DUI – How Will This Effect My Car Insurance Rate?
Reader question:
When you get a DUI, do your car insurance rates always go up?
Dwayne
They do usually, but not always.
Most states require you to file an SR 22 form to prove that you have DUI car insurance, but not every state does. If you want to know if your state is one of the ones that does not deal with the SR 22 form, then you should contact your state department of insurance. If they don’t, then it’s very possible that your car insurance company won’t find out about your drunk driving offense until you give them the heads up. The reason for this is primarily because the insurance companies aren’t keeping a constant eye on the record, and if anything, they probably only look at it every six months, if not less.
There are a couple of other reasons though. One of them is that the courts don’t automatically give all of their information over to the DMV, so even if your car insurance company does look at your record, the offense might not be there. Another is that a lot of times, when people commit moving violations, they will take defensive driving courses in order to wipe the violation from their record. This is one of the very popular possibilities when it is offered, because most courses are either very cheap or free. Sometimes when you commit a DUI, your license gets suspended, but the shorter the time of the suspension the less likely is your car insurance company to find out.
Even if they don’t know right away, though, they still have a period of three years to find out. During that time, they can cancel your policy as soon as they find out. Aside from the misrepresentation, that in itself doesn’t mean that your rates will go up or you’ll get canceled, either. Some companies have policies where, if you have been a customer with a good history and driving record, you can be forgiven for an offense, even one as serious as driving under the influence of alcohol. Sometimes you don’t even lose your safe driver discount, so long as you keep driving clean.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
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