About two weeks ago I went through a sobriety check point here in Elephant Butte, New Mexico. When asked to provide proof of insurance I handed them my Ipod with the insurance information on it. I was told that electronic proof of insurance was not an acceptable form of proof of insurance by the New Mexico Highway Patrol then I was informed that since I was not a resident of the state and the truck was titled in another state they could not inforce proof of insurance hmmmm way to be a real jerk about it. By the way I had gone through it about an hour earlier with no problems useing the same proof of insurance.
So has any one else experienced a state, county, or city that has the same policy?
Lucky Mike said
12:35 AM Mar 25, 2013
I have seen the digital copies but.........if your phone decided not to work at that moment ,it could become a bad day......handing an officer your smart phone is the sam as saying ....yes officer I surrender my right to a warrant for you to gleen this phone for all the info it will give you.
hard copy only from me......if you can pull it up on your computer I would print it out........until they have digital Registrations and drivers licences.....its the only way to go
Terry and Jo said
03:12 AM Mar 25, 2013
I have to REALLY agree with Mike here. While it doesn't take long to print out a paper copy, a "Barney Fife" by any other name in any little town in American can certainly cost one a lot more time and expense.
Also, I don't trust my phone battery.
Terry
wildbill2673 said
03:39 AM Mar 25, 2013
Ok here is the deal it was on my IPOD. I have it plugged into my trucks radio so it stays charged at all times. The insurance companies app lets my cards stay in the IPODs' memory with out haveing internet. The eleictronic cards have the same information on them as the paper. In the past I have downloaded the proof onto my computer. In 2011 my wife was in an accident and all I had to do was turn the computer on and show the officer the downloaded proof and he was happy with it. This was a small town as well.
I was just wondering if others have run into this issue in other areas.
Jim01 said
12:59 PM Mar 25, 2013
We went full-timing to get away from problems. To me, the best way would be to simply print out a copy to hand to an officer if he didn't want to accept the electronic version.
Problem solved. No more hassle.
Jim
Racerguy said
04:10 PM Mar 25, 2013
Jim01 wrote:
We went full-timing to get away from problems. To me, the best way would be to simply print out a copy to hand to an officer if he didn't want to accept the electronic version.
Problem solved. No more hassle.
Jim
My thought exactly.
WestWardHo said
04:27 AM Mar 27, 2013
O.K. But supporting wild bill, isn't having a document on your electronic device simplifying? I could well be missing something here so help me out.
I'm thinking, open the slide to access printer...etc. by the side of the road? Seriously help.
Sherry
Terry and Jo said
02:04 PM Mar 27, 2013
If you're at the side of the road, do you have electricity for the printer? Do you think a police officer is going to let you go into your fifth wheel to access a printer? I can attest that they likely will not because you could be going for a weapon.
Working for a law enforcement agency and knowing the normal procedures that police officers do during traffic stops, I know that a police officer is not going to trouble with herding all of the occupants into the fifth wheel so that he still can see all of those occupants while one prints out a document.
Terry
Lucky Mike said
02:26 PM Mar 27, 2013
I like the digital concept.....but there is no fail-safe method electronic way. The LEO is there for infractions.......the Judge will be the one for Judgement,.....by they way "Please turn off all cell phones before entering the court room" and your evidence for proof of innocence will be a "hard copy of your insurance" or please pay the County Clerk on your way out.
RVKevi said
12:40 AM Mar 28, 2013
We have always kept hard copy proof of insurance with our vehicle registration. It's just not a big deal.
wildbill2673 said
04:07 AM Mar 28, 2013
IPODs are not Cellular Phones and I keep a copy of all proof of insurance on my laptop computer. By the way I thought that haveing the information on my IPOD would be faster than booting up the laptop. Also if a LEO were to give me a ticket and I had to go to court I would have a hard copy to present to the judge at that time. Oh and by the way I use an IPOD touch.
IPOD TOUCH = small computer
IPhone = small computer + cellular phone
Racerguy said
04:54 AM Mar 28, 2013
Hard copy doesn't take up much room just in case LEO won't accept digital copy but if you are bound and determined to make a point and only have it digitally I guess you can go to court and explain it to the Judge.
wildbill2673 said
05:33 AM Mar 28, 2013
OK so here is the point. I first put my little story out there and then I posed a question. I thought that maybe I was not the only one who had thought that a digital copy was a really neat idea on saving time and such. I also wanted to know of other encounters in regards to electronic froms of proof of insurance.
Side note I am not near home when my insurance is renewed and therefore I sometimes do not see it until I have little time left on said policy term. Also I do not print it out because the cost of ink for my printer is expensive and I try not to purchase it unless I really have to print enough to make it worth it. Now if an insurance company out there would let you renew a policy once a year instead of haveing to renew it every six months this would make life alot easier. I am just trying to steer this post in the direction that I had sent it off in to begin with HMMMMMMMM.
jholderbaum said
12:39 PM Mar 28, 2013
You could go to a local library and pay a nominal fee to print it out perhaps?
kb0zke said
07:12 PM Mar 29, 2013
We have State Farm for our two cars, and they send us new cards every six months for each car. Jo Ann and I each carry a card for each car. No big deal. Maybe other companies do things differently.
SnowGypsy said
04:32 PM Apr 1, 2013
No, we have never presented anyone asking for a copy of our insurance card with an electronic device. We have to have hard copies of the insurance cards in order to get tags for our cars in KS. I know when even showing driver's license, I had mine in a wallet behind a see-through window and am always asked to "take it out". The library is a good idea since most charge maybe 20 cents to print a sheet.
jayc said
04:53 PM Apr 1, 2013
I don't know if the electronic version is legal everywhere. I recently saw something about a bill in the Texas legislature allowing t, but AFAIK it has not passed yet.
