It's been less than 30 days since I purchased my new car. Who pays for my car accident?

I'm assuming you had car insurance for your old car. All states except New Hampshire require drivers to carry liability auto insurance, so the car dealer would have wanted to see proof of insurance before letting you drive off the lot. Did you tell your insurer that you bought a new vehicle? In most cases, you have 14 to 30 days to inform your car insurance company that you recently purchased a new car.

The coverage on your old car automatically covers your new vehicle during the grace period. But once the grace period has passed, you could be without insurance if you never took steps to get the new car insured.

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Also, if you only carried liability insurance, which pays for the damage your car does to others if you cause an accident, the coverage on your new vehicle will be limited to liability insurance during the grace period. You would not have collision and comprehensive coverage until you informed your insurer of the change. Collision coverage pays for damage to your vehicle in an accident, and comprehensive coverage pays for damage to your vehicle caused by factors other than a traffic accident, such as a natural disaster, theft, vandalism or collision with an animal.

If you financed your car, the bank probably required you to add collision and comprehensive before the transaction was completed.

Assuming your car is indeed insured, your insurance company or the other driver's insurance company will ultimately pay the bill, depending on who was at fault. If the other driver was at fault, your car insurance company will work to get that driver's insurer to pay the tab and your deductible.

For more, see auto(matic) coverage for new cars.