Archived post — kept here for reference. Progressive’s FR-44 payment options, Bristol West’s underwriting rules, and other carrier-specific details change over time. If you’re dealing with a filing today and want the current answer, call or text me at 305-796-2968 and I’ll tell you what’s actually available right now.
Quick answer: Yes. As of April 26, 2024, Progressive began allowing monthly payment plans on Florida FR-44 policies and permitted a filing to be added to an existing policy rather than requiring a brand-new one paid in full for six months. Progressive still prohibits excluded drivers on policies carrying a filing. Verify current rules before relying on any of this.
For a long stretch of my career, one of the hardest conversations I had with a Progressive client after a DUI wasn’t about the rate. It was about the structure.
They already had a policy. It was in force, paid, in good standing. And to get the FR-44 attached to it, they had to cancel that policy, start a new one, and pay six months in full on the spot. Someone who had just spent everything they had on court costs, a DUI school, and a reinstatement fee now had to produce a lump sum before the state would give them their license back.
That changed on April 26, 2024.
What Actually Changed
Two things, and both of them mattered.
Progressive began offering monthly payment plans on Florida FR-44 policies. And an existing policyholder could have a filing added to the policy they already had, instead of tearing it down and rebuilding it.
If you’ve never had to sit across from someone in that position, it’s easy to underestimate what those two sentences did. The old rule wasn’t unreasonable from the company’s side — for years, Florida FR-44 policies were effectively non-cancellable, and carriers priced and structured around that. When the state changed that rule, the payment plans followed. I go through how that shift affects what you pay in Florida FR-44 Insurance Quotes: Five Things That Actually Move the Number.
But there’s a trade in it, and it belongs in this article rather than that one, because it’s a compliance problem before it’s a pricing problem. A policy that can be paid monthly is a policy that can be cancelled for non-payment. That wasn’t true before. A missed payment on an FR-44 isn’t a billing issue — it’s a lapse, and a lapse can put your license right back where it was, which is the whole subject of Why Was My Florida Driver’s License Suspended Again? If you take the monthly plan, put it on autopay and leave it there.
I’d add one more thing, because I’ve watched it happen to people who did nothing wrong. The reason your payment misses doesn’t matter to the filing. A bank hold, a paycheck that arrives late, a disruption you had no part in creating — the filing only records that coverage stopped. I wrote about that during a federal shutdown in Does a Government Shutdown Affect Car Insurance?, and the specifics there have aged, but the point hasn’t.
Why the Old Rule Hurt So Much
I had a client a while back — I’ll call him Nelson, and like all the client stories on this site he’s a composite, not one specific person — who came to me two days before his DMV appointment. He had a Progressive policy he’d carried for four years without a single claim. He needed the filing. Under the rules at the time, his four years of loyalty bought him nothing. Cancel, rewrite, pay in full.
He didn’t have it. So he sat for another six weeks, without a license, driving to work anyway, which is the part nobody says out loud.
What made it worse is that the insurance piece is only one lane of a much wider road. There’s the court side, the DUI school, the interlock question, the reinstatement fees, and a DMV process that doesn’t particularly care which of those you’re stuck on — I lay the whole sequence out in How Do I Get My Florida Driver’s License Back After a DUI? When one lane jams for six weeks, everything behind it waits.
The 2024 change is what keeps that conversation from happening. Adding a filing to an existing policy also removes a moment where things can go wrong, and I want to be specific about why. Every cancellation and rewrite is a seam. New policy number, new effective date, new electronic filing transmitted to the state. Most of the time it goes through clean. When it doesn’t, the driver finds out weeks later from a notice, not from anybody who could have caught it. Fewer seams means fewer of those. Timing matters more on an FR-44 than on any other policy I handle, which is why I wrote When Should I Buy Florida FR-44 Insurance?
Nelson’s other problem, by the way, was that he’d lost the paperwork with his case information on it and didn’t realize it until he was already at the counter. That’s a separate headache with its own fix, and it’s the one I get calls about most often now that the portal doesn’t display what it used to — How Do I Find My Florida FR-44 Case Number? What Works Now.
The State Notifies You, Not the Company
There’s a third piece of that update that got less attention and deserves more.
When your filing is no longer required, Florida notifies the insured. Not Progressive. Meeting the requirement is your responsibility, and the end of it is your responsibility to confirm.
I bring this up because I still get calls from drivers who assumed their agent or their insurance company would tell them when they were done. Nobody is watching your calendar for you. Understanding your own timeline from the beginning is the point of How Long Do You Need FR-44 Insurance in Florida?, and dropping a filing a month early because you guessed at the date lands you back at the counter for a second suspension — a problem that’s much easier to prevent than to unwind.
