Reader question:

Does DUI insurance always cause your rates to go up?

Malcolm

Not always.

Believe it or not, the possibility exists, although it is remote, that the car insurance company you are with will never know that you have committed a drunk driving offense. In most cases, they will find out, because usually you are required to file an SR 22 DUI insurance form. However, in some states it is not required that you do this, and in such states a car insurance company won’t know until it goes looking. According to research done by the Insurance Research Council, 25% of traffic violations don’t end up following their drivers around. Why is this?

• Lack of communication.

The courts don’t keep up an open road of communication with the department of motor vehicles. For this reason, some traffic violations never make it on your record.

• Driving classes.

A lot of people take a defensive driving course in order to get a violation taken off of their record. If they do this, it is often removed before the car insurance company even thinks to look.

There are other possible reasons. Sometimes, if you only get your license suspended for a month, nobody knows. It’s also true that if you reduce your plea bargain, then you probably won’t be getting higher car insurance rates. However, this is a close chance to cut. Your insurance company has an entire three years to find out about your mess up, and if they do, they are well within their rights to cancel your policy. This can be both because you misrepresented your information by not informing them about the DUI offense, and also because of the offense itself.

But sometimes, when a car insurance company finds out about your drunk driving offense, sometimes your car insurance rates still don’t go up, and it isn’t magic. Even car insurance companies can be reasonable, and usually they’ll look at your past with the company and consider it seriously before deciding to raise your rates. Often, if you had a good driving record before and were part of the preferred risk group, you can keep that status. Other times, even if you were preferred, you will only get knocked down to the standard risk group. Either way, you’re a lot better off than are those in the high risk group.

Cheers,

Fashun Guadarrama.