Why Does a Speeding Ticket Affect Insurance?

• If you receive a speeding ticket--or another kind of traffic ticket--it will most likely cause your car insurance rates to go up. This is because your insurance company now considers you to be a higher risk to insure. This is based on a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that found that drivers who have gotten a ticket are more likely to be involved in an accident than those who haven't. Since statistically speaking, getting a speeding ticket makes you more likely to get into an accident, your insurance rate will go up to help the company offset this increased risk of you needing to file a claim.
  
  

How Will it Affect Insurance in the Short Term?

• In many cases, a speeding ticket won't have an immediate affect on your insurance rates. This is because most insurance companies do not look at your driving record every month. Typically, your record will be examined when your contract is being renewed, which is usually every year. Once your record is found to have a new speeding or other type of traffic ticket on it, your rates will go up. Fortunately, this can only happen for 3 years. After that time, your rates will return back to normal.
  
  

Other Effects of Traffic Tickets

• While getting one speeding or traffic ticket is generally not a big deal, getting several, especially in a span of 1 or 2 years, can be a significant problem. While one ticket on your driving record in unlikely to raise your rates by very much, each additional ticket is likely to cause a much greater jump in your car insurance rates. And while your rates will be adjusted back down 3 years after your speeding ticket, the ticket remains on your permanent record. This can affect your likelihood of keeping your insurance. If you have a 5-year history of several speeding tickets and a few traffic accidents, an analyst for the insurance company may consider you to be too high of a risk and cancel your insurance plan.