NC auto insurance - unfair foreign driver policy

[Doug & Bobbi 1]

So if you live in NC, are a foreign national with an NCDL and have tried to get auto insurance, you'll find that thanks to the NC rate bureau, international driving experience can no longer be counted (as of 2006) and you are charged the rate for an inexperienced driver, which on average is around $1200 for 6 months!!!!!!!!!!

personally I have 18 years driving experience, most of which is commercial 'professional' driving experience, and in all my time on the road I have NEVER had an accident. I am mortified that the hundreds of thousand of miles and years of accident free experince I have is now worthless and I have to pay the same as some bratt nosed 16 year old who has never driven a car in their life. Or for that matter, more than some 19 year old with a couple of years experince tearing around with thier buddies.

I consider it highly unfair and am currentyl lobbying the NCRB to change their policy. I understand their need to have 'verifiable proof' of foreign driving experience, but to have it dismissed totally is unfair and unacceptable.

Anyways, 'breathes', I am currently hassling every insurance agent I can find, and scouring every resource I can find for workaround to this issue. I am not talking about anything illegal, I firmly believe everyone on the road should have insurance. I am simply talking about loopholes that would reduce the cost of said insurance for those of us with experience.

So, as I find out more info, I will post information on here. In the meantime, if any of you have experience with this issue, or know of any LEGAL workaround, please come here and post it for the rest of us, lets see if we can't beat this grossly unfair policy!!!

[Cdn_Ali 11]

I wonder if you can get a driver's extract from your home country which shows your good driving history? I'm not sure which country you are from, but one of my Canadian friends (who also drove professionally for many years) obtained a driver's extract from his Canadian insurer and used this to prove his good record. It may have been a fluke but it's worth a try.

[tom_g 3]

I found the same thing - 920 dollars for 6 months on a beater old rodeo despite 13 years of driving experience in the UK. However, i have since found out that that level of insurance is very good, equivalent to top-spec fully comp in the UK. Minimum requirements for my state (CA) would cost about 250 dollars for 6 months. However, i've now been struck by the paranoia bug - cheap coverage in a bad accident is no use..

as far as lobbying goes, try your hardest by all means, but i know from personal experience that insurance companies are amongst the most stubborn entities in the universe. Their main mission in life is to accumulate money, with a powerful secondary calling of not giving any money away

[brtlmj 0]

I don't know if it is unfair or not - the insurance market is pretty competitive. If drivers with foreign experience were such a good risk, insurers would gladly offer us coverage at good rates.

It certainly is annoying, though.

[ab496 0]

So if you live in NC, are a foreign national with an NCDL and have tried to get auto insurance, you'll find that thanks to the NC rate bureau, international driving experience can no longer be counted (as of 2006) and you are charged the rate for an inexperienced driver, which on average is around $1200 for 6 months!!!!!!!!!!

personally I have 18 years driving experience, most of which is commercial 'professional' driving experience, and in all my time on the road I have NEVER had an accident. I am mortified that the hundreds of thousand of miles and years of accident free experince I have is now worthless and I have to pay the same as some bratt nosed 16 year old who has never driven a car in their life. Or for that matter, more than some 19 year old with a couple of years experince tearing around with thier buddies.

I consider it highly unfair and am currentyl lobbying the NCRB to change their policy. I understand their need to have 'verifiable proof' of foreign driving experience, but to have it dismissed totally is unfair and unacceptable.

Anyways, 'breathes', I am currently hassling every insurance agent I can find, and scouring every resource I can find for workaround to this issue. I am not talking about anything illegal, I firmly believe everyone on the road should have insurance. I am simply talking about loopholes that would reduce the cost of said insurance for those of us with experience.

So, as I find out more info, I will post information on here. In the meantime, if any of you have experience with this issue, or know of any LEGAL workaround, please come here and post it for the rest of us, lets see if we can't beat this grossly unfair policy!!!

Hi,

We are a married couple moving from France, I am from the Uk and my husband is French, and unfortunately we are going through exactly the same process as you. However we are getting quotes of over 4000$ for 6 months, although this is for quite comprehensive coverage it is still completely extorniate. I would be very grateful if you could tell us where you got your 1200$ quote from and what coverage you got. I am also hassling all insurance agents to try and get the best deal, we are quite a few expats coming over so we could offer quite a few potential contracts to whoever would give us the best deal.

Anyway let me know

Thanks

[Dr. Obvious 49]

Insurance is really complicated. It will be based on the state and city of where you live, your driving history, your license status, your credit score, your *social risk* factor (education, profession, etc), your car, and the type of coverage you are seeking. If a lot of those things are missing, then your rates go through the roof. It sucks. Are you sure you can't live without a car where you are going for a few months?

[Anna C. 4]

NC insurance agreed to disregard foreign history completely as of 2007... Happened to us. However, not all insurance companies go along with that, call around. They also didn't care in NC that my DH has a BA and I have a MA, it was completely ignored, all that mattered was the years of driving experience (Geico).

In CA however it was taken into account, my experience from Europe, my education, my record from the German DMV stating I never ever had accidents nor tickets, our credit score. We are now paying for two cars what we paid for one car in NC!!!!!!!! That is totally crazy, I know.

