How Various Traffic Tickets Impact Your Car ... - Free Money Finance

Smart Money has an interesting chart that lists the potential percentage increase in your car insurance rates when you get a ticket for various traffic infractions. The results:

• Reckless driving: 22%
• DUI first offense: 19%
• Driving without a license or permit: 18%
• Speeding 30 mph over the limit: 15%
• Failure to stop: 15%
• Improper passing: 14%
• Tailgating: 13%
• Speeding 1 to 14 mph over the limit: 11%
• No car insurance: 6%
• Seat belt infractions: 3%

They also tell you what you can do to minimize (or even negate) the impact of a ticket:

• Fight the ticket
• Weigh alternate pleas
• Shop for a new policy
• Keep your nose clean
• Take a driving course

My thoughts on these:

• I always thought that fighting the ticket was pretty much a hopeless cause. But the Smart Money piece says that, "If you fight the ticket, you can almost always come out ahead, even factoring in the time and court costs." It then goes into various strategies you can employ to try and get out of the ticket. Has anyone reading this ever gotten out of a ticket in court? What worked for you?


• Weighing alternate pleas sounds like an interesting option. If you can get your speeding over 30 mph ticket reduced to speeding under 14 mph, you've saved yourself a decent amount right there. BTW, anyone notice that speeding 15 mph to 29 mph over the limit isn't on the list above? Perhaps that's the "safe zone" for speeding? :)


• Shopping for a new policy could work if your company is socking you big time and a new company wants the business.


• "Keeping your nose clean" has to do with forgiveness programs that some insurance companies have for long-time customers. Then again, I think this is a one-time deal, so it won't work for habitual offenders (and many of the other tips likely won't either.)


• About 15 years or so ago my wife got a ticket for speeding (which is funny because she's generally the much slower driver between the two of us). She took a driving course and the points were taken off her record.

I considered most of these options when I got my last speeding ticket (which, by the way, was my first ticket since high school) and ultimately decided to pay the fine. My insurance didn't go up, so perhaps my company either forgave the infraction, they didn't notice it since it was out of state, or they assumed it was a very infrequent occurrence since it has been so long since my last one.??

Anyone gotten a traffic ticket recently? What did you do and what was the outcome?

Source: http://www.freemoneyfinance.com/2012/08/how-various-traffic-tickets-impact-your-car-insurance-and-what-to-do-about-them.html

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