Car Insurance and Drink Driving: Everything You Need to Know

When you are over the legal alcohol limit for driving, your reactions are likely to be slowed and your judgement impaired. This puts both you and other road users at risk of accident, injury, or even death.

As you are at much greater risk of getting into an accident while intoxicated, your insurer is also at much greater risk of paying out third-party claims to cover any resultant damage or injury.

Therefore, insurers will consider you a much higher insurance risk if you have a history of drink driving. And they will charge you extra for that risk.

The amount you’ll end up paying will depend on things like the seriousness of the offence, how long ago the offence was committed, and individual insurer policies. But, to give you an idea, you could be looking at anywhere between £1,300 for a DR10 conviction to over £3,000 for a DR50 offence. 

That's significantly more expensive than standard car insurance. So, if you have a drink driving conviction, it's a good idea to shop around for options that could help ease the cost.

Most insurers don't have a flat rate of insurance for drink drivers. The amount they charge depends on their own company policies, plus a number of additional factors. These include:

• The nature of your offence. Some drink driving convictions are more serious than others. For example, if you were caught attempting to drive while slightly over the limit you may be considered less of a risk than someone who caused a serious accident while several times over the legal limit.
• The length of your ban. Longer bans tend to indicate more serious offences, and therefore a higher insurance risk. Insurance providers will take this into account when calculating your quote.
• Penalty points. The number of penalty points you received (and how long they remain on your driving record) indicate your risk level to insurers.
• Reoffending. Multiple drink driving convictions make you a much higher insurance risk than a one-time offence. People with more than one drink driving offence may struggle to find affordable car insurance premiums.

If you're a convicted drink driver, don't worry. While it may be harder to find car insurance that works for you, it's not impossible. There are ways to lower your car insurance, even if you've been through a driving ban.

Here are a few ways to lower car insurance quotes, even for convicted drivers:

• Shop around. Every insurer will tell you that their insurance policy is the best. The only way to find the cheapest and most effective car insurance policy for your particular needs is to compare quotes and policies from a wide variety of insurers. Money Expert can help you quickly compare hundreds of the best quotes for you in seconds and find the best price available.
• Get a lower-risk vehicle. If your car has a lot of safety and security features, isn't considered to be a high theft risk, and is easy and inexpensive to repair, it will be cheaper to insure.
• Move house, or register your vehicle in a new location. This may sound like an extreme way to get cheaper car insurance, but it is worth noting that your postcode can make a big difference to your premium. If you live somewhere with low rates of car theft and/or driving accidents, you’re likely to get cheaper quotes.
• Take a driving course. Passing advanced driver courses like Pass Plus or drink driving rehabilitation courses can show your insurance provider that you are serious about improving your driving behaviour and lowering your risk.
• Raise your voluntary excess. Your voluntary excess is the amount that you agree to pay in the event of an accident. A higher voluntary excess means that your insurer has less to pay if you make a claim, which makes you a lower financial risk.
• Lower your mileage. People who drive less tend to be offered cheaper car insurance quotes. You might be able to mitigate the effects of a driving ban by slashing your mileage.
• Get black box insurance. Black box insurance (also known as telematics insurance) gathers data on your driving behaviour and feeds it back to your insurance provider. Your insurer will then charge you based on the risk presented by your driving style, mileage, average speed etc. If you are a sensible driver with a relatively low average mileage, you could save money by picking black box insurance.
• Build up a no-claims discount. By driving carefully and avoiding making a claim, over time you should find the cost of your premiums start to fall due to you having accrued several years of no-claims discount.

The drink driving limit in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland is:

• 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
• 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.
• 107 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of urine.

In Scotland, the legal alcohol limit is stricter:

• 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
• 22 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.
• 67 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of urine.

What does this mean in terms of drink quantities? Unfortunately, it's very hard to say how many glasses of wine, beer, or spirits will put someone over the legal limit. Body weight, age, metabolism, what you've eaten, when you last ate, the type of alcohol you're drinking, and more can all affect the way your body metabolises alcohol. 

Some people may be unfit to drive after a single pint of weak beer, while others may be able to drink a bit more.

As a general rule, it is not worth risking drinking and driving. If you are unsure how much alcohol will put you over the legal limit, stay sober.

Drink driving offences are among the most serious motoring convictions in the UK.

For being in charge of a vehicle while unfit through drink, you may receive:

• Up to 3 months' imprisonment
• A fine of up to £2500
• A limited-time driving ban

For driving or attempting to drive a vehicle while unfit through drink, you may receive:

• Up to 6 months' prison sentence
• An unlimited fine
• A driving ban of at least 1 year

For causing death by dangerous driving while under the influence of drink, you may receive:

• Life imprisonment
• An unlimited fine
• A driving ban of at least 5 years (potentially a lifetime ban)

Conviction codes for drinking and driving

The different conviction codes that apply to drink driving offences and the points that are applied to your licence are:

The convictions above will stay on your record for 11 years.

Convictions DR40 to DR70 will stay on your record for four years.