How Will a Speeding Ticket Affect My Car Insurance Rates?

So you are speeding along the freeway, making great time, when all of a sudden you see red and blue flashing lights behind you. Yep, it's your friendly highway patrol man ticket in hand for your lead foot. So how exactly does a ticket affect your car insurance?

Each time you get a ticket you get a certain amount of points against your license dependent on what state you get the ticket in. The more points against your license the higher your insurance gets. Unfortunately the more tickets you get the higher your insurance gets until you either can't afford the insurance any more or the insurance company drops your coverage. Don't worry it takes more than just one or two tickets for your insurance company to drop you.

So you have your ticket, how much is this going to cost you? It really depends on your car insurance company and your policy and what the ticket was for. If it was a non-moving violation then you're probably not going to see a raise. If it is a parking, speeding, or especially reckless driving, get ready for a rate hike. Usually what the average insurance company will do is first take away any safe driver discounts you may have had and then add a two to three percent increase on top of that. May not sound like much but multiply that by 12 months and it starts to add up.

So what can you do to prevent or at least lessen the cost on your pocketbook? Unfortunately in this case you will have to spend money to save money. Your first option is to see if the court will offer traffic school to keep the ticket off your record. If they do then take it. The cost of the class will more than be offset from the cost of an insurance hike. Unfortunately you can only choose traffic school for the first, sometimes the second ticket in the same year. So what then? If it's a second ticket, sometimes you can get the court to defer the payment of the ticket till the next year if you offer to pay double the ticket price. This can possible open other opportunities for you to get the ticket dropped from your record. Another option is that you can hire a lawyer to try to get the ticket removed. Two pretty expensive options, but still less than what you would be paying on your car insurance. No matter what, you are still responsible to pay for the ticket. Not paying your ticket can get your license suspended or even a warrant out for your arrest in some states.

As with most issues involving insurance, eventually you can receive forgiveness from the insurance company. If you drive safe your ticket will usually disappear from your record after 3-5 years depending on which state you live in. Honestly the best choice is not to speed in the first place. The cost of the ticket, plus the cost to fight the ticket, plus the cost of your increase in insurance, is just not worth it.