I have been meaning to clear this up for a while now, but it is one of those things that always gets pushed to the back burner. I live in the city of Philadelphia, my car is registered to a town right outside of Philly (where I lived previously) , and the address on my license and my insurance are both in Pittsburgh (where I lived before I moved here). I had a small run in with a cop on saturday night. He ended up letting me go without showing him my license and registration, but I was wondering, what would happen if he found out that my car is registered to a different city than my insurance, and I do not live in either of those places?
When I changed my address with the DMV recently, it updated my address in their system. My license still has the old address, until I get a new one when it expires this year. My registration in the car still has the old address. However, when my car is up for registration renewal, they will send the renewal to my new address, not the one printed on the paper in my glove box. (I know this, because I’ve moved a lot recently and have never missed out on getting this bill)
So if you’ve changed your address with the DMV, that’s what’s in their records. If it’s different than what’s on a piece of paper, I don’t think it would be a big deal. Besides, if the cop had run your info, he’d pull up the new address, which should then match your license and insurance.
Hopefully I’ve understood your circumstances correctly. And of course this all assumes that PA DMV operates in much the same manner as CA DMV does. So YMMV.
A bigger worry might be what if the insurance company found out. It’s not unusual for them to have different rates for different geographical areas, sometimes even different parts of a city. You might be wise to update them with your current info, lest they cancel you for false information.
In Texas it’s a ticket for not updating your drivers’ license within 10 days of a move.
It’s probably not the greatest idea to have the car and your license with two different addresses. While many cops won’t care, some will, and you’ll have a small fine to go with it.
Like Gary T said, the bigger concern would be if your insurance company found out. You’re probably paying a cheaper rate by having your car registered in the suburbs, and insurance companies don’t like that.
If you worry a lot about things, change everything to your new address and keep everything legit. If you have some kind of connection to that suburban address, and you can get mail and stuff (like, it’s your mother’s house or whatever), you could keep everything listed there, but that will require a bit of lying if you ever have to make an insurance claim…i.e. “I was sleeping over my buddy’s house in Philly one night; that’s why my car got stolen from there.”
In any event, it would be a good idea to at least have the car and your license match up.