Speeding Tickets and Insurance
Every year, more than 40 million speeding tickets are issued in the U.S.
While they may be common, if you’re unlucky enough to receive one, they carry some heavy consequences.
When you do get a ticket, odds are one of the first things you’ll wonder is what it will cost you. And it isn’t just the fines you need to worry about, either.
Keep reading to learn whether a speeding ticket affects insurance, and what you can do about it.
Will a Speeding Ticket Affect Insurance?
Unfortunately, a moving violation will result in an increase in your insurance. So the answer is yes, in most cases, a speeding ticket will raise your car insurance rates.
Insurance companies base their rates on how high a risk each individual applicant is. This goes for all types of insurance, not just car insurance, including life insurance, homeowners insurance, renters insurance, and travel insurance.
The idea is that the lower the risk a person is determined to be, the less likely the chance that the insurance company will have to pay out for a claim.
But once you have an incident, the insurance company sees you as being a higher risk.
You don’t even necessarily have to have caused the incident or accident for your insurance rates to increase.
For instance, if you get rear-ended and it isn’t your fault, your auto insurance rate may still increase. That’s because the insurance company still sees that as a higher risk. Perhaps you drive your vehicle more or in areas that are more prone to accidents, and that is why that accident occurred.
Of course, the logic definitely isn’t concrete. But because insurance companies are out to make a profit, they have to do what they can to maximize their profits and lower their risk of paying out claims in any way that they can.
When Will Your Car Insurance Not Increase?
In most cases, a speeding ticket, or any moving violation, will cause your auto insurance rate to increase.
But in some specific instances, this may not be the case.
For example, some auto insurance providers offer forgiveness. In this case, your first auto accident or speeding ticket might get forgiven, and your rate will not increase.
However, speeding tickets are less likely to qualify for forgiveness than accidents.
If you’ve gotten a speeding ticket, it’s a good idea to look back through the fine print of your auto insurance policy. That way you’ll know if there’s any chance that your ticket might be forgiven and you won’t have to start paying a higher rate.
How Much Will a Ticket Raise My Insurance?
While you’re checking your car insurance policy for any indication that you might be forgiven for your first ticket, look for information on how much you can expect your rate to increase as well.
That’s because insurance companies are able to increase your rate by whatever percentage they choose after you receive a speeding ticket.
Your individual insurance company isn’t the only factor that will affect how much your rate increases, either. How far over the speed limit you were traveling will also affect your rate.
Similar to how a speeding ticket costs more the faster you were going, your rate may also increase in a similar way. However, while tickets increase by $2 for every mile over the speed limit you’re traveling, insurance rates may increase far more rapidly.
In some cases, if you get a ticket for going less than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit, your insurance rate may not increase. Or, it could increase by just a small percentage.
But getting a speeding ticket for going a significant amount over the limit, or getting multiple speeding tickets, your rate could increase by 25, 30, or even 50 percent. Because insurance companies have the freedom to set the rate at which those premiums increase, it could go up even more.
Lowering Your Insurance After a Speeding Ticket
One speeding ticket for going less than 30 miles an hour over the limit is unlikely to increase your insurance rate by a significant amount. And if you keep your record squeaky clean, you may be able to qualify for a lower rate again as soon as a year after receiving your ticket.
But if your rate increases by a significant amount, you may not have as many options. If you can’t convince your current insurance provider to lower your rate, you can shop around.
However, with a new ticket on your record, you might not find the same low-rate offers you had when you shopped around for insurance the first time.
Another way to prevent your auto insurance rate from increasing or from increasing by as much after a ticket is to get a lawyer. A speeding ticket lawyer can help you explore your options and possibly even help you fight the ticket.
Fighting Back Against Speeding Tickets
Figuring out how much a speeding ticket will affect insurance can be confusing.
That’s why it’s always a good idea to do what you can to fight the ticket and minimize the consequences. That way you lower the chance of seeing an insurance rate increase. Or at the very least, lower the rate at which your auto insurance premiums increase.
Speeding tickets are incredibly common. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a big deal if you receive one.
Depending on your driving record and the consequences surrounding your speeding ticket, you could face more consequences than just higher insurance. Your driver’s license could be suspended or revoked, you’ll face points on your record, and it could be tough to get new car insurance in the future.
If you’ve recently received a speeding ticket, we can help. Contact our Louisiana speeding ticket lawyers today.
