Accident Drives Up Our Car Insurance Rate
- Compare your existing provider with other insurance companies to check that you are getting the best rate.
- Contact the DMV to correctly assign the points to you and remove the points from your wife's driving record.
I caused a car accident that is affecting my wife's insurance. How can I help reduce her premium?
I was involved in an accident where I was at fault. I was driving my wife's car and she had full coverage, except I was not on the policy. Now her insurance went up and the kicker is, she had points added to her driving record. How can I help her remove the points and help reduce her insurance premium?
The fact that a claim was filed with your wife’s insurance company, regardless of whether or not she was driving the vehicle at the time, is reason enough for the insurance company to increase her premiums. Although she was not driving her car at the time, her allowing a "risky" driver to operate the vehicle increases the risk of covering her in the eyes of the insurance company’s actuaries, thus justifying an increase in the price of her policy. Any insurance claim, even if for an accident occurred when someone else was driving the vehicle, can result in a review and possible increase in the cost of the vehicle owner’s insurance policy, especially if the claim is for a substantial amount of money. In most states, insurance companies are highly regulated and cannot increase a policyholder’s premiums arbitrarily, so it is unlikely that you or your wife will be able to convince to insurer to reduce the premium to the pre-accident level.
However, you can always look for a different insurance company that is willing to offer your wife a lower-priced policy—if you are not happy with the current company’s service, take your business elsewhere. There is simply too much competition in the insurance market for you to stick with a company which you think is overcharging you. To learn more about auto insurance, and to begin shopping for a new insurance provider, you can visit the Bills.com Auto Insurance page.
While this accident may affect your wife’s insurance rates, your driving malfeasance should not have resulted in any points being added to your wife’s license, so you should be able to have the points that were attributed to your wife removed. Presumably, the DMV based its assignment of points based on the report it received from your wife’s insurance company. The insurance company must have reported that your wife, not you, was driving the vehicle, which is why your wife’s driver’s license was affected. If you contact the DMV and provide them with proof, such as a police report, that your wife was not driving when this incident occurred, the DMV should remove any deleterious marks from your wife’s driving record. The key is to contact the DMV as soon as possible to let them know about the problem and so they can tell you how to correct it.
I wish you and your wife the best of luck in resolving these issues with your insurer and the DMV, and hope that the information I have provided helps you Find. Learn. Save.
Best,
Bill
www.bills.com