I do believe it is simply a way to milk people for money, because the e.g. the European DL has such high requirements, when I did my CA license I laughed so hard how easy peasy that was here. The test is a joke! The driving test too! You can totally pass that blindfolded compared to the ordeal of getting the license in Germany (attending driving school, a real test that you actually had to study for, a 45 minute driving exam, 56 hours minimum of driving school during day, night, highway, normal road, city, etc).... I actually think we should get credit for that! Seriously, my driving test person here in CA said all the Europeans who he had to retest drove really perfectly and safely.

Edited May 16, 2008 by Anna C.

[Dr. Obvious 49]

I do believe it is simply a way to milk people for money, because the e.g. the European DL has such high requirements, when I did my CA license I laughed so hard how easy peasy that was here. The test is a joke! The driving test too! You can totally pass that blindfolded compared to the ordeal of getting the license in Germany (attending driving school, a real test that you actually had to study for, a 45 minute driving exam, 56 hours minimum of driving school during day, night, highway, normal road, city, etc).... I actually think we should get credit for that! Seriously, my driving test person here in CA said all the Europeans who he had to retest drove really perfectly and safely.

The amusing thing about all of that is that Germany completely accepted my Indiana operator's license and gave me a regular führerschein for 40 euros. I didn't have to take a single test. I am very puzzled as to why German licenses are not accepted here in Indiana after seeing the courtesy extended to me in Germany. They are in Wisconsin, for example. States.

[David Johnson 0]

Great thread,

Thanks for your useful information and hope to read more from you.

[Mrs.J06 4]

I had a written (english) form from my car insurance provider in Germany stating that I had 13 years of driving without accident under my belt. That helped me get a regular rate for my own car and the rate for my husband's car didn't go up with me as an additional driver, either.

Probably also helped that my husband has been with the same insurance company forever and ever without any claim so far, either.

Any chance that you could get one of those confirmations from your insurance back home?

[bora bora 1]

I had a written (english) form from my car insurance provider in Germany stating that I had 13 years of driving without accident under my belt. That helped me get a regular rate for my own car and the rate for my husband's car didn't go up with me as an additional driver, either.

Probably also helped that my husband has been with the same insurance company forever and ever without any claim so far, either.

Any chance that you could get one of those confirmations from your insurance back home?

What hurt us financially is that my husband does not have 5+ years of driving experience and when he got his license last year he was 24. Now that he's 25 I'm hoping that our insurance will go down enough to make a difference. I guess we'll find out in another week...

[Mrs.J06 4]

I had a written (english) form from my car insurance provider in Germany stating that I had 13 years of driving without accident under my belt. That helped me get a regular rate for my own car and the rate for my husband's car didn't go up with me as an additional driver, either.

Probably also helped that my husband has been with the same insurance company forever and ever without any claim so far, either.

Any chance that you could get one of those confirmations from your insurance back home?

What hurt us financially is that my husband does not have 5+ years of driving experience and when he got his license last year he was 24. Now that he's 25 I'm hoping that our insurance will go down enough to make a difference. I guess we'll find out in another week...

Oh, I see, you also got hit by the "young driver" penalty... sorry about that, guess there's nothing much to do but wait.

[Anna C. 4]

@ Mrs.J06: I had a statement from my insurance in Germany and from the central register of traffic offenders that I never even had a parking ticket - still NC regulations call to ignore it. Even if you're 55 and have tons of experience and proof for it, they will not acknowledge it... It is annoying. But as I said, after shopping around we found an insurance company back there who accepted it... FYI Geico would never ever consider it.

[daneintheus 0]

Hi,

Same problem here.

So the rule is that since they can't accuire driving information from other countries than Canada and Puerto Rico North Carolina has passed a law that all foreigners without driving experience from the US and these two countries fall under the NC inexperienced driver law. This law is made to not discriminate which means that a US citizen getting his drivers license when he is 42 years old pay the same premium the first three years as a 16 year old kid. The law is made to not discriminate and unfortunatly we are the only ones that get caught in this procedure. No young driver penalty in North Carolina!

I have also called around to various insurance companies and a lot of them told me that they up untill recently had not followed the guidelines. NCRB has though made an effort recently to send the guidelines to all insurance companies about foreign drivers and reminded them that it is the law and they need to follow it. Therefore I have not been able to find any insurance companies that could waive this unfairness.

So our solution has been:

1. We only have one car and my american wife is listed as principal driver. I am a occasional driver which saves us about 2000$ a year. (Not having an american wife to put as principle is what makes the french couple have to pay so much ).

2. If we ever buy a second car we will let me be the principal of the car we own now and my wife the new car. IF you do not have a loan on a car you only need liability and not collision insurance. Since our first car is paid off we might take the chance on not colliding and have a lot lower premium.

Word of advice: If you ever get a chance to get a US drivers take the test as soon as possible!!! I could have taken it in 2006 and would now be on a lot lower premium and be one year away from cheap insurance.

Edited July 28, 2008 by daneintheus

[milimelo 4,569]

Spoke with our car insurance people (Geico) today about how to lower the premiums as I am over 25, have held European DL for over 5 yrs and have had the US DL for over a year. She said when the renewal time comes (in May for us) the insurance rate will go down.

So, do follow up with your insurance on this -- it doesn't necessarily have to mean you have to pay high insurance rates for 3 years as they normally tell you.