Getting a ticket is never fun, but while the initial embarrassment and inconvenience of being pulled over is short-lived, the financial burdens a ticket brings with it are often felt long into the future. Beyond the initial cost of the ticket, having a ticket on your record can also affect your insurance rates. While it’s nearly common knowledge that getting a ticket will cause your insurance rates to go up, the specifics of what will happen and how much impact the ticket will have in the long run are often vague. Of course, each insurance company and situation has its own specifics, but here are some general outcomes to be aware of.
The truth is, there might not be an immediate impact on your insurance rates after you get a ticket. The reason for that is that your insurance rates aren’t usually calculated every month. Instead, your risk assessment happens when your contract is renewed. That means that while you’re not likely to experience an immediate change in your rates, you’ll definitely see some kind of rate hike when your next contract term begins.
If you get a speeding ticket and it’s the only one you’ve had in the last year or two, the eventual rate hike you’ll experience might not be too bad. However, if you’ve received multiple speeding tickets in the last few months — or even in the last year or two in some cases — you can expect some serious repercussions. In some cases, you could even have your insurance policy cancelled if the company feels that you’re too great of a risk. At the minimum, you’ll see an ever-increasing rate hike with each ticket you get.
You also have to consider the type of ticket you receive. If you went a few miles per hour over the speed limit and your record is pretty clean, you might only experience a marginal increase in your insurance rate. However, if you got a ticket for excessive speeding, you’ve run multiple red lights, or you were convicted of several infractions at once, you could experience swift and serious insurance rate hikes. In some cases you could even lose your insurance coverage and put yourself in a position where almost no company will want to insure you or will charge you very high rates if they do.
The best way to avoid these consequences is, of course, to slow down and obey the laws of the road when you’re driving. However, if you’ve received a ticket there is still time to help turn the situation around if you haven’t paid it. Fighting your ticket is almost always the best option since paying the ticket means you’re confessing to whatever you were charged with. At that point, your legal options are fairly skim. But if you fight your ticket, you could have your charges reversed, meaning you’ll save yourself the fines, points, and insurance rate hikes that you would otherwise have had to pay.
We’ve been working with drivers like you for years. Our network of highly qualified and experienced traffic attorneys spans the country, and we’re here to help. By giving us just a few pieces of basic information about you and your case we can match you with the best attorney for the job — and one that’s as close to you as possible. We’ll email you their information, and you can call them right away. The initial consultation is free, so what do you have to lose? Get started today, and exercise your right to fight.
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