What happens when you’re caught driving without insurance in Arizona?

Auto insurance can be overly complicated and expensive. Oftentimes, drivers may not know how to get insurance or how to afford it. This can lead people to be without auto insurance. A study in 2017 showed that 13% of motorists in the USA were uninsured, that’s about one in eight drivers, according to the Insurance Research Council. The same study showed that in 2015, there were 15.4% uninsured motorists in Arizona. Yet, driving with insurance is required by law in all states except in New Hampshire to drive a car legally.

Driving in Arizona

In Arizona, it is illegal to drive without insurance. It is required to show proof of insurance before registering a vehicle. All drivers must have at least the state minimum amount of liability insurance, “also known as financial responsibility limits. As of July 1, 2020, in Arizona the minimum liability coverage is 25/50/15, which means:

• $25,000 for bodily injury per person
• $50,000 for bodily injury per accident
• $15,000 for property damage per accident

Liability insurance coverage means that your insurance provider will pay for the other driver/vehicle in case you cause an accident. It does not cover the damages to yourself or your car.

Penalties in Arizona for driving without insurance

If you’re caught driving without insurance, you will face a range of penalties including but not limited to a fine and the loss of your driving privileges. In Arizona, the Department of Transportation requires all drivers to carry financial responsibility, meaning to pay for some sort of liability coverage. If you are pulled over, and fail to provide valid proof of Insurance, you could face the following penalties:

• 1st Offense: Fine of $500 and suspended driver’s license, registration, and license plates for up to 3 months
• 2nd Offense: Fine of up to $750 and suspended driver’s license, registration, and license plates for up to 6 months
• 3rd Offense: Fine of $1,000 and suspended driver’s license, registration, and license plates for up to a year.

With each offense, you must file an SR-22 certificate for three years.

In addition to heavy fines, license suspension, plate confiscation, and/or your vehicle impounded, you will also have to pay fees to reinstate your license, vehicle registration, plates, and possibly deal with court dates. It’s also likely that future insurance premiums will spike as a consequence.

What is an SR-22 certificate?

When you’re found responsible for driving without insurance, you will be required to file an SR-22 certificate from an insurance company. The SR-22 certificate is not insurance coverage, but a certificate that will certify to the state that you will be insured in the future. In Arizona, if you need to obtain an SR-22, you will have to keep the certificate on file for up to 3-years, meaning you will be required to pay insurance at the much higher rate to keep the SR-22 on file with the state. When you have an SR-22 certificate, auto insurance will be more expensive because your provider will assume you are a high-risk driver.

What happens if I’m involved in an accident without insurance?

The state of Arizona has severe penalties if you’re involved in an accident and don’t have insurance.

If you’re driving without insurance and involved in an accident, you might end up paying thousands of dollars out of pocket in damages and medical bills.

If you’re driving uninsured, the other driver’s insurance company will sue you for the damages caused to the other driver’s car.

If the other driver is at fault and damages your car, you will have to pay for your own repairs out of pocket since you do not have insurance coverage (Reminder, in this scenario, liability coverage would not cover you for repairs either as it only covers the bills for the other driver when you’re at fault).

Driving without insurance while being involved in a car accident will result in a ticket, suspension of your driving privileges, car registration, heavy fines, and can even go to jail depending on the state you live in.

Being involved in a car accident is stressful and can be complicated. However, knowing that you have auto insurance assures you that you will not be on the hook for paying massive bills.

Is insurance mandatory in every state?

For the most part yes; 48 states legally require drivers to carry auto insurance, but all 50 states require drivers to show proof of financial responsibility. In other words, all drivers in the US need to pay for some sort of liability coverage.

Depending on the state you are in, laws will vary. In some states, uninsured drivers will get their license suspended while other states don’t suspend licenses — here is a list of where each state falls. If you happen to live in a state where they don’t suspend licenses for uninsured drivers, you will most likely have to pay hefty fees.

Simply put, driving without insurance should never be an option as it’s illegal in almost all states. If you’re caught driving without insurance it will lead to expensive fines, suspended license, suspended registration and it can get worse if it’s not your first offense. At the end of the day, it is much cheaper and safer to pay for auto insurance than the backlash of fees that come with not having insurance.

