4 Ways Your Automobile Insurance Can Increase
There are basically 4 ways your automobile insurance can increase. Most insurance premium increases last 3 years from the time they begin, which normally occurs at the first premium increase following the occurrence of the event that triggers the increase.
Hiring a good lawyer when faced with these some of these situations can help avoid or lessen the premium increase – Danny Glover
1. You add a new, inexperienced or bad driver to your policy
Sorry, but even the best lawyer can’t help you in this situation.
More Info: What should I do after a traffic accident?
2. An At Fault Accident
In most cases, if you are at-fault in causing an accident or collision, your insurance rates will go up. If you are not at fault, your rates will not go up. In some rare instances, even when you are at fault, your rates will not go up IF ALL of the following conditions are met:
- There is property damage only; AND
- The amount of damage is $1,850 or less; AND
- There is no conviction for a moving violation in connection with the accident; AND
- No licensed operators in the household have convictions or at fault accidents during the experience period. (An insurance company may require that the insured be covered by that company for six continuous months.)
More Info: What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Lawyer?
3. Ceded to the NC Reinsurance Facility
This one is the most complicated, and the most unfair one. All of the automobile insurance companies that do business in North Carolina belong to the N.C. Reinsurance Facility. http://www.ncrb.org/ncrf/Home/tabid/245/Default.aspx This is a consortium provides a mechanism for pooling of insurance risks who cannot obtain coverage by ordinary methods. Premiums, losses, and expenses are shared by the member companies in proportion to their respective North Carolina automobile liability insurance writings.
What this means to you is this:
An insurance company can decided, on its own, for basically any reason, that you are a “risky driver.”
This could be because of car color, tattoos, piercing, number of claims paid even when you are not at fault, numerous driving tickets that were dismissed, etc.
When you are “ceded”, then your premiums can go up drastically. If your policy is placed into the Reinsurance Facility, your only recourse is to shop your coverage around to different carriers in hopes that those carriers will not view you as a “risky driver” that needs to be ceded.
Safe Driver Incentive Plan 2017
4. Conviction of a Moving Violation
Insurance companies can raise your premiums if you are convicted of certain moving violations. The North Carolina SDIP (Safe Driver Incentive Plan) provides a points system for those convictions that equates to a certain percentage increase in your premium rates.
A good lawyer can either get your ticket dismissed so that you get no SDIP points (which are different than DMV points) so that your insurance does not increase, or get it reduced to something that will carry fewer SDIP points so that your insurance premium increase is lower than it would otherwise be.
Danny Glover, Jr.
Glover Law Firm
406 S. Griffin St., Suite B
Elizabeth City, N.C. 27909
252-299-5300
danny@dannygloverlawfirm.com