Bureaucracy sucks

Who wants to hear the tale of Laura's car woes? Okay, it all started with my mother being dumb.

So, I'm 23, and I'm still on my parents' insurance policy. The insurance company called one day and said they were gonna be kicking me off, and I had to get my own policy. Right. Fine. Then, my mother opens her mouth and says, "Well, she's living in Pennsylvania now." Which is apparently a problem, since you can't live in Pennsylvania and have your car insured in New Jersey. It's, like, fraud or something. But since the car was registered to my parents, who do still live in New Jersey, we didn't feel bad about it.

Oh, the complications. The car can no longer be insured in my parents' name, because I'm no longer on their policy. Which means the car can no longer be registered to my parents, because the names on the registration and insurance have to match. Which means the car can no longer be registered in New Jersey, because I don't live there.

We tried to get around it. We tried to claim it was my mother's car, and she's just letting me use it (which is true), and that someday I will get a new car, and this car will be returned to my parents, and so we didn't want to go through the trouble of transferring ownership twice. No dice. We thought maybe they could write a PA insurance policy, even though the car was registered in NJ. Can't do that, either.

Fine. Whatever. So, we have to transfer the title from my mother's name to mine, it'll have to get registered and insured in PA, and I'll have to get a PA drivers license. Which will cost me a crapload of money, with fees and inspection and all that, but whatever.

But no, it's gotta be even more complicated than that. We can't just transfer it. Because of a teensy, weensy incident where my mother totaled my/her car, the car now has a salvage title. So, we have to get the title transferred to my name. We have to get the car registered IN NEW JERSEY in my name. That's $40 for a 4-year registration I'll never use. I have to turn in the license plates and get temporary plates. THEN, I have to wait for them to send me new NJ plates, so I can put them on my car, drive to the DMV in PA, and take them off again.

In the meantime, I have to get my PA drivers license ($26) and get the car insured. Once that's done, I have to register the car in PA, turn in my (brand-spanking new) NJ license plates, get another set of temporary plates, and wait for them to send me the new PA plates. I'll have to pay another $36 registration fee, plus the cost and hassle of getting my car inspected in Pennsylvania. (For the record, inspection is free in NJ.)

In summary: Grrr. Argh.