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What happens when you’re caught driving without insurance in Arizona? was originally published in Just Auto Insurance on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

source https://medium.com/just-auto-insurance/what-happens-when-youre-caught-driving-without-insurance-in-arizona-3c26b0b3d515?source=rss----5e8f4328c63e---4

Just Auto Insurance and Smartcar partner to disrupt the auto insurance industry

Just Auto Insurance, Inc.​ (Just) and ​Smartcar, Inc.​ (Smartcar) are partnering to provide fair and affordable usage-based auto insurance in Arizona with rates based on driving safety instead of ZIP codes or credit ratings.

Smartcar’s technology allows vehicle owners to share their vehicle telemetry with specific apps and services. Using Smartcar’s APIs, Just is able to charge customers more accurately and to increase pricing precision.

For consumers, the benefits are clear, said Murray Macdonald, one of Just’s founders, “Just customers only pay when they use their insurance, and their price is based on how safely they drive. Smartcar’s fantastic APIs allow us to improve our offering by allowing us to retrieve a customer’s mileage directly from their car. The result is that our customers can expect even better prices and more convenience, and without the need for an expensive and hard-to-install dongle.”

Check out Just’s explainer video!

Smartcar’s APIs allow Just to price risks more accurately while lowering costs and maintaining the Just app’s user experience. Customers can connect their vehicles with just three clicks from their phones. Just can then regularly retrieve the customer’s odometer reading directly from their car’s instrument cluster.

Just and Smartcar’s partnership comes at a time when increasing costs and unfairness call for a change in the auto insurance industry. Personal auto insurance prices are up ​nearly 30% since 2011, with increases as high as 86% in some states.

In addition to basic factors like driving history and car model, many insurers take into account so-called non-driving factors such as a driver’s credit score, marital status, level of education, and occupation.

Just co-founders Robert Smithson and Murray Macdonald noticed these unfair practices and set out to make auto insurance more accessible and affordable for everyone. Since then, Just has worked to save drivers money and to improve road safety. The company is particularly focused on insuring uninsured drivers from underserved and low-income communities, who are usually quoted higher premiums by insurance providers.

“We’re glad that Just is seeing and solving these problems,” said Smartcar CEO Sahas Katta. “A car owner’s insurance premium shouldn’t depend on non-driving factors like their credit score. Instead, they should be charged fairly based on their actual monthly mileage. Just is pioneering the affordable telematics-based insurance market, and it’s an honor for Smartcar to partake in this journey.”

Just Auto Insurance is available in Arizona, with plans to expand to other U.S. states in the near future.

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Smartcar

Smartcar​ is the first and only car API for auto insurance providers. Founded in 2015, the company empowers developers to make mobility fairer, more affordable, and more environmentally friendly.

Smartcar’s platform allows insurers to verify the mileage, garaging locations, and VINs from their customers’ vehicles in order to improve pricing and underwriting as well as charge vehicle owners by the mile.

Smartcar’s technology is compatible across 17 different car brands without the need for any aftermarket hardware. By making it easy for insurance companies to integrate with vehicles, Smartcar allows them to focus on what’s important: building the future of mobility.

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Just Auto Insurance

Just is on a mission to make auto insurance accessible and affordable for everyone, to save drivers money and to improve road safety. Just offers a month-to-month, pay by the mile, top up when you can, smartphone auto insurance app.

Safer drivers can see dramatically lower rates, as the Just model doesn’t use factors such as marital status or credit rating. It also encourages safer behavior on the roads; the better you drive, the lower your rates. And Just makes auto insurance easy and fair: you only pay for what you use, when you don’t drive you don’t pay.

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Just Auto Insurance and Smartcar partner to disrupt the auto insurance industry was originally published in Just Auto Insurance on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

source https://medium.com/just-auto-insurance/just-auto-insurance-and-smartcar-partner-to-disrupt-the-auto-insurance-industry-cdce3501a5be?source=rss----5e8f4328c63e---4