How to get good rate with poor driving record?

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 08:30 am Post Subject: Try to improve your driving record

The best possible solution is by improving his driving record. It is not fair to ask for better premium quotes with a bad driving record. You can't blame the insurance company for charging you high. They are actually taking bigger risk by insuring you. Anyways, some states offer special insurances for ‘high risk driver'. In case you can't find an insurer, you can always seek refuge to state offered ‘assigned risk plan'.

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 09:18 am Post Subject:

Well my friend, your situation is no doubt critical. You are trying to achieve two opposite things at-a-time. It is difficult, if not impossible, to get cheap premium rates with poor driving record. Well, you can still try the following ways.

First thing you need to do, is to analyze your needs. If you are driving an old car which has a low market value, you may omit the comprehensive coverage option from your policy. Normally, theft, fire, vandalism are the types of perils covered by the comprehensive coverage. So, it can be dropped for old cars.

You may also consider dropping ‘collision coverage' on your car. Collision coverage pays for fixing your car damages if it is hit by an other car or by any other ‘covered' object. Collision coverage is quite expensive and by dropping this you can save some money. But one last word of caution, everytime you compromise with your auto insurance coverage, please, keep it in mind that you are actually compromising with your safety also.

Regards,
Juanita

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 10:24 am Post Subject:

I agree, and would suggest if you don't have a 'beater' that you buy him one. An older vehicle, that you can pay cash for (so a leinholder will not require you to carry comp and collision), and carry your state mandated coverages only. Notice I didn't say state mandated limits..it depends on your states limits, some are very low, and just plain foolish, my state's PD limit is 10k! Which is not enough protection/coverage, (in my opinion). For your husband you would want higher P.D. and B.I. limits, it sounds like. You can then exclude him from the 'nicer' (higher premium) vehicle you two have, but a word of caution and I cannot emphasize this enough if he is excluded he can NEVER EVER drive that vehicle..

I'm not sure what Jaunita means by ''everytime you compromise with your auto insurance coverage, please, keep it in mind that you are actually compromising with your safety also." The 'safety' part is what I'm not clear on. But I'm sure she is trying to make it clear that when you compromise by not having more/desireable coverages such as collision or comprehensive, you won't be protected, should you have an accident without collision coverage that is your fault, there would be no coverage to fix YOUR vehicle.

Cleaning up your husbands record if of course paramount, however this is a long long process, generally three to five years. But he certainly needs to get to work on it !!

Good luck to you!

Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 11:57 pm Post Subject:

Mrsworried,

Unfortunate situation, and unfortunately, I don't think anyone is going to have great news for you. As you are undoubtedly aware, your driving record is a prime determinant in your premium rates!

As we aren't sure what state you reside in, that would be a good piece of info to have as we can help point you in certain directions based on state law and minimum liability requirements. That being said...

Juanita and other posters are right on target. Bad driving record = bad insurance premiums. Asking a carrier to give you low rates in exchange for insuring a bad driver generally will not happen. The only thing that will take care of a bad Motor Vehicle Record (MVR) is better driving habits and time. There is no magical way to make it better, unfortunately.

You didn't mention whether you had any other licensed drivers in the household and what their driving records are like, whether you currently carry auto insurance, and what the status of that insurance is. That could make a difference. If you currently carry insurance, your rates are already bad if his driving record is as well. Another unfortunate reality of insurance is that normally the worst driver in the household will be the "rated" driver on the policy. In other words, if you have a clean MVR and your husband does not, the policy premiums will be rated on your husbands MVR and not yours. You normally have no choice in this matter, unless you can find a carrier willing to exclude him from coverage on a policy. This obviously defeats the purpose if he needs to drive!

Time is your only ally--- you must get his driving record cleaned up. Depending on what's on his MVR (tickets, accidents, reckless driving, DUI's, etc.,) your rates will vary widely. If you could give us some additional info as to exactly what's on his record, we might be able to help some more! Good luck!

InsTeacher 8)