Reader question:
I just got a speeding ticket and I don’t want it to affect my car insurance premium rates. If I pay it right away online, will that keep my insurance company from finding out?
Logan
No!
Please don’t do that if you don’t want to invite insurance woes. Paying a ticket immediately without contesting it is the same thing as pleading guilty. Whether the courts will continue to bother you or not, it will go straight on your driving record, and once your insurance company checks that record, your rates will rise accordingly, and if you didn’t tell them you might even risk some trouble for misrepresenting yourself.
Your ticket will generally stay on your record for three years, and so, even if it is your very first speeding ticket, you could be looking at a total of $500 to $1000 more than you would usually pay over the next three years. It’s hard to win your car insurance company back once you’ve gone wrong.
It may be tempting to take car of that bothersome fine right away, but what you should do is wait until your court date and try to get it taken off your record. If you do take it all the way to court, and you show up on time and don’t miss your date and so on, you have a possibility of not getting charge and thus having the ticket stricken from your record. Even if you go to court and are found guilty, though, you might be able to get the violation dropped from your record by taking a defensive driving class.
Cheers,
Fashun Guadarrama.