WHAT ARE “POINTS” AND WHY ARE THEY IMPORTANT?
There’s bad news and good news when it comes to points. Here’s the bad news. Every driver who has a South Carolina license starts their driving career with 12 points. Points are a way for the SCDMV to keep track of 1) the quantity and, 2) the severity of a driver’s traffic tickets. Just about every moving violation ticket will take points away from your license. The minor tickets will only take 2 points. More serious tickets will take 4 points. There are a few tickets that take 6 points. So, if you get a 4 point speeding ticket, you end up having only 8 points left on your license. If you then get a 2 point “too fast for conditions” ticket, you are left with 6 points on your license. The DMV keeps track of how many points you have on your license. Once you reach a certain number – generally 4 – the DMV will send you a letter indicating that you are in danger of losing your driving privileges. Once you reach 0 points, your driving privileges are suspended and you’re in danger of going to jail if you continue to drive. That’s the bad news. The good news is this: the DMV gives points back to you every year, but the way they do it is weird. It works like this: if you get a 4 point ticket this year, you’ll have 8 points on your license. On the one-year anniversary of that ticket, the DMV will give you back half of those 4 points… so you’ll have 10 points on your license. On the two-year anniversary of that ticket, the DMV will give you back the other half of those 4 points… so you’ll have your full 12 points again.