How Those Pesky Speeding Tickets Affect Your Insurance Rates

As most motorists know, dealing with the cost of running a vehicle can be a challenge. When you own a car, there are many costs you have to deal with such as filling up the tank, paying for repairs and servicing, and paying for insurance. When it comes to the latter, the cost of insuring your vehicle can vary based on a number of factors.

Your insurance costs will depend on factors such as the make and model of your car, your driving history, your age, whether your vehicle is alarmed, where it is parked, and the provider you choose. So, you need to take a lot of things into consideration when you are looking for vehicle insurance. Another thing that can affect the cost of your cover is the amount of speeding tickets you receive, which is why you need to be extremely careful and try and stay within legal limits to avoid getting tickets.

What Is the Impact? 

Speeding tickets can affect the cost of your insurance rates in a variety of ways. If you are wondering whether a speeding ticket you have received is likely to affect your rates, it is important to remember that there are various factors that need to be taken into account.

Whether or not your insurance rates are affected will depend on factors such as how fast you were going, whether you have had more speeding tickets in a short period of time, and the insurance company you are with. If you have only had one ticket recently and you were not going all that much over the limit, you may not see an increase. On the other hand, you might.

Even where insurance does go up as a result of speeding tickets, you may not realize right away as it can take a while to reflect in your premiums. So, if you have received a ticket for speeding and your insurance stays the same in the short-term, don’t assume you won’t see premiums increase. In fact, it will generally be around renewal time when you will see the premium rise, as this is when your insurer will generally access your driving record.

Increasing the Risks 

Among the big problems that come with receiving a speeding ticket is that you are then considered a higher risk to the insurance company. This is because those who speed while behind the wheel are far more likely to be involved in a serious collision, and this means a much higher chance of a claim being made. Premiums may rise in order to cover the possibility of you making a claim due to an accident.

Of course, if you have only received one ticket in a long period, many insurance companies may not increase your premiums, as they will see this as a one-off. If you were going a few miles above the limit, your premiums may stay the same. However, if you were going way above the legal limit, you could see your premiums rocket because this could result in you being classed as a reckless driver.

If you have a good driver discount on your policy, your speeding ticket could result in you losing this benefit. This could then lead to your insurance premiums increasing. If you receive a speeding ticket and you then shop around for new insurance for your vehicle, you may get higher quotes than you were hoping before due to the speeding ticket that is logged on your record.

What Is Considered? 

There are various things that are taken into consideration when it comes to speeding tickets impacting your insurance rates. This includes your overall driving record, the location where you received your speeding ticket, and how fast you were driving. Once these factors have been taken into account, insurers can work out the increases.

As an example, in The State of Auto Insurance Report for 2018, the average cost of cover was placed at $1427 per year. Increases following speeding tickets were then detailed at:

• 20 percent increase for 6-10 miles over the limit
• 21 percent increase for 11-15 miles over the limit
• 23 percent increase for 16-20 miles over the limit
• 24 percent increase for 21-25 miles over the limit
• 28 percent for speeding in a 65 MPH area
• 21 percent for speeding in a school zone area

These can also be stark differences depending on the state you were given the speeding ticket. For instance, based on a ticket for going 6-10 miles over the limit, the cost in Illinois for a $54 increase while in New York is was $159. In Texas, it increased even more to $175, with California coming in at $353 and Florida at a massive $617.

These figures were based on the ticket being the only one dished out to the driver, so actually increases could be considerably higher based on other factors.

You also have to consider that speeding can lead to more serious charges such as reckless driving, and this depends the speed you were driving at and the circumstances. If your speeding violation does turn into a driving charge such as this, you could find that the cost of your insurance rockets – in fact, you may struggle to get insurance when the time comes.

These are some of the ways in which speeding tickets can impact the cost of your auto insurance.