How Will a Speeding Ticket Affect My Car Insurance Rates?

So you are speeding along the freeway, making great time, when all of a sudden you see red and blue flashing lights behind you. Yep, it's your friendly highway patrol man ticket in hand for your lead foot. So how exactly does a ticket affect your car insurance?

Each time you get a ticket you get a certain amount of points against your license dependent on what state you get the ticket in. The more points against your license the higher your insurance gets. Unfortunately the more tickets you get the higher your insurance gets until you either can't afford the insurance any more or the insurance company drops your coverage. Don't worry it takes more than just one or two tickets for your insurance company to drop you.

So you have your ticket, how much is this going to cost you? It really depends on your car insurance company and your policy and what the ticket was for. If it was a non-moving violation then you're probably not going to see a raise. If it is a parking, speeding, or especially reckless driving, get ready for a rate hike. Usually what the average insurance company will do is first take away any safe driver discounts you may have had and then add a two to three percent increase on top of that. May not sound like much but multiply that by 12 months and it starts to add up.