When you face a charge of driving under the influence in Pennsylvania, quite a bit is at stake. If that charge leads to a conviction, you may face any number of criminal sanctions, including hefty fines, jail time and more. In addition to criminal consequences, you should also expect to have to deal with financial repercussions, and these, when added together, place a serious strain on your wallet.
Per Insure.com, while you should expect to have to pay fines, towing fees, bail fees and related expenses after a Pennsylvania DUI arrest, you should also anticipate a sharp increase in how much you have to pay for car insurance each month.
Anticipating new insurance rates
How much you ultimately pay for car insurance after a DUI depends on certain variables, such as whether it was your first drunk driving arrest and what your driving history looked like otherwise. However, the average Pennsylvania motorist sees his or her monthly insurance premiums rise by about 52% after a DUI arrest. To put this in perspective, if you were paying about $1,438 a year for insurance before your DUI arrest, you might pay closer to $2,192 a year after it.
Finding the most favorable insurance rate
Not all auto insurance providers rely on the same formulas to set rates. Also, some may be more generous to drivers with DUIs in their driving histories than others. Thus, it may benefit you in the financial sense to get quotes from multiple automotive insurance providers before signing on with one in particular.
Some insurance companies may decide not to offer you coverage at all once you have a DUI conviction on your driving history.