Bristol West Moved in the Same Window
Around the same time, Bristol West began permitting state filing policies — including Florida FR-44 policies — with excluded drivers. Before that, if any driver on the policy needed a filing, an exclusion wasn’t allowed at all.
That opened a door for certain households, and it closed a few others, because excluding a driver has real consequences that people don’t always think through. I walk through when it helps and when it backfires in Can Bristol West’s Excluded Driver Option Lower FR-44 Costs?
Progressive did not follow. As of this update, Progressive continued to prohibit excluded drivers on any policy carrying a filing. Two companies, same state, same month, opposite answers on the same question — which is most of what I’d want you to take from an archived carrier update in the first place.
What I’d Tell You Today
Carrier rules move. That’s not a caveat I’m adding to protect myself; it’s the actual working condition of this job. The rule that saved a client money in 2024 may be gone, expanded, or replaced by something better in 2026. Progressive has stayed competitive for Florida drivers who need an FR-44, and it’s been part of the broader market improvement — I cover the credit side of that in Can FR-44 Drivers Get a Progressive Rebate? — but competitiveness isn’t permanent for any company.
Neither is the law underneath it. Florida changed the consequences for refusing certain testing effective October 1, 2025, and that one reaches straight into license suspension and filing requirements. I walk through it in Did Florida Change the Rules for DUI Refusals? Between the statutes and the underwriting manuals, something in this picture is always moving.
So use this page for what it is. It tells you what changed and why it mattered. It doesn’t tell you what’s true this morning.
If you’re carrying an FR-44 now, or you’re about to need one, call or text me at 305-796-2968 and I’ll check the current rules against your actual situation — your vehicle, your household, your reinstatement date. That’s a ten-minute conversation, and it’s a lot cheaper than finding out later that you built the policy around a rule that expired.
Florida FR-44 Insurance Resource Guides
Understanding Florida FR-44 Insurance — Start here if you’re new to all this. What an FR-44 actually is, why Florida requires it, and how it’s different from a normal insurance policy.
License Reinstatement and FR-44 Compliance — Getting your license back, staying compliant once it’s filed, and avoiding the lapses, missed payments, and mistakes that lead to another suspension.
Florida FR-44 Insurance Companies and Rates — What actually moves your rate, where the real discounts are, switching carriers the right way, and what an FR-44 costs over time.
Florida DUI Education and Consequences — What a DUI conviction actually triggers in Florida, from license suspension through the FR-44 requirement itself.
Beyond DUI — Related situations that come up along the way: moving in or out of Florida, household questions, and how Florida’s rules compare to other states. (Coming soon)
Florida Auto Insurance — Back to the main site for general Florida auto insurance guidance beyond FR-44.
Continue Reading About License Reinstatement & FR-44 Compliance
- How Do I Get My Florida Driver’s License Back After a DUI? — The complete step-by-step guide to coordinating your FR-44, DUI requirements, ignition interlock and DMV reinstatement.
- Why Was My Florida Driver’s License Suspended Again? — Common reasons a reinstated Florida license gets suspended again, including a verification mismatch that can happen even when the insurance never lapsed.
- How Do I Find My Florida FR-44 Case Number? What Works Now — What to do when you’ve lost your suspension paperwork or can’t find the case information needed for reinstatement.
- Did Florida Change the Rules for DUI Refusals? — What changed under Florida’s newer DUI-refusal law and where license suspension and FR-44 requirements fit into the picture.
- Can Bristol West’s Excluded Driver Option Lower FR-44 Costs? (Archived) — A carrier-specific update about excluded drivers on Florida FR-44 policies; retained for historical reference.
- Has Progressive Changed Its Florida FR-44 Rules? (This article) (Archived) — A historical update on Progressive’s FR-44 payment and filing rules; verify current options before relying on older carrier information.
- Does a Government Shutdown Affect Car Insurance? (Archived) — Why financial disruptions and missed insurance payments can become much more serious when continuous FR-44 compliance is required.
About the Author
Written by Clifford Schimek — Florida Auto & FR-44 Insurance Expert
I help Florida drivers every day with auto insurance quotes and FR-44 filings. My goal is to make everything simpler and less stressful, no matter where you live in the state. Carrier rules like these are the kind of thing I track continuously, because the difference between a filing that costs someone six months in advance and one they can pay monthly usually comes down to knowing which company changed what, and when. If you ever need help or just want a straight answer, you can always call or text me directly.
Clifford Schimek — Florida Auto & FR-44 Insurance Expert
Call or text: 305-796-2968
Learn More About Cliff
Why Clifford Schimek? – The case for working with me
Florida Auto Plus Insurance – Agency website
Florida FR-44 Information and Guidance – For Florida drivers who need an FR-44 filing
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