Auto insurance costs: Traffic tickets can ruin your coverage benefits

Being pulled over for alleged traffic violations may give you that sinking feeling. If you’re lucky, then you may just get over it with a mere ‘fix-it’ ticket, in cases like a damaged tail light. However, during instances of severe offences such as reckless driving or speeding, you may get slapped with a heavy penalty, probably with a jail sentence also.

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Events like these will then certainly raise your auto insurance rates.

Auto insurance rates – A novel survey

Insurance.com, a leading authority in the industry has compared compared around half a million auto insurance quotes provided to drivers who were booked for various traffic rule violations from 14 different carriers.

This was done in over a period of two years. The comparison was done between insurance rates quoted to drivers with traffic tickets and of those with none. Here are some of the average premium increases that are really appalling:

DUI (driving under influence) first offense – 19%Reckless driving – 22%Driving without a permit or license – 18%Careless driving – 16%Speeding beyond the limit of 30 mph – 15%

However, here’s a word of caution for you. Traffic laws are quite complicated and vary from state to state. So, you should always cross-check with your state DMV to get the most accurate and latest information. Its official website is DMV.org.


Moving onto traffic tickets and considering that you won’t challenge them in court, it is very likely that the damage has already been done and that the premium on your auto insurance policy has thus, increased.


Tips to get your auto insurance premium lowered


Here are some useful tips you can use to get your auto insurance cost lowered:

An increment in the deductibles by almost 15-30% (around $250-1000) may lower your auto insurance premium considerably.Find out whether or not your traffic ticket will be removed from the records, provided you attend some classes in a traffic school. Here, the rules are different for different states, say for example, how often you may or have to attend, as well as some serious infractions, like over-speeding, are ineligible in some selected regions.Enquire about some possible premium discounts. You may take advantage of, for instance, clean driving records, low annual mileage, good student grades, defensive driving course, having attained a specific age, installation of car safety features like burglar alarms, vehicle tracking systems, anti-lock brakes; parking in a safe lot and so on.At the time of renewing your policy, shop around and get at least three different insurance quotes from different carriers. Contact an insurance agent or you may take advantage of those online insurance quotes comparison websites. Nevertheless, you should keep one very important fact in mind and that is, not every insurance provider participates in such online platforms.Many carriers use some kind of credit information to help them decide rates for the coverage. This is why they review the credit reports of the insurance buyers as well as that of the holders on a regular basis to rectify any mistakes on their part. For that reason, you must ask your insurance provider to check your credit, if you know that your credit score has improved.

One of the many advantages of comparison shopping is that every insurance company has its own way of calculating risks and therefore, they’re aren’t uniform. As a result,