Yesterday, I received a letter from the State of Florida. Essentially, it said that I'm an idiot. I inferred that message because it was a notice that my auto insurance lapsed, and I was at risk to have my license suspended.
I seem to do a better job of reading my e-mail than my USPS mail, so I instructed my insurance company to send my notices to e-mail. In doing so, I made two mistakes.
1: I was worried about SPAM, so I used a web-based e-mail address that I rarely check, rather than my preferred e-mail account.
2: I didn't imagine that the company would use a different domain than their web domain to send my e-mail notices. The payment notices went directly into my SPAM filter.
Hence, I'm an idiot. Fortunately, I was able to quickly pay my bills and get the issue resolved. My license was never suspended, so I wasn't unwittingly driving around without a license.
However, I'm a bit peeved about something. In addition to my SUV, I also have a motorcycle insured by a different provider. That insurance was never in jeopardy. So why does my license risk suspension if my four-wheeled vehicle loses insurance, but not if my two-wheeled vehicle loses insurance (I've been stupid before)?
Even if I lost my insurance on the car, I could still legally drive the motorcycle - except for that license revocation issue. It doesn't seem to make sense to me. If anything, it seems like an anti-motorcycle bias.
Of course, the truth is probably much simpler. Never assume malice when simple incompetence is often the answer.
It turns out that it's because I have a responsibility to keep insurance on a vehicle with a valid tag. My two insurance companies don't know about each other. So if I lose insurance on one of them, the state obliges the insurance company to provide notice. Since I haven't notified the state that I no longer plan to license that vehicle, it hits me with a warning to suspend. Had I failed to take care of this before an actual suspension, the cost to reinstate my license would range between $150 - $500. Ouch.
So, the moral here is to make sure you're not so afraid of SPAM that your notices don't get to you.
