…and holy shit was it scary. Apparently, the street I take to get home isn’t a 50 zone like I always thought it was (it’s actually a 40), so I got cited for going 10 mph over. I’ve never gotten a ticket before, never even been stopped. If I send the ticket in with the fine, does my insurance go up?
I’m not sure if your insurance goes up. I’d check with local laws and such. Some places have a program where you go to a 5-hour class on defensive driving, and your ticket gets stricken from your record. This only works if you haven’t had a ticket in a certain amount of time (usually 1 year). You’ll have to pay court fees and such, but it can be worth it.
I just got my first this Summer , too , and yeah , it WAS scary !
I was in Virginia , going to pick up my puppy , and got caught in a speed trap; this stretch of highay wher the posted limit kept changing without rhyme or reason. It ranged from 45 to 65.
I had been in a 65 zone and had my cruise set at 70 , which is safe, but evidently it changed and I missed it . Even at 70 , the native Virginians were passing me like I was crawling , so I thought I was still in the higher speed zone . Nope . :rolleyes: A cop came charging out of a little hidey-hole nook , left all the Virginia plates cruise on by , but stopped the Indiana plates. Right away he asked me if I was ‘just passing through’ , and I knew I was screwed.
That little mistake cost me $141.
In Texas, which I see is where you’re located, there are often attorneys you can hire for a reasonable sum to go in and argue your moving violation down to a nonmoving violation. I’ve done it in the past, and it ended up actually costing me less than the original ticket. It’s perfectly legal, so that would be my first avenue.
The other alternative is a defensive driving class, which I believe is also available in Texas and prevents your insurance from going up.
Just don’t do like I did – I got a ticket for going what I thought was 14 mph over the speed limit, which was bad enough and I don’t usually drive that fast – long story, but I was distracted by my hubby on the phone telling his mom about our Day From Hell, which was distracting enough that even the cop laughed along with me over it although he still wrote the ticket, darn it – except it was 10 mph lower than I thought so it was really 24 mph over the limit. :eek: That was a $267 ticket, nowhere near where I lived so no way to go to court to contest it or anything else, so I had to pay it and eat the higher insurance for three years. The first ticket isn’t that bad to rates, but after that it gets pretty ugly, so I’ve been more attentive ever since!
Yeah, I just got my first ticket ever this summer too. Stupid speed trap in a small town. Uggh. I’m always so careful to cut my speed when entering a town (when on a rural highway). And I see all these people passing me, and I laugh at them because I know they’ll get a ticket eventually.
But dammit, it was me. Just once I was careless and forgot to slow down entering the town. Just once. And I got a ticket.
Your insurance goes up if you get a speed ticket? Wtf? Does your insurance PAY that speed ticket??
If that happened in Europe, I’d sue the insurance company.
Oh yes, your insurance premiums go up. Insurance companies like drivers with clean records. The first ticket, it goes up a bit. The second ticket, it goes up a lot, although some companies will also cancel you. If they don’t on the second ticket, they will on the third.
And if you’re in an accident, even if you’re 100% not at fault, many insurance companies will raise your rates then, too.
It’s a complete and total racket.
Here your insurance will only change if you are in an accident that you are at fault for - i.e. one that the insurance will have to pay some other party money for, if you let them handle the claim. They will consult you when this happens, so you can figure out for yourself if you are better off keeping your lower rates and paying the costs yourself, or if you want to let them pay it and affect your rates.
If and how much your rates are affected is influenced by how many years you’ve driven without damage prior to the event, but that’s probably the same there.
How much does a car insurance in the U.S. cost typically?
US car insurance varies unbelievably by location and age. For example, when I lived in Los Angeles in the '90s, I was paying $400 every six months for car insurance – but when my daughter, then age 18, got her license, our insurance went up by $200 a month. It then dropped after she turned 26, although by that time she’d long since been paying her own insurance.
I’m currently fighting with my insurance company over a homeowner’s liability claim. We had friends helping unload our moving truck, and one piece of furniture had gotten broken either being loaded on or in transit and fell on one guy’s hand, causing a nasty break and keeping him out of work for more than two months (he’s a carpenter). My insurance company insists that the only definition of “legally liable,” which is the only the language in our policy, is if we are negligent, and refusing to pay the claim other than $1,000 medical payments, which didn’t even cover his emergency room visit. I’ve been fighting with them for six weeks over it now, taking it up five levels thus far, and am encouraging the guy to sue – that way maybe I can speak to the insurance company attorneys, who are willing to negotiate, unlike the claims department, which utterly refuses. It’s an under-$10,000 claim, I’ve been paying them for insurance for over 25 years without a single claim, and it’s going to cost them easily twice or three times that to defend a lawsuit. What bullshit.
Not only that, if you have taken DD, the insurance companies will actually give you a 10% reduction. The class will pay for itself the first time your premium comes due.
There are a few towns locally that allow you to pay twice the ticket price and get it reduced to a non-moving violation, which doesn’t affect your insurance, usually. Ardred did this once or twice when he was younger.
In NY State 1-15 MPH over the limit is a “minor” speeding infraction as far as insurance goes. 16+ MPH over the limit is a major.
I’m an insurance agent and all of the companies that we sell let you have 1 minor without charging you for it. Another example of a minor infraction is a “device” ticket. Which is passing a stop sign or running a red light.
I don’t know anything about insurance in Texas but, I believe your premium shouldn’t go up very much and it wouldn’t go up until the policy renews for the next term.
So you can openly bribe the local officials to “fix” your ticket? :dubious:
I got a ticket this summer on the Mass pike. Was doing 77 in a 65. Everyone does 75-80 on the pike, but I happened to be the only one going down a loooong stretch of downhill road and the cop was parked at the top. I had my cruise control set, saw the cop and figured I was ok because I was under 80.
I didn’t take into account the fact that cops from Westfield, MA are a little backwards 
My brother is law is a cop on Sturbridge, and he told me that you lose your good driver credits and it can cost you hundreds more for something like 6 years after getting a ticket. That didn’t sound quite right, as I had gotten a ticket before and didn’t really notice a big increase for more then a year or two on my insurance.
Anyway, when I called my insurance agent to get a quote for new insurance since I was moving, I asked him about the rate increases. He said that, at least in MA with my insurance company (I gather that it varies with different states and insurance companies) that if I get another ticket iwthin one year of the one I got on the pike, then that one will stay on my record for several years and will be expensive. However, the original ticket, after one year, will go away from the record. So if I get a 2nd ticket 364 days after the first, I’m screwed. If I get a 2nd ticket 366 days after the first, then I just have to pay a little more - nothing too significant because the first ticket was taken off the record after the 1 year mark.
Obviously, YMMV.