Will a Speeding Ticket Increase My Auto Insurance?
That depends. Depends on what you say? It depends on a number of factors. The first factor and presumably most pressing for you is when will your car insurance go up as a result of the speeding ticket. The answer is on your renewal OR if you are super lucky never. Huh? What?
You see insurance companies are not alerted right away when you get a speeding ticket, because quite frankly most insurance companies use outdated processes to keep track of your tickets. All auto insurance companies order Motor Vehicle Reports (MVR) when you first buy insurance with them to make sure you are not lying on your application about your ticket history. However, after you become a customer with them, it really depends on your insurance company in how often they will pull your MVR.
At the most, your insurer will pull your MVR every renewal, which would mean your new speeding ticket will show up, or they will check it every three years, in which case your speeding ticket will not show up. Keep in mind that insurance companies usually have to pay for the motor vehicle report so the more low-tech and frugal (read:cheap) insurance companies will order your report every two or three years (or never) whereas the more tech savy companies will order it on your renewal.
Another thing to note is the number of speeding tickets you have. If this is your first and only speeding ticket in the last three years than you should get away without seeing an increase in your premiums. However, if this is your second or third speeding ticket you will likely see a surcharge or worse a cancellation of service if you have more than say three minor tickets -it all depends on your insurance companies’ underwriting rules.
A good idea to find out if your rates will be affected by your new ticket is to call up your insurance company and ask to speak to the personal auto underwriting department. Make sure you do not give your policy number or name in order to avoid having an overzealous employee pull your MVR. Alternatively, you can do a quote online to compare which company will provide you the best rates based on your speeding ticket.
