Do camera speeding tickets affect insurance?

The cost of car insurance will go up at least 20% or around $200 after most types of tickets. Exactly how much your rate will increase depends on the seriousness of the violation, your insurance company, your prior claims and driving history, your age and location, and other factors. For example, insurance goes up roughly 30% after a ticket for spending 30+ MPH over the speed limit, while a ticket for lower levels of speeding will cause rates to go up by about 20%.... read full answer

Most tickets will affect your rate for three to five years, but it depends on the seriousness of the infraction and state laws. Driving drunk can impact your rates for more than 10 years, for example. In Florida, DUIs stay on your record for 75 years. And states like Indiana, Kentucky, and Minnesota treat seatbelt violations like parking tickets, which affect rates for less time than a moving violation. The amount of time a ticket will affect your insurance rate is very dependent on the laws where you live.

How Traffic Tickets Affect Insurance

It’s also worth noting that traffic tickets might cause some drivers to lose valuable safe-driver discounts, which would affect rates even longer and more dramatically. Let’s say your annual premium is $1,500 and your save driver discount is 25%, bringing the price down to $1,125. But you got a speeding ticket, increasing your premium by 20% and eliminating your safe driver discount. Now you’re paying $1,800 per year—full price plus 20%, costing you $675 more than you were paying before the ticket.

After three years, the speeding ticket might fall off your record, allowing your rates to go back down to full price. But you’ll probably have to wait another two years to earn back your safe driver status since most insurance companies look back five years for eligibility.

A bad driving record is a driving record that includes one or more moving violations, driver’s license points, accidents, or serious charges such as DUI or hit-and-run. Having a bad driving record may result in a driver being classified as “high-risk,” likely making insurance coverage more expensive. Not all offenses that can appear on a driver’s record are weighed the same, however, so what exactly is considered a bad driving record and how much it will affect your coverage depend on the insurance company and the specifics of your driving history. ... read full answer

Having a driving record that isn’t clean doesn’t automatically make it bad. For example, insurance companies give less weight to minor violations like parking tickets or low-level speeding. Major accidents and serious charges like DUI and hit-and-run, on the other hand, are massive red flags that will have the greatest impact on your car insurance policy. They’ll also stay on your driving record for much longer than minor violations. Although the exact amount of time varies between states, a serious offense such as DUI will usually stay on your record for 5-10 years (sometimes even longer), while a minor claim or moving violation will stay for about three years.

If you have a bad driving record, you’ll likely end up paying a much higher car insurance premium than the average driver. Depending on how bad your record is, you could potentially have trouble finding an insurer who will cover you at all. In that case, you’ll want to explore the assigned-risk option offered by your state so you can receive the minimum coverage required by law as you work to improve you record.

Notable car insurance companies that only look back 3 years for violations and claims include Progressive and State Farm. Many car insurance providers only look back at the past 2-3 years on a customer’s driving record to check for claims on an insurance policy or minor moving violations. But some auto insurance companies will look back as far as 5-10 years for major violations and claims when making underwriting decisions.... read full answer

In addition to differences in company rules, auto insurance providers are sometimes limited by state laws to only looking back 3 years for information on someone’s driving record. For example, the states of Virginia and Washington require that auto insurance companies disregard driving-record info that is more than 3 years old. Massachusetts and California, on the other hand, are examples of states that allow companies to look back up to 10 years.

For context, when you’re shopping for auto insurance, you agree to let car insurance companies that you apply with collect your official Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) and Claim Loss Underwriting Exchange (CLUE) report in the state where you’re licensed. It’s important that you don’t purposely misrepresent or omit a moving violation or claim, as doing so can lead to inaccurate quotes, policy cancellations and claims denials. It’s also important to remember that even if you’re dealing with one of the many car insurance companies that only look back 3 years, every auto insurance provider calculates risk in its own way, so it’s best to shop around for the best rate.