Auto Insurance -- by Danny Glover

There are basically 4 ways your automobile insurance can increase.  Most insurance premium increases last three years from the time they begin, which normally occurs at the first premium increase following the occurrence of the event that triggers the increase.

1. You add a new, inexperienced or bad driver to your policy.
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.  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;
• The amount of damage is $1,850 or less;
• There is no conviction for a moving violation in connection with the accident;
• 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.)

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. This 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 decide, for basically any reason, that you are a “risky driver”, i.e., car color, tattoos, piercing, number of claims paid, numerous dismissed driving tickets, etc.  When you are “ceded”, then your premiums go up drastically.  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.
4. Conviction of a Moving Violation.  The North Carolina SDIP (Safe Driver Incentive Plan) provides a points system for driving convictions that equates to a certain percentage increase in your premium rates.  You can find that rate increase chart by googling “NCDOI SDIP”.  A good lawyer can either get your ticket dismissed so that you get no SDIP points (which are different than DMV points), or get it reduced to something that will carry no, or fewer, SDIP points.