Tickets / Accidents
How might tickets and accidents affect your car insurance premiums? One speeding ticket in the last three years will likely not have a significant impact on your car insurance rates, unless it is a teenage driver. However, multiple tickets and accidents most certainly will impact your rates.
If you have experienced a large increase in car insurance premiums your best bet is to take time to receive comparison auto insurance quotes from competing companies. The Agent Gurus Network has established a fast and easy way for you to receive multiple car insurance quotes from top rated companies wishing to bid on your business. Click Here to do that now.
The reason why it is important to request comparison car insurance quotes is because insurance companies charge differing amounts of money when tickets and accidents accumulate. Some insurance companies essentially want you to take your business elsewhere by increasing your rates substantially, while other companies will make the increase more reasonable.
Depending upon the company, the rate increase for multiple tickets or accidents can be most severe. Some companies may increase your individual rate two to three times the normal rate meaning that your car insurance premiums could double or triple! Or worse, you could be dropped by your insurance company altogether, being labeled as a high risk driver.
Many years ago I experienced this first hand. A minor accident was caused with only minor damage and the claim was not turned into the insurance company. Three months later, the same car was totaled and our insurance premium jumped from from $1,000 per year to $3,000 per year instantly. Although we were not dropped, the rate increase to $3,000 per year made us look for other insurance options.
If you have had multiple tickets or accidents what can you do to lower your car insurance rates?
Some may conclude that taking remedial drivers’ training courses would be the best option. Taking such a course may remove points from your driver’s license, but your insurance company will likely not inclined to do the same.
The underlying reason is that remedial drivers training does not necessarily change the behavior of the driver; it removes the points from the license but not necessarily the behavior that led to the tickets or accidents in the first place.
I distinctly recall as I was sitting in a class room for driver’s education, watching a gruesome video of car accidents and the victims being pulled from the wreckage, with the purpose of “scaring” teenage drivers into considering the seriousness of speeding. Did it work for me? Absolutely not! My parents made the mistake of allowing me to drive a sports car they had purchased. With every opportunity I had, every time I drove the car, I pushed the ‘pedal to the metal’, one time exceeding 140 miles per hour with a few of my school buddies egging me on.
Remedial drivers training may remove the points from your driver’s license, but insurance companies will likely not remove the surcharge for tickets or accidents.
Changing your driving behavior is the best way to lower your insurance rates over the long term.
The second best way, as was mentioned previously is to obtain auto insurance quotes from other companies. Insurance companies use varying methods to set rates and penalize those who accumulate tickets and accidents, and the rate differences can be substantial. You can Click Here to receive online auto insurance quotes in all 50 states if your car insurance rates have gone up because of tickets or accidents.