Rates Are Too High For My SR22 Auto Insurance
Reader question:
I have already done all of the filing of my SR22 insurance form that I need to do, but my rates are still high. Why is that?
Alex
Great question, Alex.
So, your license was suspended three years ago, you’ve paid your dues and filed your SR22 insurance form, and yet at the end of it all nothing much has changed? This is a pretty common experience, and you’re only confused about it because you don’t understand that penalties aren’t the end of a punishment.
Whenever you are convicted of drunk driving, while for a first offense you only have to file the SR22 insurance form for three years, the actual conviction will stay on your record for longer than that, usually for a period of five years. If it’s your second conviction for drunk driving, then you file your SR22 insurance form for five years, and the conviction stays on your record for ten years. As long as that conviction is on your record, your car insurance company can see it and can charge you for it and rate you as high risk because of it.
The best thing to do to get rid of the negative influence that your SR22 insurance form has had on your car insurance premium is to practice driver safety. You can take a driver’s education or a defensive driving course. This may prove effective in taking the conviction off your record, in which case your rates will lower. If it does not, then you can still get a discount so long as you take the defensive driving course from a place that your car insurance company recommend. You cannot, however, get both a clean record and a discount.
Aside from the defensive driving course, just drive safely. Stay within the speed limit, and build your record back from the ground up. Even if you still have the drunk driving conviction on your record, you can still get lower rates and a car insurance discount for staying accident free for several years and staying with the same company.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.
Loading ...