Unveiling the Impact: When Does a Speeding Ticket Affect Your Insurance Premiums?
Being found guilty of a speeding offence is not only a criminal matter but may affect your car insurance premiums.
It is helpful to know how soon a speeding ticket will affect your insurance, and how insurance companies come to those conclusions. This article highlights the timeline and factors that determine if a speeding ticket will affect the price of your auto insurance policy.
1. Speeding Ticket Notification Process:
A speeding ticket doesn’t immediately show up on your insurance rates. You get the ticket, and then it goes through this chain: law enforcement, the court system, and then your insurance company.
2. Ticket Reporting to Insurance:
Usually, the insurance company won’t know about your speeding ticket until it’s reported to them, which is often after your ticket is adjudicated and your conviction appears on your driving abstract.
3. Frequency of Rate Reviews:
Every so often, insurance providers review motorists’ records in order to determine whether any recent violations during the policy period, such as a speeding ticket, justify an increase in the premium.
4. Impact on Premiums:
How much your premium is increased as a result of the speeding offence depends on several factors, including the severity of the offence, your driving record, your insurer's policies, and your state's rules.
5. Timeline of Rate Increase:
You can expect higher insurance rates as a result of the speeding ticket for about three years from the date of the infraction, after which the offence is usually gone from your driving record. At that point, the rates could return to their prior level.
6. Defensive Driving Courses:
In particular, you may qualify for less of a premium increase if you take a defensive-driving course prior to the effective date of the violation. Also, some marry or have children on the horizon. Unfortunately, this consequence doesn’t drive many to remarry.
7. Multiple Violations:
And if you’re speeding and have another ticket on your record, you’re compounding the fallout as an insurance company sees it, increasing your risk.
8. Shopping for Better Rates:
If you receive a speeding ticket and your insurance goes up, call other companies and see if you can find a better deal. Not all insurance companies penalise drivers the same way for tickets.
9. Importance of Safe Driving:
You should not want to make any claims, or even have points on your driving record because this can cause you to have to pay more on your insurance payments. It is imperative that you drive safely for as long as you keep driving a car.
Conclusion:
In some cases, insurance premiums increase when a ticketing agency reports the speeding ticket to your insurance company later on. For instance, if you drive in the United States and get a speeding ticket measured in miles per hour, your insurance company will become aware of your driving infraction only when they access your driving record. Sometimes, the violation and the resulting insurance increase based on that violation may remain in your driving record for many years (years longer than statutory limits). The severity of the ticket, the number of tickets, and even the insurance company’s specific policies will influence the extent of the insurance increase. This understanding gives the driver a sense of agency. By controlling their speed, by driving within the speed limits, drivers are ensuring that they will continue to enjoy affordable insurance premiums in the long run.
