Florida car insurance with old DWI
I received two DUI’s in 1999 four days apart. (no criticism please, I’ve had enough). Due to changes in my house hold, I now need to find my own insurance (yes, divorce) . I recently purchased a policy through Geico, but I’ve since been informed that they can’t continue my policy past Dec. 1st since they’ve run my entire driving record. Is there an company out there that will accept a driver with a perfect record for 81/2 years without filing an SR22?
The DUI’s themselves should not be counted against you as tickets, accidents, etc. range from standard 3 years to as long as 5 years history MVR. The fact you are being required an SR22 is citing there is more going on that I do not have details. SR22 is a State of Florida requirement and not an insurance company requirement. They are simply provided due to mandate from the State of Florida because of an accident resulting in Bodily Injury (BI) and at the time of crash, there was no BI held on your insurance.
So you cannot run away from it but can only wait for the State to discharge it
Link to the definition of SR-22 : SR22 Insurance florida
Did you pay back restitution? This may be delaying your SR22 to be discharged
It is not necessarily a 3 year limit, but could be up to 20 years. Contact DMV and determine if there was a time limit listed on the SR22 responsibility or consult your case papers if a judge ruled the definition length of time.
SR-22s are required in relationship to the driver of cause and not to the policy itself or the necessarily the policy holder. So is this SR22 related to you directly or to another driver listed on your original policy? If it was not related to you, then the MVR done by the insurance carrier (Geico) may have yielded incorrect information. To resolve that, contact your local DMV office and inquire how you may correct the records so you are no longer affected. Sometimes, people are released from the SR22, but the slowness and incorrect data entry can cause wrong information to be relayed to an insurance carrier.
Once you can prove you are no longer required for SR22, then you should be able to have Geico lift the non-renewal notice if that is the reason they are non-renewing and not for other reasons you may have misunderstood.
This is the link for DMV to contact or locate a local office http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/
If you cannot resolve the SR-22, at least determinime how long you will be mandated. Progressive is about the only reasonably rated company for SR-22 mandates. Many others do not want to “fool” with the paperwork requirement. Also SR-22 people have a stigma of irresponsibility and susceptibility to claims. I am not saying you have that, but the average statistics says it does. Unfortunately, you are lumped sum in the group. After you have completed the SR22 mandate, I still recommend you maintain the Bodily Injury (BI) limit, minimum $10,000/$20,000 ($10,000 per person not to exceed $20,000 per accident). Many companies have $25k/$50k at not much more cost than $10k/$20k and at the cost of medical care especially resulting from an accident, I am a fan of no less than the 25/50 limit to protect your assests to the best of its ability.
BI is injury you cause to others in an accident, whether in your car or anywhere else not necessarily in a car.
Other advice? Keep comprehensive at $250 deductible if available. Cost difference between $250 &$500 is usually nominal and keep it no matter what and how old your vehicle. The State mandates windshield replacement is deductible free if you have Comp (average windshield replacement = $400) and it pays for itself once you use it. Also, since we are in Florida (Comp is for any vehicle damage not collision related), flood waters and tree falling on cars are examples of total car loss. The average cost for comp coverage is $24-$38 every 6 months depending on vehicle and age.
Some companies will want to use credit history as a factor in premium cost (this does not lower your beacon scores as credit companies recognize it is an insurance company inquiring for history record purposes and not for you to obtain more credit). ALL companies use Motor Vehicle Records(MVR) as a premium influence factor but again many use the either 3, 5 years, or both as a rating factor.
Use a company that participates in the CLU program (this is the central claims sharing data base) which will pay-off into the future because then when your SR-22 is discharged and you keep your overall MVR clean like you have been doing (GOOD JOB very proud of you for 8-1/2 years. Not an easy feat!) then this will allow you more opportunities to shop for the best preferred programs.
Many people do not realize that even among the same company name there are tier program levels. There are the ones with the least favourable rates for the bad drivers and/or bad credit history, one for middle fo the road drivers, who have a bit of bad marks on their records, or the PREFERRED which are for those who have shiny gold stars on their record. You want to shoot for the Preferred because it can mean as much as a $1,000 difference every 6 months from the derogatory program
Insurance companies cannot haphazardly discriminate on a randomized bases because the mood suited them. They must maintain consistency as that is State of Florida Law. They are obligated to follow how the process data as they filed it with the State of Florida’s Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FLOIR) approval knowns as Rules and Rates. So what they do to one, they must do the same to others. If they filed a ruling that they will not process SR22s and it results in non-renewal, then they must do the same to everybody else in the same category as you. Again, I do not think it is the DUI that caused this because of the length of time passed is too great. This is related to the SR22 or something else that unexpectedly popped up under the 36-60 months rule range Good luck!