How driving convictions impact car insurance

How do motoring conviction codes affect your car insurance?

If you break the law while driving – such as by speeding or driving dangerously – and you’re caught, the police will issue you with a driving conviction.

You will need to tell your car insurer about the conviction, and it will also need to be listed when you come to apply for a new policy. The conviction will then be taken into account when the insurer decides how much you will pay for your car insurance premium.

Insurers will deem you as a higher risk driver if you have a motoring conviction. This means they will see you as more likely to have an accident or to get another conviction, and the price you pay for insurance will be higher because of this.

The impact on your car insurance will depend on what kind of driving conviction you have been given. If it is for a serious incident, such as drink driving for example, this could push your car insurance price up more than if the conviction is for a less-severe offence, such as a speeding ticket.

The cost of your car insurance depends on a range of different factors, including motoring convictions. These factors include your age, your vehicle, your postcode and your profession. This is why younger drivers typically pay the highest costs for car insurance as they are seen as the most likely to have an accident.

Driving licence points and endorsements

When you receive a driving conviction, or endorsement as it is also known, you will be given a number of penalty points which range from 1 to 11.

The more severe the offence, the more points you will receive. These stay on your driving licence for a number of years, depending on the type of conviction. This can be from 4 to 11 years depending on the offence.

In some cases, the penalty of the conviction could be having your driving licence taken away and you being disqualified from driving.

Past driving convictions

As well as telling your current insurer about any convictions you receive while driving, you also need to tell it about any previous convictions you have received.

Each insurer has its own rules on this but typically will ask for details of any convictions received in the past five years.

If you fail to tell your insurer about this, and then need to make a claim on your policy, you could have you insurance invalidated and the insurer may refuse to pay out.

If this happens an insurer can also make a note of the offence in your records and this will be seen by future insurers, making it really hard to find insurance at an affordable price, if at all.

The most common driving offences

There are lots of different types of driving convictions; here we list the most common with the number of penalty points you could receive for each. For an extensive list of convictions and points see the government website.

Speeding offences

These penalty points remain on your licence for four years from the date of the offence.

Careless driving offences

Penalty codes ‘CD10 to CD30’ and ‘CD80 and CD90’ will stay on a driving record for four years from the date of the offence. Codes CD40 to CD70 will remain on a driving record for 11 years.

Construction and use offences

These codes must stay on a driving record for four years from the date of the offence.

Traffic direction and signs

These codes remain on a driving record for four years from the date of the offence.

Drinking offences

Codes DR10 to DR61 must stay on a driving record for 11 years from the date of the conviction. They are some of the most serious offences listed and can also result in immediate driving bans.

Codes DR40 to DR70 must stay on a driving record for four years from the date of the offence or four years from the date of conviction where a disqualification is imposed.

Disqualified driver offences

Codes BA10 and BA30 must stay on a driving record for four years from the date of the offence. Codes BA40 and BA60 must stay on a driving record for four years from the date of the conviction.

Frequently asked questions

• Will three points affect my insurance?

  Any number of points on your driving licence could affect the price you pay for your car insurance. How much it will rise by, if it all, will depend on the insurer and the kind of offence on your driving record.

  Contact your insurer and inform it about the points as soon as you know about them and it will be able to tell you the impact. If the price is increased you are always free to see if you can get a cheaper premium elsewhere.

• Do penalty points increase your insurance?

  As receiving penalty points on your licence can deem you as a riskier driver than someone without any, this can push up the cost of your car insurance.

  How much the price rises by will depend on the number of points you have received and the type of offence. Insurers look at lots of other aspects too before pricing your insurance including the age and type of vehicle you are driving.

• Do I have to declare non-motoring convictions when buying car insurance?

  When you apply for car insurance you will be asked to list any criminal convictions you have received. These can be for motoring and non-motoring incidents and you are usually asked to list those that have occurred in the past five years.

  Different insurers have different requirements here so always check the small print. Usually you only need to declare what is known as unspent convictions. Convictions are deemed as spent a number of years after a sentence has been served; you can find out when a conviction will be spent with this tool.

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Written by

Rebecca Goodman

Contributor

Rebecca Goodman is a freelance journalist with more than eight years’ experience working across personal finance titles. Rebecca specialises in consumer money topics, including energy, broadband, and insurance and regularly writes for The Guardian, The Sun, The Mirror, LoveMoney and Moneywise magazine. See full bio