Massachusetts has the Safe Driver Insurance Plan (SDIP) in place that encourages safe driving with lower premiums for drivers who do not cause accidents or commit traffic violations. This is done by ensuring that high-risk drivers pay a greater share of insurance costs.

The SDIP premium adjustment (surcharge) is the last step in an auto insurance premium calculation. The surcharge is thus factored in after all rating factors and discounts have been applied.

As you are aware MA converted the SDIP from a step program to a point system beginning with policies effective on or after January 1, 2006. The Massachusetts Division of Insurance said this change will make the system of discounts and surcharges easier for drivers to understand.

With this new point program you receive surcharge points if you are more than 50% at-fault for a motor vehicle accident that results in damage to property or bodily injury of more than $500 or if you are convicted of, or pay a fine for a traffic violation; or are assigned to a drug or alcohol education program.

Drivers with no at-fault accidents or moving violations will have zero (0) surcharge points. Drivers with at least 5 years of clean driving will receive a considerable discount. No surcharge points will be assigned to any surchargeable incident in the sixth (oldest) year of the policy experience period.

The amount of points for an accident differs depending upon the severity of it. A major at-fault accident (claim over $2,000) is 4 while a minor at-fault accident (claim over $500 to $2,000) is only 3. It would appear from your 2003 accident you would have 3 or 4 surcharge points presently.

According to the MA DOI, if you have no more than 3 surchargeable incidents over the last 5 years, the point value of each of those incidents will go down by 1 when you have 3 years of incident free driving. If that is the case then your points should go down by 1 (to either 2 or 3) in your third year.

To find out if the insurance company uses a calendar year or a floating year from the time the incident occurred, speak to your insurance agent. He or she should then be able to verify what your insurance points are and when they should be reduced, this year (2006) or in 2007.