Mail time – repeat offenders

Yesterday I got a letter in the mail from my car insurance company. Since I’ve already received my insurance cards, and my coverage is paid in full through September, I really can’t think of any good reason to get correspondence from them. Sure enough, it was bad news. Worse yet, it was bad news I’ve already addressed.

A while back I mentioned that I tried to apply for car insurance online but was turned down due to the company’s inability to “confirm the garaging location” (proof of address). For some reason, they thought I still lived in Massachusetts, where I haven’t lived for nearly six years. At the time, the list of items acceptable as proof was too narrow for my purposes. So I had to go and actually apply with a broker, who accepted my pay stub as proof and actually managed to save me even more money.

As I opened the letter yesterday, I was less than thrilled to see a request to “confirm the garaging location,” within the week or risk premium increase or cancellation of my policy. Interestingly, this list of proof items was broader, and included pay stubs 60 days old or less. Not only does the broker have a copy of my pay stub on file that was less than 60 days old at the time of the policy issue, it’s still less than 60 days old now. So what’s the problem?

(Side note: would not the fact that I received the very letter in question at that address suggest that is indeed where I live?)

“Hello, insurance.”

Blah, blah, blah, garaging location.

“Did you provide us with proof of address.”

There’s a pay stub on file.

“Okay, yes. We sent this to them. I don’t understand, this is your address.”

Yes, yes it is. I don’t understand either.

“Well, it says here they think the vehicle is in Massachusetts. That’s what the credit check showed.”

Uh huh.


Here’s the thing. I’m dying to know what incompetent credit check company thinks I live in Massachusetts. Apparently their profile shows a 28 year old man who has spent the past six years paying no bills, maintaining no bank accounts, accruing no debt, having no employment, having no license in the state, and this is most important, having no legally registered motor vehicle.

Because there is literally nothing that tethers me to the address they have listed. My parents haven't lived there in six years either. The car I’m trying to insure, to my knowledge, has only ever been registered at three addresses, all of them in New York.

They re-sent the pay stub. This better be the last I hear of this. Next step is a dinner party at my house, and I just don’t have the space for that sort of thing.