So, you have received notice that you are now required to carry an SR22 or your license will be suspended. Like many people who come to me requesting this coverage, you may be thinking, “What is an SR22?”. If the state is requiring you to purchase this “Financial Responsibility State Filing” it’s really not all that complicated. I also have good news for you, purchasing SR22 Insurance really is not too different than purchasing regular car insurance on your vehicle.
So, what is an SR22?
An SR22 means that you have most likely done something wrong that the state is now requiring you purchase specific coverage to keep your license from being suspended. This specific coverage in most cases is called Bodily Injury (BI). This coverage is designed to cover injuries for the other party (not you or your vehicles injuries) you cause if you ever are deemed at-fault in an accident.
Everyone who wants to register a vehicle in Missouri or Kansas is required to carry PIP/PD coverage (Personal Injury Protection & Property Damage) for that vehicle before the state will let you register it. So, if you must carry an SR22 and own a vehicle you will now need to carry Bodily Injury as well as the PIP/PD. As an agent, we always recommend you carry Bodily Injury anyways so it may not be such a sad thing being forced to carry this coverage. If you ever hurt someone in an accident you would be very happy that you did.
Now there is something called an SR-22S. It is like the regular SR-22, where you need it to keep your vehicle registered and your license from being suspended. The difference between the two is that an SR-22S doesn’t require Bodily Injury (although most companies won’t write you an SR22S policy without Bodily Injury). The SR-22S is also referred to as a non-cancelable policy, which means it must be paid-in-full.
There is also a chance you do not own a registered vehicle but the state is still requiring you to carry an SR-22. What you would do in this case is purchase what is called a non-owners policy. These policies are specifically designed to satisfy the state’s request and allows someone who doesn’t own a vehicle to purchase Bodily Injury coverage. The good news is these policies can be much cheaper than that of a vehicle owner’s SR-22 policy. However, this can be a little tricky for those who are being required to carry an SR-22S (which requires only PIP/PD) as non-owner’s policy do not include PIP. I would recommend contact us with your specific SR-22 situation. A good agent should be able to get you exactly what it is you need and back on the road. Also, I personally invite you to contact us about your SR-22 issue, as we specialize in this type of policy and have some of the best companies in the state to accurate almost every driver there is out there. We also done a few companies who are notoriously cheap, so call us if you are having troubles with this and we would be happy to assist you.