Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 12:57PM ET - Canadian Markets close in 3 hours and 3 minutes.
The holiday party season is well on its way, and with it, come the holiday campaigns against drinking and driving. Most of us know the obvious reasons not to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but do you know how, and for how long, drinking and driving affects your car insurance?
Consider the following scenario adapted from Transport Canada's website:
35-year-old Janet is pulled over by the police and asked to provide a breath sample. She does and she fails the breathalyzer. She's arrested and at the police station she fails the test again-so she's charged with having a blood alcohol level in excess of the legal limit and her license is suspended for 90 days. Her day in court arrives and she's found guilty. Because she's a first-time offender, she pays a fine (at minimum $600) and is prohibited from driving for one year.
This impaired conviction and suspension will remain on Janet's driving record for three years and can affect her insurance rates for up to six. This single offence will automatically wipe out any good driving record she had previously and essentially, she'll have to start over. Now, in order to get the type of rates she was used to pre-conviction, she'll have to meet her insurer's eligibility requirements, and this could take years of incident-free driving.
Online auto insurance quotes were obtained for Janet (living in Toronto) at www.kanetix.ca.
After finally getting her license back from a year-long suspension, the lowest quote Janet got is $4,856 more than the quote she would have received with a clean driving and insurance history. Two years after the fact is no better, because it too comes in at $4,856 more. After three years have passed, Janet will finally see a somewhat better quote at $2,770 more. Year four is $2,010 more, and finally year five is $1,624 more. It's only at year six that Janet can finally get quotes that match her pre-conviction and suspension rates.
That means, in our scenario, Janet is looking at paying an EXTRA $16,116 in auto insurance premiums. Surely taking a taxi would have been cheaper.
These hefty financial implications to drinking and driving pale in comparison to what's most important-everyone's safety on the road. High auto insurance rates could be the least of your problems if you drink and drive.
See what an impaired conviction and license suspension will do to your auto insurance premium. Visit www.kanetix.ca to anonymously compare online auto insurance quotes with, and without, an impaired conviction and suspension.
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| Mortgages Type | Rate |
|---|---|
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| 3-yr Closed | 4.15% |
| 5-yr Closed | 4.97% |
| GICs Type | Rate |
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| 3-yr Annual | 2.12% |
| 5-yr Annual | 2.77% |
| RRSP Type | Rate |
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| 3-yr | 2.09% |
| 5-yr | 2.75% |
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