15 Dec Paying insurance on license plates that aren’t attached to a car

When you sell a car, you have to make a decision about what to do with your license plates.

You can turn them in, or, if you’re buying a new car, you can transfer the plates to your new wheels.

Today’s Bamboozled column shares the story of a woman who sold her car and planned to put her plates on a new vehicle. But, she was going to wait a little while before buying the new car. So when she called her car insurance company to cancel her policy, she was told she had to continue paying premiums because she planned to keep the plates.

For months, she ended up paying insurance for license plates that weren’t attached to a car, but she felt something was wrong.

“I can’t imagine how this is legal, or necessary, and it surely makes no sense, since none of the eventualities covered by an auto policy can happen without steering wheel and tires and chassis attached to the plates,” she said. “What I really don’t get is how and why they can continue to charge insurance at all for a set of license plates that can’t hurt anyone.”

Her gut was right. There was a mistake.

Read more to find out what happened.