The Total Cost of a Speeding Ticket

I got my first speeding ticket in about 10 years last year. It was just a dumb move on my part as I wasn't paying close attention to my car's speed.

I paid $139 for the ticket after court costs and other fees. I expected my next insurance bill to be slightly higher, but wasn't sure what to expect.

Our annual car insurance bill in 2012 went up $172.05 to $963.17 for my wife & I. I believe 100% of the increase is due to my speeding ticket as I can't find any other indication of a rate increase, but I guess there is a chance some of it is a rate increase.

I did a quick search at it looks like a speeding ticket typically affects your insurance rate for 3-5 years. The premium due to the speeding ticket might decline a bit each year, but I haven't found anything from my insurer that would indicate this so far

My estimated cost for this speeding ticket:
$139 for the ticket + 3 years of $172.05 increased insurance premiums = $655.15. Speeding is expensive. This is good motivation to keep my speed well in check going forward.

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Comments (11)

I think it's more likely you just had a rate increase independent of your speeding ticket. I also experienced a car insurance rate increase this year -- and neither my husband nor I had any speeding tickets or claims this past year.

Posted by ReaderInNY | February 6, 2012 12:29 PM

Was the "forgiveness and probation" option not available? I paid ~$150 to a lawyer to pay off rolling through a stop sign ticket, and if I have no issues in the 3 years post, it never appears on my insurance.

Posted by LC | February 6, 2012 12:52 PM

Thank you. I read on your blog a few years ago about the credit card settlment. As I used credit cards for 10 years abroad, I was able to document about 200K in purchases and got a check for $1400 a few weeks ago.

Posted by guyabroad | February 6, 2012 2:16 PM

ReaderInNY, There could be a rate increase independent of my ticket, but I know at least some of our insurance increase is attributable to the speeding ticket because I received a letter stating I no longer received their best rate because of recent driving record activity.

Posted by 2million | February 6, 2012 2:32 PM

Ditto LC. I get a speeding ticket every few years, and have made a habit of working through a lawyer to keep it off of insurance (adjudication witheld). It's typically ~$100 to the lawyer, and whatever your fine was becomes court costs. You still have to pay, but it's cheaper in the long run.

Posted by Charlie | February 6, 2012 2:48 PM

Me and my wife got one speeding ticket each recently. We rarely speed actually. I think police is intentionally raising revenue. Btw, we all live in rtp.

Posted by Travis | February 6, 2012 9:14 PM

Speeding tickets are the worst. I'm convinced our local authorities (whom i completely respect) are driven to focus more on moving violations at certain times as a revenue generator. Not exactly passive, but not bad.

Posted by BE @ BusyExecutiveMoneyBlog | February 7, 2012 8:54 AM

In California you can go to "traffic school" and the ticket won't go on your record (and thus isn't known to insurance). You can do this once every 18 months (so don't get tickets more often than every 18 months). Is this not an option in some states?

I've gotten 2 speeding tickets and one illegal left-turn ticket and in all instances I was able to take traffic school and have never had a surprising insurance increase. In most counties, they even let you take traffic school online which is a total joke - it costs $40 or $50 bucks and takes about 10 minutes (the one time I had to go to a traffic school it was a miserable 8-hour day at the courthouse).

Posted by Jonathan | February 7, 2012 10:55 AM

2million- time to shop around for auto insurance, seems a little high for just 1 ticket, maybe raising your deductible, if Mrs 2million isn't working outside the home your 2nd car should be listed as a "pleasure" vehicle, hope that helps

Posted by PFM | February 7, 2012 11:08 AM

That seems way to high for just a ticket for sure. My agent told me it takes 3 years for a ticket to drop off insurance.

Posted by KC @ PsychoMoney | February 7, 2012 4:13 PM

Shop for new insurance. If you your record is otherwise clean, you will save. Insurance companies like to increase your rates when you expect an increase.

Posted by kotis | February 14, 2012 6:52 PM