What Happens if I Get Caught Driving without a New York Auto Insurance Policy?

What Happens if I Get Caught Driving without a New York Auto Insurance Policy?

You know you need a New York auto insurance policy. You do. Especially when you’re living in New York (a theory that goes double if you happen to be living on the east side!). But for one reason or another your policy lapsed. Maybe you forgot to pay your bill. Maybe you didn’t have enough money this month. Maybe you just decided your car wasn’t worth the cost of your insurance premiums. Whatever the case may be, now you’ve got the boys in blue behind you and you can hear those steel doors clanging shut.

What’s going to happen now that you’re caught driving without auto insurance?

New York has a firm “no tolerance” policy when it comes to driving without auto insurance.

Before we go any farther, let’s elaborate. You absolutely have to have auto insurance to legally drive in New York State, even when you’re not in the city. New York is a 25/50/10 state, which means you’re required to drive with $25,000 per person and $50,000 per incident in bodily injury liability coverage, as well as $10,000 in property damage liability. New York also carries a mandatory insurance coverage limit of $25,000 per person and $50,000 in uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance (if you’re in an accident with an uninsured driver) and is one of the few to require $50,000 in personal injury protection.

You also may have the choice to purchase a “no fault” policy, which is a story for another day.

If you’re caught driving without these minimum levels of New York auto insurance coverage, even if you do have some form of insurance, you’re going to be issued a ticket for driving uninsured. A conviction of driving while uninsured can result in a one year revocation of your license, and you may have to pay a $750 fine before you’re allowed to get your license back at the end of that year. That is on top of the regular fines of $150-1500 for driving uninsured and a possible imprisonment of up to 15 days.

As you can see, New York is quite firm about its no tolerance policies. You will pay a steep price for driving without insurance, and while you might not face all of these consequences the first time you’re caught driving without insurance that is entirely at the judge’s discretion. Trust us on this one, you don’t want to push your luck.

Finding an affordable New York auto insurance policy isn’t as hard as you might think. Here at QuoteScout.com we match people like you with auto insurance policies every day. You may be eligible for numerous discounts you don’t even know about yet (just remember the Progressive commercial with the young woman in the insurance store), which means you may be able to shave 30% or more off of the cost of your most recent auto insurance policy. It’s all a matter of looking around, comparing auto insurance quotes and finding the company that’s going to be able to offer you the best deal.

Remember, the cost of your New York auto insurance premiums is just a drop in the bucket compared to what you’ll pay if the boys in blue catch you driving without insurance. If you’ve been busted and are waiting for your license back, make sure your car is properly insured before you even fill out the application to get it back. If you’re taking a chance and driving without insurance take the time to fill out a quote request today.

Online Cars Insurance Quote

Get a Full Coverage Auto Insurance