Billing and Cancellation Guide
Missed Trucking Insurance Payment: The Premium Finance Timeline
A missed trucking insurance payment on a financed policy doesn't go to your insurer first. It goes to the premium finance company. If the agreement you signed contains a power of attorney, that company can ask the insurer to cancel the policy in your name.
This guide walks the steps in order: the notice of intent to cancel, the days you get to pay, the cancellation request, and the separate cancellation notice that goes to FMCSA. Day counts are set by each state, so check your own.
Who can cancel a financed truck policy?
Start with who you pay. If your installments go to the insurance company itself, you're on the insurer's own payment plan, and this page isn't about that case.
If they go to a separate lender, you signed a premium finance agreement. Washington's statute defines one as an agreement by which the insured promises to pay a premium finance company "the amount advanced or to be advanced under the agreement to an insurer." The lender fronts the premium.
Now look in that agreement for a power of attorney. Florida's statute describes it as authority "enabling the premium finance company to cancel any insurance contract listed in the agreement." It's an easy paragraph to skip at signing. If it's there, the finance company doesn't need your signature a second time. It needs a default and the notice steps in your state's premium finance law.
One rule covers every stage below: pay whoever sent the notice. A finance company's notice gets paid to the finance company, not to your agent and not to your insurer. Our post on the average down payment for commercial truck insurance covers how financing gets set up at purchase.
From a missed installment to a cancelled policy: the timeline
A missed trucking insurance payment doesn't cancel anything on the day you miss it. The paper that follows does. Here's the order under Florida law. Steps 2 through 6 come from Fla. Stat. 627.848. Say your installment was due on the 1st and didn't go through.
1.The installment goes into default
Nothing cancels yet.
2.The notice of intent to cancel goes in the mail
The finance company mails written notice to each insured shown on the agreement. It says the company intends to cancel unless it receives the defaulted installment within 10 days. The statute says received. It doesn't say mailed or postmarked.
3.The ten days run out
If the payment hasn't arrived, the finance company mails your insurer a request for cancellation. The request states the effective date and the unpaid balance due under the finance contract. A copy goes to your last address shown on the agreement. If you've moved and never told the finance company, it goes to the old one.
4.The insurer receives the request
Florida says the policy is cancelled as of the date in the request "with the same force and effect as if the notice of cancellation had been submitted by the insured." The statute requires no further notice to you. That holds whether or not the finance company followed the notice rule. If it didn't, the same section gives the insured a cause of action against the finance company for damages.
5.Notices to third parties go out
Some cancellations can't take effect until someone else has been told, such as a government agency or a mortgagee. Florida says those restrictions still apply. The insurer gives the notice and calculates the effective date from the day it receives the finance company's request.
6.The unearned premium goes back
Within 30 days of the cancellation date, the insurer returns the unpaid balance due under the finance contract to the finance company, up to the amount available on cancellation. Anything left of the unearned premium goes to the agent or to you.
A separate Florida section on charges, Fla. Stat. 627.841, bars a finance company from collecting a cancellation charge unless it mailed a notice of the default within 10 days after the default. That notice goes to you and to the agent named in the agreement, and it gives you at least 5 days to pay. It's a condition for charging you. It isn't a step in cancelling the policy.
Florida's law even has a state commission pick the color of the standard cancellation notice. So open the notice that doesn't look like the rest of your mail.
This page stops at the cancellation date. If yours has passed, read our guide to reinstating lapsed trucking insurance instead.
Why the federal filing runs on its own clock
If you hold FMCSA operating authority, your insurer has a certificate of insurance on file with FMCSA. The state statute deals with the policy. The filing has a federal rule of its own.
49 CFR 387.313T(d) says a certificate of insurance can't be cancelled or withdrawn until 30 days after written notice is submitted to FMCSA on the prescribed form. That form is the BMC-35, Notice of Cancellation Motor Carrier Policies of Insurance. The 30 days start on the date FMCSA actually receives the form. Not the date you missed the payment. Not the date on the finance company's letter.
What this actually means: the ten days in a Florida, Illinois or Washington notice of intent and the filing's 30 days aren't one countdown. That isn't a reason to assume your coverage runs another 30 days. 387.313T(d) is about certificates and bonds on file with FMCSA. It doesn't mention the physical damage coverage on your truck. Ask your agent for the cancellation date the insurer set, in writing, for each coverage.
Why does the filing matter this much?
49 CFR 387.301T(a)(1) says a common or contract carrier can't engage in interstate or foreign commerce, and no certificate or permit can be issued to it or remain in force, unless a certificate of insurance or other accepted security has been filed with and accepted by FMCSA. Our post on a USDOT number going inactive after an insurance filing is cancelled covers what comes next. You can look up your own record on FMCSA's Licensing and Insurance carrier search, which takes a USDOT or docket number.
