The short version: "high-risk" is not a label the state gives you — it is how insurance companies treat a record that does not qualify for California's Good Driver Discount policy. That policy has four tests, each with its own look-back window: licensed for the previous three years, no more than one violation point in the previous three years, no principally-at-fault accident causing injury or death in the previous three years, and no DUI conviction in the previous ten (Insurance Code section 1861.025). Pass all four and every company must sell you its Good Driver policy, priced at least 20 percent below what you would otherwise pay (section 1861.02). So getting out of high-risk has a date, and you can work it out.
If you need coverage now, our high-risk auto insurance page covers how we place it. This guide is about the way out.
Step 1: List every item on your record, with its date
Pull your driving record from the DMV and write down each ticket, accident and conviction with the date it happened. Then match each one to its row below.
| Item | Counts against the Good Driver test for | The DMV discloses it for |
|---|---|---|
| A one-point violation | 3 years (one point is allowed; a second point disqualifies) | 3 years |
| A two-point violation (other than a DUI) | 3 years — two points, so disqualifying on its own | 7 years |
| A principally-at-fault accident with property damage only | 3 years — it counts as one point | 3 years |
| A principally-at-fault accident causing injury or death | 3 years — disqualifying on its own | 3 years |
| A DUI conviction | 10 years — disqualifying on its own | 10 years |
| A license suspension or revocation | — | While in effect, and 3 years after it ends or the license is reinstated |
The Good Driver windows come from Insurance Code section 1861.025; the disclosure periods from Vehicle Code section 1808. Note that the two clocks are different: a two-point violation stops counting toward the Good Driver point test after three years, but the DMV still discloses it for seven — and each company decides for itself how it weighs an item it can still see.
Step 2: Find your date
Your Good Driver date is the latest of these: three years after you were first licensed (counting licensed experience the statute accepts), three years after your second point, three years after any at-fault injury accident, and ten years after any DUI conviction. Write the date down. That is the renewal when you ask for the Good Driver policy by name.
Step 3: Do not add a new item
Every new point or at-fault accident moves your date. Two thresholds deserve their own place on the fridge:
- The second point in three years is the one that removes Good Driver eligibility.
- Four points in 12 months, six in 24, or eight in 36 make you presumptively a negligent operator, which can mean a suspension — and the DMV may require proof of insurance on file for three years after reinstatement (Vehicle Code section 12810.5).
Traffic school can keep a point off. The first traffic-school completion for a ticket in any 18-month period makes that conviction confidential, and no point is assessed for it — unless you hold a commercial license, were in a commercial vehicle, or the ticket carries more than one point (Vehicle Code section 1808.7). The Good Driver test also looks at traffic-school dismissals in the previous 36 months (Insurance Code section 1861.025), so use it where it counts. Ask the court whether your ticket is eligible before you pay it.
Step 4: Until your date, pay as little as the record allows
- Compare companies that write your record. Companies that accept drivers who miss the Good Driver test price them very differently, which is the whole case for a broker on a high-risk file.
- Re-quote as items age. Each time an item passes three years, ask for new quotes — even before your Good Driver date, some companies weigh a fading record more lightly than others.
- Keep any SR-22 in force. If filed proof lapses, the DMV must require new proof and suspend your license until it is filed (Vehicle Code section 16484). Our SR-22 timeline covers the three years step by step.
- Check the state's low-cost program. California's Low-Cost Automobile Insurance Program (Insurance Code section 11629.7) is open to applicants who are at least 19, have held a license for the past three years and meet income limits, as the DMV's own notices describe it (Vehicle Code section 4000.38).
- Match coverage to the car. On an older car you own outright, liability-only can make sense; see who pays in each kind of crash.
What never moves your date in California
- Your credit score. It is not one of the rating factors California's regulations allow (10 CCR 2632.5).
- A gap in coverage, by itself. The absence of prior insurance, in and of itself, cannot be a criterion for Good Driver eligibility or for rates (Insurance Code section 1861.02(c)). What can follow you is what happened while you were uninsured — a citation, a suspension, an uninsured accident.
Not at your Good Driver date yet? Auto World compares the California companies that write records like yours — and re-shops you as items age. Call (619) 363-4466 or start online.
Get My Quote →Related reading
- Points on your license and your insurance
- The Good Driver discount, explained
- Insurance after a DUI, year by year
Sources: California Insurance Code sections 1861.02, 1861.025 and 11629.7; Vehicle Code sections 1808, 1808.7, 12810.5, 16484 and 4000.38; 10 CCR 2632.5. General information, not legal advice.