Julie,

In many states, including California, the surcharge is directly connected to the “point” system that’s used by your state’s motor vehicle agency (sometimes called the department or bureau of motor vehicles, “DMV” or “BMV”) to track unsafe drivers and suspend or revoke their drivers’ licenses. Your insurer might use the “points” connected to your license to calculate a surcharge. For example, a point system might look like this:

3 points for a minor at-fault accident, where the claim is less than $2,000
2 points for a minor traffic violation, like speeding

Sometimes, an insurance company will have its own point system that will assign a point value for all kinds of traffic-related offenses.

In either case, the insurance company usually will use some type of mathematical formula that converts your point value to a dollar amount.

Every insurance company has to file its rates with the state in which it sells policies, usually with the state’s department of insurance. The filing usually has to include surcharge amounts and/or how the insurance company figures out the amount of surcharges. So, if you’re involved in an accident or get a ticket that would require a surcharge according to your insurance company rate filings with the state, the insurance company must add it to your policy. It can’t be “waived.”

We do suggest shopping around, and possibly looking at smaller independent companies, as $200+ increase in your case sounds a bit excessive.