Standard vs. Non-Standard Auto Insurance

Most standard auto insurance markets don’t offer insurance to everyone.  Some providers will not insure a high risk person, or they will set the price very high and make it unaffordable to purchase the coverage.  Several common reasons which can classify a driver as a high risk are:

• Age 20 and younger. Person is considered as an inexperienced driver.
• Age 70 and older. Health might let down a person in the process of driving and cause bad result.
• Bad driving history: DUI’s, car crashes and other accidents, which may lead insurance providers to be careful about a dangerous driver.
• Expiration, suspension or revocation of driver’s license puts a person into high risk too.

When a standard auto insurance market will not offer coverage, customers are usually put into a non-standard market.  Some of the well known non-standard auto markets are General Insurance Co. of America, GEICO, Progressive and Allstate.  This is good because it offers high-risk drivers the ability to obtain insurance, often times at affordable prices.  The downfall with this is sometimes good drivers have a streak of bad luck, and companies push them to the non-standard market.  When they come out of that, standard insurance carriers often don’t recognize non-standard insurance as a qualification for the “proof of prior” discount, so therefore will not receive the credit.