Warner Robins, GA
North Carolina writes its accident surcharges into a statute, and every one of them is tied to fault. Here is how the Safe Driver Incentive Plan works, how your insurer decides who was at fault, and what to do if it gets that call wrong.
North Carolina does not leave accident surcharges to each insurer’s rating rules. The Safe Driver Incentive Plan, usually shortened to SDIP, is a statewide system written into the insurance code, and it decides when an accident or a ticket can raise your premium. The plan is built around one word: fault. Points and surcharges attach to at-fault accidents and to convictions for moving violations, not to crashes someone else caused.
The catch is that your own insurer is the one applying it, using the crash report, the statements, and its own adjuster’s judgment. Joshua E. Palmer, Attorney at Law handles injury claims across North Carolina, and the fault call an insurer makes for rating purposes is often the same call it will try to make against your injury claim. This page explains the plan, its accident tiers, and what to do when the label is wrong.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-36-65 directs the North Carolina Rate Bureau to file, and the Commissioner of Insurance to approve, a plan that separates drivers with clean records from drivers with a record of at-fault accidents, major moving-violation convictions, or minor moving-violation convictions, and to set premium differences between those classes. Insurance points are the mechanism. Each at-fault accident or conviction carries a point value under the plan, and the points translate into a percentage surcharge on your premium for an experience period.
The point values themselves live in the Rate Bureau’s manual, not in the statute, and they change, so no page can honestly promise a specific increase. What the statute does fix is the trigger. A crash that was not your fault is not an at-fault accident, and the plan has no category for it.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-36-75 sorts at-fault accidents into three tiers by what they cost. A major accident is an at-fault accident that results in bodily injury or death, or in property damage only of $3,850 or more. An intermediate accident is an at-fault accident with property damage only of more than $2,300 but less than $3,850. A minor accident is an at-fault accident with property damage only of $2,300 or less. Point values rise with the tier, and the statute scales bodily-injury surcharges to the severity of the injury.
The same section builds in one act of forgiveness. There is no surcharge, no increase for cession to the Reinsurance Facility, and no points where the insured was at fault in a minor accident, was not convicted of a moving violation in connection with it, and has no other at-fault accident or conviction in the experience period.
| Tier | What it is | Surcharge? |
|---|---|---|
| Major accident | At-fault accident with bodily injury or death, or property damage only of $3,850 or more | Yes, highest point value |
| Intermediate accident | At-fault accident with property damage only over $2,300 and under $3,850 | Yes |
| Minor accident | At-fault accident with property damage only of $2,300 or less | Yes, unless it is your only one in the experience period and there was no moving-violation conviction |
| Not-at-fault accident | Any crash you did not cause | No plan points |
Point values and surcharge percentages come from the North Carolina Rate Bureau manual and change over time; the tiers and dollar thresholds are in the statute.
For rating purposes, your own insurer does, based on the crash report, the statements it collects, and its adjuster’s reading of the facts. A ticket is evidence but not required. The same company will also be looking at fault for a different reason if you were hurt. North Carolina follows contributory negligence: under the common-law rule codified in part by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-139, an injured person whose own negligence contributed to the crash recovers nothing from the other driver, and the defendant carries the burden of proving it. People call it the “1% rule” as an informal shorthand, because even a small share of fault bars the claim.
So a recorded statement that seems to be about your premium can become the evidence used against your injury claim. If you were hurt, talk to a lawyer before you give any account of how the crash happened, to either insurer. Our North Carolina contributory negligence guide explains how the rule works and what adjusters listen for.
Driver’s license points are a third, separate system. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-16 the Division of Motor Vehicles assigns points for convictions, and accumulating 12 points in three years can lead to suspension; those points follow the conviction, not the crash, and they are not the plan’s insurance points.
First, get the reason in writing: the plan requires the insurer to tell you what caused a surcharge or a lost discount. Second, dispute it with evidence: the crash report, photographs, witness names, the other driver’s citation if there was one, and any determination the other driver’s insurer made when it paid your property damage claim. Third, if the company will not correct it, you can file a complaint with the North Carolina Department of Insurance, which regulates the plan.
Keep your expectations precise. Winning the fault dispute removes the plan points for that crash. It does not freeze your premium, because base rates, discounts, and Reinsurance Facility recoupment can change for reasons that have nothing to do with you. If the crash also left you injured, the fault fight is the same fight in both places, and it is the reason to have a North Carolina car accident lawyer handle the insurers from the start.
Joshua E. Palmer
Managing Partner · Joshua E. Palmer, Attorney at Law
Attorney Palmer concentrates in personal injury law and trained in North Carolina law at North Carolina Central University School of Law in Durham. These answers are the ones he gives clients across a desk, written down: direct, in plain English, and tied to the North Carolina rule that applies.
Was your insurer calling you at fault for a crash someone else caused? Call for a free case review and we will look at the report and the statements before you say anything else.
Responsible attorney: Joshua E. Palmer, Managing Partner · 106 Moran Dr #5106, Bonaire, GA 31005 · (478) 887-3734. Attorney advertising. This page is general legal information about North Carolina law, not legal advice for your situation; contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship.
The fault call an insurer makes on your premium is the same call it will make on your injury claim. Let us handle both. Free consultation, no fee unless we win.
Each case is different. Any results, settlement figures, or benefit amounts described on this page depend on the specific facts of that case and do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in yours. Statutes and benefit rates cited are current as of September 2026; confirm current law with an attorney before relying on it.