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What the Coppers Have to Say About Your Auto Insurance Rates

Posted in: Auto Insurance Articles

By Clifford F. Berman
Mar 3, 2009 - 11:53:28 AM

What the Coppers Have to Say About Your Auto Insurance Rates

A single speeding ticket can cost you $900 over the course of three years.

Did you know that your local police department might have more control over your auto insurance premiums than you do? Well, sort of. Itty bitty traffic violations, like being caught speeding when you're late to work one morning or accidentally rear-ending the guy in front of you when he slams on his brakes (even when he obviously couldn't drive anyway), can have a catastrophic affect on your auto insurance premiums.

There's a reason that auto insurance providers give out discounts for good driving, however. It can be remarkably difficult to do!

Have you ever had that feeling like the police were out to get you? Okay, granted, it's not paranoia if they're really watching. Seriously though, it can be remarkably easy to commit a traffic violation. A moment of inattention, a slippery road, one of those manic Mondays where you're too late for work to worry about anything other than what your boss is going to do when he gets his hands on you, and the next thing you know you're looking at those blinking lights in the mirror and bemoaning the fact that you're going to be sitting there for another 45 minutes or so filling out paperwork.

There are over 41,000,000 speeding tickets issued annually in the United States.

The true drama of our tale, however, is that even a tiny speeding ticket (5 mph over the speed limit or less, depending on how particular the officer in question wanted to be-the ticket written to the car that was going 27 mph in a 25 mph speed zone is still legendary in some states) can cause your auto insurance premiums to jump. Every time you are pulled over for a traffic violation, no matter how minor, and the officer who pulls you over writes you a ticket (that doesn't get thrown out in court), two things happen:

1) The ticket goes on your driving record, where it will happily sit for the next five years readily visible to anyone who happens to wander by and take a peek.

2) When your insurance company finds out (and they always do) your insurance rates are going to jump and you're going to lose whatever Good Driver discount you might have been given when you purchased your policy.

The difference that small factor can make may not seem like a big deal, but when you start adding up the numbers that "small" factor suddenly becomes a lot larger. Let's say that you were given a 15% discount on your auto insurance for your pristine driving record when you first purchased your policy. With that 15% discount you're now paying $200 in insurance a month. Take away that discount, and what do you have? Your auto insurance premium just jumped $35 a month…and that's before the ticket has the chance to set the meter rolling.

The average speeding ticket costs the driver an extra $300 a year. That's an extra $25 a month. A single speeding ticket can cost you an extra $720 a year in auto insurance premiums. Don't you have something better to do with $720 dollars-like, say, save up for a car that would inspire you to earn that speeding ticket?

The bottom line is that even a small traffic violation can cause huge amounts of damage to your auto insurance premium. That's why it pays to remember to stop and smell the roses (and detach from your cell phone!) when you're sitting behind the wheel.