Penalties for Driving Without Insurance in South Carolina
A first offense for driving uninsured in South Carolina carries a fine of $100 – $200. License or registration suspension: License, registration and plates all suspended.
- First offense — fine
- $100 – $200
A misdemeanor. The court may impose thirty days in jail instead of the fine (§ 56-10-520(A)(3)(a)).
- Subsequent offense — fine
- $200
Second offense: a flat $200, or thirty days, or both. A third or later offense carries no fine at all — forty-five days to six months in jail. Only convictions in the five years up to and including the last one count as priors.
- License / registration suspension
- License, registration and plates all suspended
On notice of the conviction SCDMV suspends the owner's driver's license and every registration certificate and license plate in his name, and reissues nothing until the reinstatement fee is paid. A driver who was not the owner loses only the license, for thirty days.
- Vehicle impoundment
- Plate seized, not the vehicle
South Carolina takes the tag rather than the car. Suspended plates and registration cards must go back to SCDMV, and local officers may collect them under agreements with the state, with a $50 charge per item recovered (§ 56-10-45).
- Annual surcharge
- None
There is no annual surcharge. Until July 1, 2024 an owner could register a vehicle as uninsured by paying an annual uninsured motorist fee — $550 in the repealed text of § 56-10-510 — and drive legally without insurance. 2023 Act No. 51 abolished that option, § 56-10-510 is now reserved, and SCDMV was ordered to make sure nobody remained registered as an uninsured motorist. Guides that still describe paying $550 to drive uninsured in South Carolina are describing a scheme that no longer exists.
- SR-22 required afterwards
- Yes
South Carolina sets $100 — higher than 2 of the 35 jurisdictions on this site. The range runs from $30 to $1,500.
How South Carolina compares with every other state
What it actually costs
A first offense runs $100 to $200, and where you land inside that band is the court's call. The fine is also rarely the expensive part.
Add what comes after the fine: $200 to be restored, the figure on the coverage lapse page, and 3 years during which your insurer has to keep a certificate on file with the state, and cannot quietly let the policy drop. Those are the figures that decide what driving uninsured actually costs, and they are the ones left out of the headline penalty almost everywhere.
The part that stops you driving tomorrow is not the fine but the suspension: License, registration and plates all suspended. The car itself is exposed too — plate seized, not the vehicle. Buying a policy the next morning is not the same as being restored — restoring the license or the registration is its own step, and the figures above are what it takes.
Every statute cited for South Carolina
What changed
January 1, 2026
Reinstatement fee for driving uninsured rises to $700
Section 56-10-520(D) sets a $600 base fee and lets the Department of Insurance re-set it each year in step with average private passenger auto rates. Order No. 2025-006 put the figure at $700 for calendar 2026. The owner of the uninsured vehicle pays it before any license, registration or plate is reissued; a driver who was not the owner pays $100 instead.
South Carolina Department of Insurance, Order No. 2025-006July 1, 2024
The $550 uninsured motorist fee is abolished — you can no longer buy the right to drive uninsured
For decades South Carolina let an owner register a vehicle as uninsured by paying an annual uninsured motorist fee, set at $550 in the text the legislature repealed, and drive legally with no liability policy at all. 2023 Act No. 51 (S. 549) reserved § 56-10-510 effective July 1, 2024 and ordered SCDMV to make sure nobody remained registered as an uninsured motorist. Section 56-10-520 was rewritten at the same time to make operating an uninsured vehicle flatly unlawful, with a $600 base reinstatement fee adjusted annually. Any guide that still tells South Carolina drivers they can pay $550 to skip insurance is describing a repealed scheme.
S.C. Code § 56-10-510 (reserved) and § 56-10-520, as amended by 2023 Act No. 51
Why the rule looks like this
- What Changed in 2026Liability minimums doubled in Hawaii, two states dropped pure comparative fault, New Hampshire stopped inspecting cars, and three crash reporting thresholds moved — a dated account of the 2026 changes, and the ones already signed for 2027 and beyond.
- The Fine Is the Cheapest PartA first-offense fine for driving uninsured runs from $30 in Florida to a $1,500 floor in Delaware — but South Carolina's $100 fine arrives with a $700 reinstatement fee, and the reinstatement is usually the bigger number.
- When a State Contradicts ItselfA state's statute and that same state's own agency page often give different answers on the same day. Seven cases we hit reading all 51 jurisdictions, why it happens, and where the agency is the one that's right.
- What a Gap in Coverage Actually CostsA lapse is billed differently in every state — by the day in New York and Maryland, by the reinstatement in Florida, by a registration fee in Tennessee, by a $600 noncompliance fee in Virginia, and in Ohio by a fine that does not appear at all.
More on South Carolina
Checked against the primary sources above on September 27, 2026. If a figure here is wrong, tell us and we will fix it — what we have corrected so far is public.