With auto insurance being mandatory all across the US, this is one of those expenses you simply can’t cut, unless you decide you don’t need a car at all. Yet, you can do something: you can make sure you pay the minimum possible, by doing your research and asking for multiple quotes and by not breaking the laws of your state. Maybe it’s not fair but even a bad credit history may influence your car insurance premiums, although these two seem completely unrelated.
One of the situations in which car insurance becomes more expensive is DUI. DUI is the acronym for Driving Under Influence and it means that a police agent has caught you driving after drinking more than your local law allows. How would they know how much you’ve been drinking? They don’t care about the quantity actually, but they put you at test with an ethyl meter, which would indicate the alcohol percentage you have in your blood. Depending on how much you exceed the legal limit, you’ll end up in less or more trouble. You can even go to jail for that, because it’s taken very seriously. Besides, there are other consequences you may not even think about. One of them is that you may have to pay more for your car insurance policy. If you wonder why, then you maybe should know that DUI convicts are considered a high-risk category of drivers, and most insurance companies charge them more for insurance premiums,. Because the chances that they file a claim are bigger than in case of ordinary people who never drink and drive and who obey the law. Some insurance carriers go even further: if you get convicted, they’d cancel your policy. This is why you need to undertake some research and see what you can do if this happens to you, although the wisest thing would be just not to drive with alcohol in your blood. It keeps you away from trouble and it’s safer for all of us.
Another bad thing a DUI attracts is the suspension of your driving license for a certain period of time. Yet, it is possible to get your license back sooner if you fill in the SR-22 form which is provided by the car insurance company you have a policy with. Beware though, not all companies provide that form to their customers, so you’d better ask them before it actually happens to you, especially if you know you have the bad habit of ignoring the law.
If you ever wondered why DUI lawyers are so sought after, please find out that if you don’t have a good one, you could end up in jail after a DUI conviction. This means that you’ll also get a criminal record history which may influence your social position or your further jobs, because some employers may reject you or they may shy away from giving you ca company car to drive, when they know that you belong to a high-risk category of drivers. A good DUI lawyer will defend you in court, so you may be able to keep your driver’s license and not go to jail. However, the second time you’ll be caught again with a DUI, no lawyer in this world will be able to save you from disaster. Judges and police officers are humans, they may have families and kids and they surely don’t want to worry for their kids being exposed to getting killed by imprudent drivers. This is also why laws are so severe with DUI cases. The more drastic the law, the less occurrences of DUI, at least this is what authorities hope.
