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Road accident investigation involves police officers who require identification cards and proof of valid insurance from all parties. Failure to produce insurance card is punishable by driver license suspension, fines, and jail time.
Another possibility is that the driver must now get SR-22 auto insurance. SR-22 is a certificate of financial responsibility to make the driver meet at least the state’s minimum auto insurance coverage requirements for a period of time. A driver has the obligation to purchase and carry SR-22 certificate for these reasons:
- DUI (Driving Under the Influence) conviction
- Uninsured driving
- Involvement in serious accidents that cause injuries or deaths
- Large points on DMV records due to various traffic violations
SR-22 is often a requirement to revoke the suspended driver license. The Department of Motor Vehicles will inform anyone who needs the certificate.
How to get an SR-22
In most cases, SR-22 is only necessary after an event of serious incidents such as road accident or recurrent violation. This is not a standard proof of insurance, and therefore the process to acquire it is also more complex. Some insurance companies provide options to acquire SR-22, while others choose to reject any application for it. The main problem is that a driver who asks for SR-22 falls into high-risk category. From insurance companies’ perspectives, drivers of this category are too risky to insure; bad DMV records and DUI are strong indicators that the driver tends to be careless behind the wheel. Carelessness leads to accidents which force the insurer to give payout. Application denial is not uncommon, but helps are available from non-standard insurance companies.
Driving under the influence or DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) causes surcharge in auto insurance premium. In worst scenario, an insurance company cancels a policy after a conviction of DUI/DWI. After cancellation, a driver has the obligation to find new insurance provider because it is a crime to drive without valid proof of financial responsibility. DUI and cancellation also changes a driver’s risk category from low to high. Now that the driver is high risk, many insurers are unable to provide coverage.
As difficult as it is to get coverage with DUI, there is small number of insurers who specialize on high-risk customers. Most of the difficulties come from standard insurance market. The term “standard” describes an insurance market almost all policyholders are low-risk. They have clean DMV records, low annual mileage, and preferable vehicles. However, insurance companies have their own variables to determine whether a driver is high risk or low risk.
Non-Standard Insurance Market
In ideal circumstance, any insurer checks all applicants’ records to see if they have records of accidents, traffic violations, and insurance lapses. When the applicants meet or exceed the minimum requirements for approval, the insurers are glad to provide coverage. Some companies even check credit score, too. Bad credit score has strong relevance with the possibility of late premium payment, frequent claims, and recklessness behind the wheel. They think that if someone is bad at financial management, there is a tendency to perform as bad on the road. Apart from DMV records and credit score, high-risk label is relevant to age, profession, and car model.
Non-standard insurance companies omit thorough background checks, but they focus on the fact that all drivers deserve insurance, regardless of high-risk label. Application approval is easy because there is no need to correlate between credit score, profession, age, or address and the possibility of frequent claims in the future. Even with non-standard insurance company, a driver still has to revoke his/her driver license before the application. In other words, SR-22 is necessary either way.
The biggest differences between standard and non-standard are price and options
The latter provides less coverage options, and the premium rate is higher. Instead of denial, non-standard insurers seek compensation for high risk from higher rate. As soon as the driver completes SR-22 period requirement, it is possible to get back to the standard market again.
Among all non-standard auto coverage providers, Good to Go Insurance stands out from the crowd. When most insurers in the market offer only state’s minimum coverage requirement, this company allows customers to expand coverage with both Comprehensive and Collision options. Both are optional indeed, but the financial protections are important to avoid big expense for car repair in case of accidents.
Another thing that makes Good2go a good option is the discount. While eligibility requirements are different in each state, an average policyholder can save between 5% and 10% of premium rate per period. Some of the requirements also encourage high-risk driver to revoke the label from their names for example Defensive Driving Course and Safe Driving Lessons.