If you’re a good driver who follows traffic laws and safety practices, you couldn’t lose your driver’s license—right? While we’d like to think this is the case, there are dozens of ways you could still lose your license, most of which are completely unrelated to being behind the wheel.
According to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, about 7% of American drivers have their license suspended at any given time. That accounts for about 15 million drivers, 39 percent of which had their licenses suspended for issues unrelated to driving. Here are a few of the issues that could cost you your license.
- Unpaid parking tickets: If you forget or neglect to pay a parking ticket (along with other minor transgressions), you can expect late fees to accrue. But let it go too long and your license could also get suspended until the ticket is paid.
- Uninsured driving: Don’t let your coverage lapse in between auto insurance policy periods, because you’re license could be suspended the first time you’re caught driving without insurance in 32 states.
- Borrowing a car: Tickets for vehicle violations are issued to the driver, not the owner of the car. So, if you get pulled over for an expired registration sticker—even though you’re driving a friend’s car while yours is in the shop—you could personally be ticketed, which brings us back to our first point.
- Overdue student loans: In some states, failing to make a college loan payment can result in license suspension.
- Bad checks: Similarly, your license could also be suspended for various types of unpaid bills or writing bad checks.
- Overdue library books: If you accrue late fees for overdue library books, your license may be at risk of suspension in some states.
- Failure to appear in court: Some people can’t afford to pay tickets, but they don’t understand the consequences of doing nothing about it. If you don’t either pay or contest the ticket, you can accrue more fees and possibly face license suspension.
Even if you pose no risk to other drivers, there are still plenty of ways your license can be taken from you. Being aware of these issues now can help prevent you from facing them later.
We aim to keep the roads safer. Contact us for more information on Knoxville auto insurance.