you tell them you would
only be there 3-6 months?

Q. Do I have to buy car insurance for MA if I have a car at MIT
(regardless of what state I have plates from)?
"A. As long as you have out of state plates you get insurance in the
state that your car is registered at. You do however have to inform
your insurance company that you will be residing in MA as a student.
In one case, a student had a car from California, registered to CA and
insured with a his permanent address in CA. He then informed the
insurance company that the the car would driven and *garaged* in MA
while I was a student here. They re-adjusted the rates a bit. There
are two reasons you should inform your insurance company of all
details: 1. Make sure they don't have any excuse to deny coverage. 2.
Some insurance companies like Geico are not allowed to insure cars in
the some New England states."
http://tang.mit.edu/www/orientation/FAQ/

Question:
I'm moving to another state temporarily. Do I need to purchase
coverage in that state?
Answer:
"If you are moving for more than six months, the proper procedure is
to purchase coverage in your new state. That way, you can avoid any
potential questionable-coverage issues. And since many policies expire
after six months, you would need to purchase coverage at that time, at
your new address, unless you maintain a permanent address in your home
state.
If you intend to have a vehicle out-of-state for an extended period of
time, check with you auto agent. There may be special problems with
your coverage if you do not have your normal "drive to work" for an
extended period. Keep in mind, however, that your current insurance
policy says you are covered anywhere in the United States."
http://info.insure.com/auto/faq/coveragechange.htm

Holahop, it makes more sense to me for you to find a DE company rather
than a MA company and keep DE plates and license. Did you ask AAA that
if you got insurance with them in DE, could you work in MA for 3-6
months?

Regards,
hummer

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Clarification of Answer by hummer-ga on 27 Nov 2006 06:01 PST

Dear holahop,

I have been thinking about you and have wondered if you misunderstood
my answer as I'm more convinced than ever that AAA is a good solution
for you.  I don't think it is a good idea for you to give up your
current residency status in Delaware, but rather keep everything as it
is and just switch your car insurance from GEICO to AAA (in Delaware).
When it comes time for you to work in MA, just tell AAA that you have
a short work contract there but that you are not moving there
permanently.  The reason for telling them is that they will adjust
your file to reflect MA premiums because that is where you will be
driving, but this in no way means that you will be making a new home
in MA.

I'm sorry for any misunderstanding that we may have had. If you would
like to discuss this further, please feel free to post more
clarifications - I won't be happy until you are happy.

Sincerely,
hummer
p.s. I can't ask the editors to remove my answer because I believe AAA
is sound advice.  If you believe otherwise, you have the option to ask
for a refund using the refund request form.

Answer is not provided, suggestion was not valuable. There is nothing
new I learned from this post.