What if You have a major violation on your record?
For those who have a DUI, or are caught driving uninsured, it just isn’t pretty, and there are no two ways about it. The good news as long as you have learned your lesson and change your ways, those incidents will fall off of your record eventually. However, you will have to demonstrate unequivocally that you know how to stay on the straight and narrow by doing exactly that for at least 3 years, or that is to say at least three years of renewal cycles from the time you started a new insurance term (often 6 months) after the event occurs.
For example, if your insurance renews every January and July, and you get a DUI in February. Your car insurance policy won’t know that until it renews, in July, so it will be at least three years from July 1st, not from February 1st, because the insurance company has a limited period of time, they are able to rate your policy, but it starts from the renewal date immediately after the incident in question, not on the incident date.
Another example is if you’re caught driving on a suspended license on August 3rd and your policy renews July and January 1st, then you’ll pay the same rate through the end of your term from August through December, but then in January, your policy will be re-priced based on the last 6 months, and boom, your rate goes up then, and will stay up for at least 3 years depending on the state in which you live.
The bad news is that, for 3 years, or in most states, 6 semi-annual renewal cycles you will have higher rates. The good news, from that moment that major violation occurs, you have the opportunity to turn things around by keeping a clean record, and by working with insurance companies that rate drivers by the state’s fault laws, and not simply by the entire claims history.
One strategy might be to just not have a car, and no car insurance for a period of time. If your life, work and childcare obligations allow for that, it’s not a bad option. There is something that may be even a better option, though many representatives may not know about this option, let alone offer it to you. It is insurance for non-owned autos. It is designed to cover the personal risk of an employee who is required with infrequent regularity, to drive a car personally registered to the boss, not the business. Business insurance doesn’t extend to the employee, because the car is not owned by the business.
The employee doesn’t live in the bosses house, so the boss’s car insurance doesn’t extend to the employee. Anti-discrimination laws require it to be sold to anyone who wants to buy and meets eligibility requirements. This is better though costlier than simply not having insurance. It is better because it forces the underwriters, those folks who never talk to the public, but get to set … Read More