Will a Speeding Ticket Raise my Insurance?

Does a Speeding Ticket Raise Insurance for Geico, State Farm, USAA, Allstate, Nationwide, Progressive, and Farmers? Drivers always ask me, “Will a speeding ticket raise my insurance?” When people get a ticket, they want to know EXACTLY how it is going to impact them. And that’s understandable. However, the way insurance companies compute rates varies[...] The post Will a Speeding Ticket Raise my Insurance? appeared first on Leavitt & Martin.

Drivers always ask me , “Will a speeding ticket raise my insurance?” When people get a ticket, they want to know EXACTLY how it is going to impact them. And that’s understandable. However, the way insurance companies compute rates varies based on the policy, the location, the person’s driving history, etc. Even your own insurance agent will likely give you a non-responsive answer to these questions and not give you a direct answer.

Recently, Insurance.com conducted a study to determine whether insurance increases for speeding tickets and other moving violations. The amount that insurance increases is pretty eye opening. You DEFINITELY don’t want to just pay a speeding ticket and you will want to try to get it reduced as low as possible.

Insurance increase

When you get a speeding ticket, there will be an opportunity for you to contest the ticket or ask for leniency. If you choose not to do that, then your ticket first gets reported to the Department of Motor Vehicles. Every state has a different name for their department of motor vehicles. Maine , Indiana , and Ohio refer to the DMV as the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. However, they all operate to keep track of motor vehicle records and driving records for individual drivers.

If you are found guilty of speeding, or any traffic ticket it gets reported to your DMV. If you got your ticket out of state then it will get reported to your home state just like you got it in state. Every state shares information with each other through the driver license compact. There are a handful of states that are not part of the compact, but the DMV’s still share information with each other.

The DMV is charged with keeping track of traffic violations. Most states use a point system and they give you demerit points for traffic violations. However, the demerit point system is USUALLY unrelated to insurance. Insurance companies use their own system for insurance rates.

This is often the biggest problem. There is a DELAY between when you get a traffic ticket, and when your insurance goes up. Most insurance companies run record checks when your policy is up for renewal. So that is when you will get hit with insurance. At that point, it is often too late to fix it in court and do anything about it.

Thankfully, insurance.com recently conducted a poll across six major insurance carriers. The six insurance carriers are Geico, State Farm, USAA, Progressive, Nationwide, and Farmers. Keep in mind that these increases are PER YEAR:

Insurance companies refer to this as the “Lookback” period. Your rates are directly impacted by tickets in your past. The AVERAGE lookback period for insurance companies is between 5-10 years. This can vary based on the state, and the type of offense but the LOWEST period is 3 years and the average is 5-10. That allows you to compute the true cost of a speeding ticket or traffic ticket:

In many states, reckless driving will trigger an automatic license suspension in addition to the insurance increases. Also, Virginia defines reckless driving to be anything over 80 mph. Therefore, driving 81 mph in a 70 mph zone is reckless driving. Many people are shocked to learn that reckless driving is classified as a criminal misdemeanor. So you will have a permanent criminal record for driving 11 mph over the limit UNLESS you get it reduced. In addition to the misdemeanor, many states have an automatic license suspension for reckless driving.

When Virginia reports the conviction there is only one code for reckless driving. So it does not matter that 11 mph over is not reckless driving in your home state. All your home state will see is “reckless driving.” So just be very careful that you understand the full extent of what you are actually charged with, because it may not just be a simple speeding ticket.

The post Will a Speeding Ticket Raise my Insurance? appeared first on Leavitt & Martin.