OK? Last week I was texting, right? I accidentally ran a redlight and plowed through a shortbus and killed 14 retards. I’m like, what was the busdriver doing? Trimming his freakin toenails? He had plenty of room to swerve out of my way. Drive defensively, people! Sheesh.
Do you guys really check all of your lights before every trip you make with your car?!
No, we just don’t whine about it when we get a ticket or kill a busload of Jerry’s Kids, except for lissener.
Hey, I’m not the one who told them that THAT was the day they HAD to take a field trip to the zoo. I’m flattered, Jim, but I DON’T control the universe. I’m not god.
You need to call GEICO and speak with someone. A burned out headlight is not a hazardous moving traffic violation and your rates should not have been raised.
I’ve never understood why all states don’t have “fixit tickets” without points on the driving record and a fine which is waived (or is nominal) when someone proves that they’ve promptly addressed the situation.
It’s impractical to suggest that every time someone discovers that they have a headlight out (let alone other lights, most of which can’t be seen by the operator) they immediately pull over and cease operating the car. You can’t call AAA for a burned out headlight. (Well you can, but they’ll laugh at you.) It’s not, however, impractical to say “okay, get home tonight, and first thing tomorrow, get this fixed, and you have 36 hours to get to a police station and prove that it’s fixed.”
Of course not. God doesn’t post on the SDMB every time he kills a busload of kids. You kill retail – God kills wholesale.
Every time I pull up behind a car, or park somewhere reflective. I also check my tires every morning, even with the fancy new sensor. I’m paranoid that way. Got reasons for it, though.
I couldn’t tell from the OP if he was sure that Geico was raising his rates because of this ticket or if that was his assumption. There are other reasons rates are raised.
An audit of claims in your zip code (work or home) could label that zip code as a higher risk and cause the rate increase. A credit check (they are allowed to pull one at any time) could cause an increase of your rates. An audit on claims with the same vehicles as yours could show that they are costlier to repair than before and caused an increase. It could be a market adjustment. It could just be a plain old “woohoo we get to charge more” as well.
Lots of reasons, may not be the ticket at all.
Yeah, that’s why I commented about my situation, being a long-term GEICO customer that was actually at fault in a fender-bender. I do recall that when I lived in Minneapolis very near a “high risk” ZIP code, my rates (with another company) were pretty huge. Has the neighborhood next door gone to heck lately? Any new cars added to the policy? Teenager started driving? That’s a really weird call on their part.
Only slightly germane: Years ago, I was driving with a headlight out. Got stopped and ticketed, told I had 48 hours to fix the light. I did it the next day and drove to a nearby police station. Officer approved the repair and signed off on the ticket but I had to bring it to Town Hall to finish things off. The next day, I drop it in to the Hall – at 1 minute to 5. I’m told the Recording Clerk has gone home, but it’ll be handled the following morning.
Fast forward 6 months. I’m applying for a job as taxi driver, but my license has been suspended. Why? You guessed it – the canceled-out ticket was still showing up as outstanding!
That being said, it never effected my insurance rates.
So it was the cop’s fault for the ticket and the Dope’s fault for telling you to pay it. Any chance any of it was the fault of the owner of the vehicle?
No, what you got was zero sympathy for the minor fine that your wife already paid. Nobody told you to suck it up and pay, they just wanted you to quit whining.
I’m also curious about how you got a ‘rate increase’ by virtue of going to get a quote at GEICO’s website. I was a customer of GEICO’s for a time, and they never made me go get my own quote when adjusting my rates, they just sent me a letter.
In closing, who do you actually have insurance with, and did THEY raise your rates?
In Florida, faulty equipment warnings (fix-it tickets) don’t count as moving violations. They’re called “correctable violations”; you get your headlight or whatever fixed, then run down to the police department, have somebody come and check it, and then go to the courthouse and pay a small “correction fee”. I think it’s $25 or thereabouts.
If you don’t get it done in time, they become regular traffic citations, and you get 1 point on your licence and a fine.
In any case, unless she failed to get it inspected or pay the fee in time (30 days), nothing would have been reported to the OP’s insurer.
I learned my lesson on that and tire pressure the hard way–going from “slightly under-inflated and aging rear tire” to “amazing blowout at 75mph, then changing the tire in the fucking dark somewhere around mile 170 of I-76/PA Turnpike” will do that to you.
I currently have State Farm. I didn’t get a rate increase from them. I went to Geico online to get a quote. I was quoted one price, but when I went to buy the coverage, I was quoted a second, higher price because of “results from your motor vehicle history check”. I clicked on the details tab and it listed the citation my wife received for the headlight violation.
From talking with people I know, GEICO seems pretty well-known for being very strict with incoming customers, and to be quick to raise your rates after a couple claims. One doctor I used to work for had a series of 2-3 incidents within a short period of time and they raised the rates super-high. He said the agent suggested that if it was too high, he go with another carrier for a year, keep his record clean, and come back, and the rate would be a lot better. That was what he ended up doing.
Have you checked other insurance carriers at all? Or considered staying with State Farm for a while, until some time has passed?
They also aren’t very good at paying out on claims. They have cute ads, terrible customer service.
It ain’t just government that draws that particular fallacy out of people’s mouths. Try protesting puppy mills. You’d think that if there’s any human perversion that people would agree is wrong, torturing puppies in tiny cages – and killing them in bulk as a byproduct of turning lives into industrial commodities – would be one.
But nooooooooooooooooo.
The place we protest has pled guilty twice, but plenty of passers-by ask us why we’re hassling them.
The most common tack people take when they’re offended is “Why are you doing THIS when there are CHILDREN who are a) hungry, b) poor, c) molested, d) whatever???” “You should be fighting ABORTION instead of this!”
The usual implication, sometimes expressly spelled out, is that we shouldn’t be wasting any time, effort, or money on anything at all while children suffer.
This conversation usually takes place with indignant, self-righteous people emerging from the wine store next door, arms loaded with alcohol.
Honest to God.