A conviction for drunken driving will raise anyone’s auto insurance coverage quote, but it does not raise them all equally.


If you reside in particular cities, drunken driving will have a particularly big effect on what you spend. NerdWallet’s investigation on prices after a DUI last month revealed how huge the variations can be.


Huge cities


When looking at how much auto insurance quotes could enhance, you can look at either the dollar jump or the percentage jump. Either way, New York and San Francisco expense the most.


San Francisco has the largest percentage improve, 149.2%, and second-most significant dollar jump, $ 1,709.98, of 20 cities NerdWallet analyzed. New York has the top dollar hit, $ 1,837.42, and second-biggest percentage adjust, 80.4%.


Other cities


Final year, NerdWallet looked at the most harmful cities for DUIs, gathering information for 150 cities. Primarily based on percentage boost, you actually do not want to be in North Carolina.


The Tar Heel State had the top 6 cities for percentage increase in automobile insurance coverage quotes following a DUI. The top spot belongs to Greensboro, exactly where prices jumped by an average of 159.2%. That was followed by Fayetteville (157.8%), Durham (156.7%), Charlotte (153.3%), Winston-Salem (149.2%) and Raleigh (148.7%).


After that, the subsequent 30 cities had been in California.


In cities exactly where even drivers with a clean record pay a lot to start with, even a modest percentage enhance for a DUI could translate to a lot of cash.


Don’;t forget that 159.2% improve in Greensboro? That worked out to $ 1,294.20 a year. Contrast that with Detroit, exactly where rates went up by 115.5% but the dollar hit averaged $ 5,996.20.


Detroit is a special case due to the fact its auto insurance rates are alarming to commence with, averaging $ 5,193.03 a year. Second-spot Grand Rapids, Michigan, saw prices go up by $ 2,461.91, less than half of Detroit’s effect.


Why the variation?


Car insurance coverage businesses base their prices on their actual experiences with different customers and in different areas, says James Lynch, chief actuary for the Insurance coverage Information Institute. So the quick answer is that drivers with DUIs will price insurance coverage organizations more in San Francisco than in Cincinnati.


Aspects include the density of automobiles and folks about those drivers, Lynch says. “Once they begin to drift about, there’s a lot far more possibility that they’re going to hit one thing in New York than in Cincinnati.”


Some of the cities that placed high on the recent NerdWallet rankings, such as Syracuse, New York, Savannah, Georgia, and Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, are house to universities, Lynch notes. “A college town tends to have a lot more pedestrians per square mile than a a lot more remote city.”


Other potential factors incorporate the variation in litigation expenses, how a lot it expenses to repair cars, how fancy the automobiles tend to be, and state regulations governing DUI and insurance coverage rates.


Preserve in thoughts that these are just average increases. Your circumstance can differ considerably based on your situations and insurer. If you discover oneself facing a big improve in your price after a DUI, you may possibly really feel stuck with it, but it’s nonetheless smart to shop around for auto insurance quotes. The hit from one more insurance coverage organization might not be as poor.


Aubrey Cohen is a staff writer covering insurance coverage for NerdWallet. Stick to him on Twitter @aubreycohen and on Google+.


Image by way of iStock.