Two Point Counts, and Only One Decides Good Driver Status

"How many points do I have?" sounds like one question. In California it is two, because the DMV keeps a point count for its own licensing purposes and the Insurance Code borrows part of it, with changes, for the Good Driver Discount.

What the DMV counts

Vehicle Code section 12810 sets the DMV's values. Two points go to convictions such as failure to stop after an accident, DUI under sections 23152 or 23153, reckless driving, and driving on a suspended or revoked license. One point goes to any other traffic conviction involving safe operation, to a traffic accident the DMV deems you responsible for, and to child passenger restraint violations. Only one conviction from a single citation or arrest counts.

What the Good Driver count takes from it

Insurance Code section 1861.025 allows no more than one violation point in the previous three years. It counts points only under certain subsections of 12810: the two-point offenses for failure to stop, DUI and reckless driving, the other two-point offenses listed with them, the one-point "safe operation" convictions, the one-conviction-per-citation rule, and the rule protecting non-owner drivers from owner violations. On the statute's wording, it does not use the subsections for driving on a suspended license, the DMV's accident point, or child restraint violations.

It then makes changes of its own:

• A principally-at-fault accident that damaged only property adds one point, on top of any point from a ticket for the same accident.
• A violation that Insurance Code sections 488 or 488.5 protect from a premium increase, covering certain on-the-job driving, is left out of the count.
• Violations by minors that are reported to the DMV count the same way adult violations do.

Why the DMV's accident point is left out

The insurer makes its own fault decision. California's rating regulation, 10 CCR 2632.13, says an insurer may not rely on the DMV's accident point count or on any public agency's finding of responsibility; it has to apply its own 51 percent test, described on our page about what makes an accident principally at fault. That finding, not the DMV's, is what adds a point for the Good Driver test.

Convictions that carry no point

Section 12810 also lists convictions that get no point, including violations of the provisional license passenger and night-time restrictions in section 12814.6. Section 12810.3 adds that a handheld-phone conviction on or after July 1, 2021 carries a point only if it comes within 36 months of a prior conviction for the same offense. A conviction with no point does not use up your Good Driver allowance, though it still appears on the record an insurer reads.

Leaving an item out of the Good Driver count is not the same as hiding it: your driving safety record still reflects your convictions under each company's plan. To see where your record lands, request a quote with each item and its date.