Under 387.313T(e), a certificate FMCSA has accepted can be replaced by another, and the retiring insurer's liability under its certificate ends on the replacement's effective date. A replacement policy with its own filing is how the old insurer's certificate gets retired under that paragraph.
How three states write the notice of intent to cancel
Premium finance law is state law. We opened three statutes for this page, and all three give the insured at least ten days. Don't read that as a national rule. Read your own state's section, or call your state insurance department, before you count days.
| State and section | Notice of intent to cancel | Cancellation request | Notice to agencies and third parties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida, Fla. Stat. 627.848 | Not less than 10 days' written notice, mailed to each insured on the agreement. | Mailed to the insurer, stating the effective date and the unpaid balance. Copy mailed to the insured. | Notice restrictions still apply. The insurer calculates the effective date from the day it receives the request. |
| Illinois, 215 ILCS 5/513a11 | Not less than 10 days written notice, mailed to the named insured, of the intent to cancel unless the default is cured within the 10 day period. | Mailed or hand delivered to the insurer. Copy mailed to the named insured. | The insurer notifies any governmental agency, mortgagee or other third party on or before the fifth business day after it receives the request. |
| Washington, RCW 48.56.110 | Not less than ten days' written notice, mailed to the insured, of the intent to cancel unless the default is cured within the ten-day period. | Mailed to the insurer. Notice of cancellation also mailed to the insured. | The insurer gives the prescribed notice on or before the second business day after the day it receives the request. |
Look at the last column. Your insurer owes a notice to a federal agency, and the states don't agree on how fast it has to go out. The Illinois section gives the insurer five business days. The Washington section gives it two. Florida's doesn't set a number.
Not in the table? Search your state's code for "premium finance" and "cancellation," then go by the date printed on your notice.
What to send at each step
A phone call leaves no record. Get every answer in writing and keep a copy. Here's what to send after a missed trucking insurance payment, and to whom.
Before the due date, if you know you'll be short
Call the finance company with the account number from your premium finance agreement. Ask what date it has to receive the payment, and ask for the answer by email.
After the due date, before any notice
Pay the installment to the finance company by the fastest method it accepts. Save the confirmation number. Don't send the money to your agent or your insurer.
When the notice of intent to cancel arrives
Pay the amount on the notice so the finance company receives it before the date on the notice. Then ask it to confirm in writing that the account is current and that no cancellation request has gone out. Forward the receipt and that confirmation to your agent.
When the cancellation request has already gone to the insurer
Ask the finance company whether it will send the insurer a written request to reinstate once you pay, and ask your agent what the insurer requires. Get both answers in writing. The three statutes on this page set out how a policy gets cancelled. None of them requires anyone to put it back.
When you can't pay in time
Start a replacement before the effective date. Send an agent your USDOT number, the cancellation notice, your declarations page, your driver and vehicle lists and your loss runs. If an application asks whether a policy was cancelled for non-payment, answer it the way it happened.
Our trucking insurance quote checklist lists what a new submission needs. If a replacement filing bounces, see why an FMCSA insurance filing gets rejected.
Frequently asked questions
How hard is it to make that insurance payment?
That depends on the installment against what your truck settles each week, and no web page can do that math for you. In Florida, Illinois and Washington the finance company has to mail at least ten days' written notice before it asks the insurer to cancel.
Can a premium finance company cancel my truck insurance without asking me?
Yes, if the agreement you signed contains a power of attorney. In the three states on this page it has to mail you a notice of intent to cancel first.
How many days do I have after a notice of intent to cancel truck insurance?
Your state's premium finance law sets the number. Check your notice for a date. Florida, Illinois and Washington each require not less than ten days' written notice.
Does FMCSA find out when a policy is cancelled for non-payment?
If you have a federal filing, yes. Under 49 CFR 387.313T(d) the certificate of insurance can't be cancelled until 30 days after Form BMC-35, the notice of cancellation, is submitted to FMCSA. The 30 days run from the date FMCSA actually receives the form.
What happens to the money I already paid?
It depends on your state and your agreement. In Florida the insurer returns the unpaid balance due under the finance contract to the finance company within 30 days of the cancellation date. Any unearned premium left over goes to the agent or the insured.
Related resources
- Lapsed Trucking Insurance: How Reinstatement Works
- USDOT Inactive After an Insurance Filing Is Cancelled
- Average Down Payment for Commercial Truck Insurance
- Trucking Insurance Non-Renewed: What to Do
- 30-Day Short-Term Truck Insurance
- FMCSA Insurance Filing Rejected
- Trucking Insurance Quote Checklist
- What Is a Loss Run?
Holding a notice of intent to cancel?
Send us your USDOT number, the notice from the finance company and your current declarations page. We'll tell you which markets we can take a replacement submission to, so you can start the paperwork before the date on the notice.