North Carolina DMV Points: The Full Schedule, the 12-Point Suspension, and How Insurance Points Differ

What Is The North Carolina DMV Point Schedule?

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-16(c) directs the Division to keep a record of every driver’s convictions for violating the state’s motor vehicle laws and to assign points to each one, as of the date the offense was committed, according to a fixed schedule. The table below reproduces that schedule for drivers of ordinary vehicles in the order the statute lists it. Points are assessed only for North Carolina convictions, and none for a conviction that already brings a suspension or revocation under another law, such as impaired driving under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-138.1.

What Are The Points For Commercial Motor Vehicle Violations?

The same subsection carries a second, heavier schedule for violations committed while operating a commercial motor vehicle. It adds offenses that exist only for commercial drivers and raises the value of every shared offense by one point.

How Many Points Does It Take To Lose Your License In North Carolina?

Twelve in three years. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-16(a)(5) authorizes the Division to suspend the license of a driver who has, under the point schedule, “within a three-year period, accumulated 12 or more points, or eight or more points in the three-year period immediately following the reinstatement of a license which has been suspended or revoked because of a conviction for one or more traffic offenses.” The three years are measured from the dates the offenses were committed, since that is the date the statute assigns each conviction’s points to the record.

Under § 20-16(c) the first point suspension is for not more than 60 days, the second not more than six months, and any later one not more than one year; the Division may substitute up to a year of probation, and three or more points during probation is a violation that brings the unexpired suspension back.

How Do You Get Points Removed From A North Carolina License?

The statute provides two routes; a conviction also stops counting toward suspension once its offense date is more than three years old. First, the driver improvement clinic: under § 20-16(c), a driver who has accumulated seven points (or four after a reinstatement) may be given the opportunity to attend a clinic operated by the Division, and on successful completion “three points shall be deducted from the licensee’s conviction record.” The credit is limited: only one deduction can be made for any driver within any five-year period, so it is worth saving for the moment it prevents a suspension rather than spending on a record that is already safe.

Second, a suspension itself clears the slate: on restoration of a license suspended or revoked for a traffic conviction, any accumulated points are cancelled, which is why the post-reinstatement threshold drops to eight.

What Is The 30-day Suspension For Excessive Speeding In North Carolina?

Some speeding convictions bypass the point system entirely. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 20-16.1 requires the Division to suspend a license for 30 days, without a preliminary hearing, on receiving a record of conviction for either exceeding the speed limit by more than 15 miles per hour while driving faster than 55, or driving faster than 80 miles per hour at all. A driver clocked at 72 in a 55 or at 81 in a 70 falls under this section on conviction.

For a first offense, § 20-16.1(b) lets the trial judge allow a limited driving privilege, valid 30 days, for purposes connected with the health, education and welfare of the driver and family, with whatever restrictions the judge sets; offenses more than seven years old do not count against first-offense status.

How Are DMV Points Different From Insurance Points In North Carolina?

They share a name and nothing else. DMV points threaten the license and come only from convictions. Insurance points raise the premium and come from convictions and at-fault accidents, ticket or not, under the Safe Driver Incentive Plan that N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-36-65 requires the Rate Bureau to file. Under § 58-36-65(d), an insurer that surcharges a policy or removes a safe driver discount must tell the named insured the basis and, on written request, the amount.

N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-36-75 defines the accident tiers by the dollar value of the damage. A “minor accident” is one with property damage of $2,300 or less; an “intermediate accident” is one with property damage of more than $2,300 but less than $3,850; a “major accident” is one involving bodily injury or death, or property damage of $3,850 or more. Those figures are why the estimated-damage block on the crash report matters to your premium as much as to your claim.

The point values themselves are published by the Department of Insurance rather than written into the statute. According to the Department of Insurance’s Safe Driver Incentive Plan page, an at-fault accident carries one, two or three points by tier; reckless driving, hit-and-run with property damage, passing a stopped school bus and excessive speeding carry four; driving during a revocation or aggressive driving eight; racing or speeding to elude arrest ten; and impaired driving, manslaughter, or hit-and-run with injury or death twelve. The Department also lists the surcharge each total produces, from 40% for one point to 340% for twelve; those are the Department’s published figures, not statutory text.

When Does An At-fault Accident Carry No Insurance Points?

Section 58-36-75(a1) creates a forgiveness rule for small first accidents. There is to be no surcharge, no assessment of points and no cession to the Reinsurance Facility where four things are true: the insured was at fault in a “minor accident” (property damage of $2,300 or less); the insured was not convicted of a moving violation in connection with the accident; neither the vehicle owner, the principal operator, nor any licensed operator in the household has a moving-violation conviction or an at-fault accident in the three years before the policy was written or renewed; and the insured has been covered by liability insurance with the same company or company group continuously for at least the six months before the accident. The subsection adds that an insured who reaches six continuous months with the same company after the accident, and who meets the first three conditions, is entitled to have any surcharge or points removed.

The damage estimate decides the tier, a citation defeats the forgiveness outright, and a not-at-fault finding avoids points altogether. Our FAQ on whether insurance goes up if you are not at fault in North Carolina covers the not-at-fault side, and our guide to reading the DMV-349 shows where the damage and citation blocks sit on the form. How long each conviction and accident counts, alongside every other deadline that runs from a crash, is on our North Carolina crash deadlines page.