Everyone knows that if you wish to drive a car you have to carry auto insurance. When a person first gets their driver’s license from the DMV one of the requirements is showing proof of a valid auto insurance policy that is at least a liability only policy. This is referred to as “Showing Proof of Financial Responsibility”. Auto insurance is not cheap, especially for someone under the age of 25 or anyone who is going through a financially difficult time in their lives. Many people make the decision to drop their auto insurance policy and take a chance that they will not have an accident. The thought process is typically something like “I’m a good driver; I’ve been driving for X years and never had an accident. I’ll be ok”.
Well that may be true, they might be the best driver on the road, but what about all the other vehicles on the road and all those distractions drivers face today, including talking and texting on cell phones while driving? In reality it could end up costing you more than you think if you are caught driving without insurance.
What is the Penalty for Driving without Insurance?
If an officer stops you and asks for your driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance and you are unable to provide the officer with proof of insurance, depending on what state you live in, the officer may seize your vehicle plates or tags and quite possibly impound your vehicle.
If your vehicle gets impound, you are going to have to pay all the fees associated to the impound to get your vehicle out of impound, which could run several hundred dollars or more depending on how long your vehicle sat in impound before you went to get it.
You may have to acquire new plates or tags for your vehicle, which is another cost. You are also going to have to pay the DMV between $150 and up to $1,000 depending on what state you live in to get your driver’s license reinstated. The biggest ongoing expense is going to be the required SR22 filing that the DMV is going to impose on you in order to reinstate your driver’s license.
An SR22 filing is basically an agreement between the DMV and your insurance provider that says that if for any reason there is a lapse in your insurance coverage that your insurance company is obligated to inform the DMV of this lapse. An SR22 filing or as it’s commonly referred to SR22 insurance is going to impact your insurance rates for an extend period of time. Because depending on what state you live in your DMV may require a longer SR22 filing period due to your lapse in insurance coverage. How much does SR22 insurance cost? You can expect to pay between 2 and 3 times as much for an SR22 insurance policy in this scenario compared to what you would have been paying before for your auto insurance. So if you are under the age of 25 and you were paying say $100 a month for insurance coverage on your vehicle, you can expect your insurance rates to increase to $200 to $300 a month, or more. So as you can see the risk of getting caught driving without insurance can far outweigh the cost of just keeping your auto insurance policy enforce. If you find yourself in this situation one of the best things you can do for yourself to try and save some money on your insurance is to go out and get multiple SR22 insurance quotes from various providers in your area. If you do not own a vehicle but still need to drive you might want to look into getting a non-owner SR22 insurance policy to save some additional money.
