jleonard
Senior Member
This is intended to be a warning/heads up but might contain a little bit of rant.
I went to renew my Florida driver's license on Wednesday (expires end of Nov) but got refused because I was on the National Driver's Registry in September of 21 for having a suspended license in the state of South Carolina. What is that? I had never heard of that.
Backstory: In May of 2021 our TT was T boned and totaled in Hardeevile, SC. I won't go into those details other than to say it was not my fault, I had a witness so the police report got written up that way, truck was not damaged at all and the trailer insurance completely covered our loss and we got our deductible back.
At the time of the accident we supplied all the proper documentation to the police, including of course the vehicle's insurance card and the number was correctly documented in the police report. (I think that because we had different insurance companies they wrote the VIN of the trailer on the report and the truck insurance number to cover any liability I may have had).
Now fast forward to Wednesday when I learned I was under suspension in SC. I called the SC DMV and they said "all" I have to do is supply a letter from my insurance company stating I had proper insurance at the time of the accident and my suspension will be cleared. Sounds easy?
Not so easy. We changed vehicle insurance companies from Progressive to Travellers. But lucily thru the same agency, so they provided a link to get me to Progressive. 5 departments later (and lots of hold time) I got to the correct person who could write the letter, but i took a very long time to get her to understand what I really needed. She agreed to fax the letter to the DMV that I was told and agreed to also copy me via e mail (because I didn't trust her to fax it properly). When I got the email, she had my very old CT driver's license number listed, not my Florida number.
Another call yesterday, and a different person (tried to) assure me that it didn't matter that the wrong number was on the letter, and that Progressive would not correct it. I'm not so sure. Therefore, I do not have 100% confidence that the letter will be accepted.
I guess the lessons here are:
Save all your expired insurance cards, you may need them (I did find an electronic copy in my files for that period, that's my backup plan).
If you any vehicle incidents call that state DMV in a few months to make sure they didn't flag your license (because they won't notify you if they do)
Trust no one.
I went to renew my Florida driver's license on Wednesday (expires end of Nov) but got refused because I was on the National Driver's Registry in September of 21 for having a suspended license in the state of South Carolina. What is that? I had never heard of that.
Backstory: In May of 2021 our TT was T boned and totaled in Hardeevile, SC. I won't go into those details other than to say it was not my fault, I had a witness so the police report got written up that way, truck was not damaged at all and the trailer insurance completely covered our loss and we got our deductible back.
At the time of the accident we supplied all the proper documentation to the police, including of course the vehicle's insurance card and the number was correctly documented in the police report. (I think that because we had different insurance companies they wrote the VIN of the trailer on the report and the truck insurance number to cover any liability I may have had).
Now fast forward to Wednesday when I learned I was under suspension in SC. I called the SC DMV and they said "all" I have to do is supply a letter from my insurance company stating I had proper insurance at the time of the accident and my suspension will be cleared. Sounds easy?
Not so easy. We changed vehicle insurance companies from Progressive to Travellers. But lucily thru the same agency, so they provided a link to get me to Progressive. 5 departments later (and lots of hold time) I got to the correct person who could write the letter, but i took a very long time to get her to understand what I really needed. She agreed to fax the letter to the DMV that I was told and agreed to also copy me via e mail (because I didn't trust her to fax it properly). When I got the email, she had my very old CT driver's license number listed, not my Florida number.
Another call yesterday, and a different person (tried to) assure me that it didn't matter that the wrong number was on the letter, and that Progressive would not correct it. I'm not so sure. Therefore, I do not have 100% confidence that the letter will be accepted.
I guess the lessons here are:
Save all your expired insurance cards, you may need them (I did find an electronic copy in my files for that period, that's my backup plan).
If you any vehicle incidents call that state DMV in a few months to make sure they didn't flag your license (because they won't notify you if they do)
Trust no one.
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