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2Accurate as of January 2022.
Updated May 2022
It’s an unfortunate fact that an unspent conviction – whether it’s for a driving infraction or something else – will increase your car insurance premiums.
What’s more, a criminal conviction may make it more difficult for you to get car insurance in the first place, as many insurers won’t want to provide any cover at all. This is because convicted drivers are at a statistically higher risk of being involved in accidents and making claims.
Fortunately, if you do have a conviction, there are plenty of insurers who will still insure you, – albeit for higher premiums than you previously enjoyed, – particularly if your conviction is related to driving offenses.
Failure to disclose a driving conviction will invalidate your policy and you may be guilty of insurance fraud.
When you take out car insurance, you must be completely honest with your insurer. This means when it comes to driving convictions:
A conviction can stay on your record for varying amounts of time, meaning it’s ‘unspent’. If you don’t declare it, you risk invalidating your cover and committing fraud. However if you get a conviction during the term of your current policy you won’t need to say til you renew. This goes for all drivers on the policy, not just the main driver
All convictions expire after a certain length of time, depending on your circumstances and the sentence you receive, and once this happens it becomes ‘spent’. You won’t need to tell your insurer about any spent convictions you might have, even if they ask – they won’t be able to count against you under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
Car insurance for drink drivers
Drink driving is seen as a very serious offence by insurance companies due to the risk to property and people’s safety, and a conviction will make your premiums shoot up. You’ll also have to agree to a much larger voluntary excess
Car insurance for banned drivers
Drivers are disqualified from driving after accumulating 12 or more penalty points on their license within three years – if you’re disqualified you won’t be able to take out cover until you’ve served the ban.
Car insurance with points
Driving offences all come with a number of penalty points (endorsements) attached, and the more points you have on your licence the higher your premiums are likely to be. These points will stay on your license for between four and 11 years
"It’s definitely harder to find cheap car insurance with unspent criminal convictions, but it’s certainly not impossible to find a good deal. We work with numerous insurers who specialise in insuring drivers with challenging personal circumstances
"
- Sara Newell, Motor and Van Insurance Lead
Having driving convictions might bring your car insurance premiums up, but there are still things you can do to help with the increased cost of cover. For example, you can:
Volunteering a higher excess payment will usually bring your insurance premiums down – but be sure you can still afford to pay it if you need to claim
Paying an annual sum for your car insurance might mean a greater initial outlay, but it often works out cheaper than spreading the cost over 12 monthly payments
Insurers sort car makes and models into different insurance groups based on factors like their value, repairability and performance. The cheapest cars to insure are generally found in lower groups
Driving fewer miles or giving a lower estimated mileage may also help cut costs, as the less time you spend on the road the lower your chances are of being involved in an accident
Factory installed alarms and immobilisers will help keep your car safe, as will keeping your car parked off the street at night (or at least in a well-lit area)
Drivers with criminal convictions may find that telematics cover helps you earn lower premiums by driving with tracking software in the car that monitors your driving habits and rewards good behaviour
Our mission is to make finding cheap car insurance easier – and when you take out cover with MoneySuperMarket you can benefit from:
Everyone deserves to save money – in fact, almost a quarter of people comparing car insurance quotes with us received a MoneySuperMarket price cut in their results*
Our car monitor gives you reminders on your road tax and MOT, as well as showing your MOT history and car valuation – helping you stay up to date, so you never miss a renewal
Our live chat tool is there so our experts can guide you through the car insurance question set, offering tailored support during business hours to help you get the right policy for the right price
*24.43% of customers completing a quote through MoneySuperMarket received a price cut quote in their top 10 results. Based on MoneySuperMarket quotes between May 2021 and May 2022
Yes for the most part, but your premiums will be a lot more expensive than you’re used to. However, depending on the severity of the offence – especially if it’s a serious driving offence – many mainstream insurers may refuse you.
If you have a criminal conviction and you can’t find an insurer who will provide you with motor insurance,UNLOCK (the National Assocation of Reformed Offenders) can provide you with a list of brokers who specialise in convicted driver insurance.
Don’t be tempted to hide your conviction just to get a cheaper quote. If you don’t reveal convictions, you could invalidate your policy, meaning that any claims would be refused and you would essentially be driving while uninsured – which is illegal.
You only need to declare unspent convictions. A conviction becomes spent after a certain period of time – which depends on the nature of the offence. Certain convictions are never spent however, depending on how severe they are.
No, you don’t need to declare spent convictions when applying for insurance.
Speeding offences are by far the most common type of driving offence in Britain.
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