The Best Cheap Car Insurance After a DUI

Navigating through life after a DUI can feel overwhelming, but getting one is not as uncommon as you might think. In fact, there was one alcohol-impaired traffic fatality every 50 minutes in 2018, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. If you’ve gotten a DUI, there are financial and insurance consequences that you’ll have to deal with, and those will vary depending on factors like where you live and what insurer you have.

Here’s everything you should know about car insurance for those with a DUI:

Your car insurance after a DUI depends on the circumstances. In some cases, getting a DUI can result in a loss of car insurance. In other cases, it will simply increase your rates. For example, someone who gets a DUI and causes an accident is going to have much harsher insurance consequences than someone who simply gets pulled over and is found to be driving intoxicated.

Either way, however, having a DUI on your driving record is going to impact your insurance in some way because companies see it as a signal that a driver is a higher risk than someone who doesn’t have that kind of record.

When you get a DUI (which may be called a DWI, depending on where you live), your insurance rates will go up. The increase will depend on many factors, including your insurance company. For example, with MetLife, the rate would go up by over $3,000 per year, on average. On the other hand, the average premium would rise by about $750 per year with Progressive. Keep in mind that those examples are both for individuals who did not have any violations prior to the DUI.

Here’s how nine insurance companies’ average premiums would stack up for someone who went from having a clean record to getting a DUI:

These five companies are the best car insurance options, according to MoneyGeek’s analysis across several categories. This analysis includes factors like satisfaction, affordability, complaints, stability and discounts:

The best cheap insurance for those with a DUI or DWI on their record will depend on many factors, including location.

Here are the cheapest options for each state:

Getting a DUI could alter more than the way you commute to and from your destinations. You may be limited to what you can do, but there are still ways you can navigate around, particularly with car insurance and driving.

The exact insurance costs of getting a DUI or DWI will vary from person to person. But there are some potential costs you should be aware of when it comes to what you can expect on your car insurance after a DUI.

Your insurance options may be somewhat limited after a DUI, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have options. And shopping around is a vital step to take in that situation.

Although your insurance company may not revoke your insurance after getting a DUI, it’s still good to shop around as soon as it happens. That’s because the prices can range widely and you may be able to find a cheaper, better option elsewhere.

The more car insurance quotes you can get, the better equipped you’ll be to understand how each insurance company stacks up and which companies you qualify for. So using a tool that pulls quotes from several insurance companies at once is the best way to accomplish this task quickly.

Although a DUI or DWI will increase your rates, you can still access discounts — like loyalty, home-auto bundling or auto-pay discounts — which can help reduce the overall financial impact.

When you have a DUI on your record, it’s still worth it to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to prevent yourself from incurring additional strikes, which would inflate your rates even more. It can help, for example, to reduce your driving distances (this can also help lower your insurance costs), and to avoid driving on the most dangerous DUI days, like New Year’s Day and Labor Day.

Even if you find that your current insurance company offers the best option for you right now, that may not always be the case. So it’s beneficial to periodically shop around and see if you can get a better deal at another insurer.

The financial penalties of getting a DUI or DWI will vary depending on where you live, but it will include a hefty increase to your annual premium, at minimum. Again, the increase in rates can last as long as the DUI stays on your record. In Alaska, a state that ranks among the country’s worst drivers, it would stay on your record forever. However, for Rhode Island residents, it would stay on the driver’s record for only five years.

You may also need to pay for an SR-22 — though it can only cost $25 to file, depending on where you live and what insurance company you go with. If you live in Florida or Virginia and need an FR-44 instead, this would require increased liability car insurance coverage. And, in turn, it would increase your rates above someone who could get away with lower coverages.

Devon Delfino is an independent journalist based in the Pacific Northwest. Her personal-finance coverage has been featured in publications such as: the L.A. Times, Teen Vogue, Mashable, MarketWatch, CNBC and USA Today, among others.