No, Florida does not have a 30 day grace period for car insurance payments. While other types of insurance, such as life, may have this grace period in which to pay and get your insurance reinstate auto insurance does not.

According to FL insurance law your insurance company must give you10 days written notice before it cancels your policy. Many companies meet this requirement by simply mailing bills to policyholders at least10 days before the due date, advising that the policy will cancel on a specific date unless the premium is paid. These companies may then cancel the policy on the listed date.

Likely this is what your insurance company did and thus when payment did not reach them by 12:01 am on December 23rd your policy canceled. You or your mother may be able to call and get your insurance coverage reinstated but you will need to tell them about this accident. Since your new coverage will start when you pay and not go back and be retro-active this pre-existing damage to your car will not be covered, nor will any vehicle you damaged in the accident.

In most states if you get physical damages, collision and comprehensive, which are the types of coverages that pay for damages done to your car, your agent will inspect the car and note any previous damages so thatyou cannot claim them in the future.

CarInsurance.com can offer you a policy that provides physical damage coverage (comprehensive and collision)so long as the pre-existing damage does not exceed the deductible you have selected in most cases. Be aware that some companies will NOT insure you if you have unrepared damage so you may need to get the vehicle repaired before obtaining insurance on it.