Racerguy said
07:46 PM Apr 1, 2013
I think maybe we need to understand the OP is a younger couple and are more attuned to everything being electronic.I'm probably too old to see it but some day everything more than likely will be that way.
Lucky Mike said
08:27 PM Apr 1, 2013
until they issue electronic registrations I guess the insurance should also be paper....seeing they both should be kept together
RVRon said
04:58 AM Apr 2, 2013
wildbill2673 wrote:
About two weeks ago I went through a sobriety check point here in Elephant Butte, New Mexico. When asked to provide proof of insurance I handed them my Ipod with the insurance information on it. I was told that electronic proof of insurance was not an acceptable form of proof of insurance by the New Mexico Highway Patrol then I was informed that since I was not a resident of the state and the truck was titled in another state they could not inforce proof of insurance hmmmm way to be a real jerk about it. By the way I had gone through it about an hour earlier with no problems useing the same proof of insurance.
So has any one else experienced a state, county, or city that has the same policy?
To answer your question, NO I have not experienced a state that would not accept electronic proof of insurance (mine is on paper anyway). I find it odd that even though they would not accept your electronic documentation it became a moot point anyway since you were from out of state and they couldn't enforce POI. Why bother asking for it in the first place?
-- Edited by RVRon on Tuesday 2nd of April 2013 05:01:19 AM
DorisandDave said
06:16 PM Apr 5, 2013
Here's an article in Lifehacker exactly about this subject.
About two weeks ago I went through a sobriety check point here in Elephant Butte, New Mexico. When asked to provide proof of insurance I handed them my Ipod with the insurance information on it. I was told that electronic proof of insurance was not an acceptable form of proof of insurance by the New Mexico Highway Patrol then I was informed that since I was not a resident of the state and the truck was titled in another state they could not inforce proof of insurance hmmmm way to be a real jerk about it
. By the way I had gone through it about an hour earlier with no problems useing the same proof of insurance
.
So has any one else experienced a state, county, or city that has the same policy?
hard copy only from me......if you can pull it up on your computer I would print it out........until they have digital Registrations and drivers licences.....its the only way to go
I have to REALLY agree with Mike here. While it doesn't take long to print out a paper copy, a "Barney Fife" by any other name in any little town in American can certainly cost one a lot more time and expense.
Also, I don't trust my phone battery.
Terry
Ok here is the deal it was on my IPOD. I have it plugged into my trucks radio so it stays charged at all times. The insurance companies app lets my cards stay in the IPODs' memory with out haveing internet. The eleictronic cards have the same information on them as the paper. In the past I have downloaded the proof onto my computer. In 2011 my wife was in an accident and all I had to do was turn the computer on and show the officer the downloaded proof and he was happy with it. This was a small town as well.
I was just wondering if others have run into this issue in other areas.
We went full-timing to get away from problems. To me, the best way would be to simply print out a copy to hand to an officer if he didn't want to accept the electronic version.
Problem solved. No more hassle.
Jim
My thought exactly.
I'm thinking, open the slide to access printer...etc. by the side of the road? Seriously help.
Sherry
If you're at the side of the road, do you have electricity for the printer? Do you think a police officer is going to let you go into your fifth wheel to access a printer? I can attest that they likely will not because you could be going for a weapon.
Working for a law enforcement agency and knowing the normal procedures that police officers do during traffic stops, I know that a police officer is not going to trouble with herding all of the occupants into the fifth wheel so that he still can see all of those occupants while one prints out a document.
Terry
IPODs are not Cellular Phones and I keep a copy of all proof of insurance on my laptop computer. By the way I thought that haveing the information on my IPOD would be faster than booting up the laptop. Also if a LEO were to give me a ticket and I had to go to court I would have a hard copy to present to the judge at that time. Oh and by the way I use an IPOD touch.
IPOD TOUCH = small computer
IPhone = small computer + cellular phone
Hard copy doesn't take up much room just in case LEO won't accept digital copy but if you are bound and determined to make a point and only have it digitally I guess you can go to court and explain it to the Judge.
OK so here is the point. I first put my little story out there and then I posed a question. I thought that maybe I was not the only one who had thought that a digital copy was a really neat idea on saving time and such. I also wanted to know of other encounters in regards to electronic froms of proof of insurance.
Side note I am not near home when my insurance is renewed and therefore I sometimes do not see it until I have little time left on said policy term. Also I do not print it out because the cost of ink for my printer is expensive and I try not to purchase it unless I really have to print enough to make it worth it. Now if an insurance company out there would let you renew a policy once a year instead of haveing to renew it every six months this would make life alot easier. I am just trying to steer this post in the direction that I had sent it off in to begin with HMMMMMMMM.
To answer your question, NO I have not experienced a state that would not accept electronic proof of insurance (mine is on paper anyway). I find it odd that even though they would not accept your electronic documentation it became a moot point anyway since you were from out of state and they couldn't enforce POI. Why bother asking for it in the first place?
-- Edited by RVRon on Tuesday 2nd of April 2013 05:01:19 AM
Here's an article in Lifehacker exactly about this subject.
http://lifehacker.com/5993737/keep-your-paper-insurance-card-in-your-wallet-most-states-dont-accept-electronic-ones-yet
Edit by moderator: Activated link. Terry
-- Edited by Terry and Jo on Friday 5th of April 2013 09:18:59 PM
Good article. I read it and it was very informative. This is what I was after from the get go.