Your Driving Record Could Be Costing You Money
While your auto insurance provider bases your monthly premium on numerous factors, including where you live, how old you are and whether you rent or own your home, the factor that most significantly affects your premium is your driving record.
In fact, if you have a bad driving record or you’re a new driver, then you can expect to pay significantly more for your auto insurance coverage than someone who has a clean driving record and years of driving experience under their belt.
A Bad Driving Record vs. No Driving Record
If you’re a new driver with no driving record, then your auto insurance premium is largely based on other drivers in your age bracket. For that reason, a 16-year-old driver will pay more for auto insurance than a 46-year-old new driver because statistically, teens are more likely to display risky behavior behind the wheel. An older driver with no driving record will pay more than an experienced driver of the same age, but their rates will be lower than those of young drivers.
Drivers with less-than-stellar driving records will pay more for auto insurance coverage than experienced drivers with clean records, but the degree to which a bad driving record affects your auto insurance premiums depends largely on just what your record contains.
For example, if you are at fault for a serious accident or you receive a DUI, you can expect to see a significant increase in your monthly premiums. In this case, your premium will likely be higher than that of someone with no driving experience. However, if you receive a couple speeding tickets or a citation for failing to use your turn signal, then your rate may increase only slightly, as your auto insurance provider did not have to pay out any money on your behalf.
Factors That May Negatively Affect Auto Insurance Premiums
When calculating your auto insurance premium, your auto insurance provider weighs a lot of factors to determine how likely you are to file a claim. The more likely you are to file a claim, the more you’ll pay for your coverage.
Type of Violations that Affect your Auto Insurance Rates
Auto insurance companies consider your driving record when setting rates, and that means that they only consider moving violations. Any action that has to do with you driving in an unsafe way will directly cause your insurance cost to go up.
These include:
- Speeding tickets
- Distracted driving
- Driving under the influence (DUI)
- Crashes for which you are at fault
- Careless or reckless driving
- Leaving the scene of an accident
- Any other moving violation
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How a Speeding Ticket Can Affect Your Auto Insurance Rate
While receiving a speeding ticket can be a little nerve-racking, the good news is that if you have an otherwise clean driving record, a single ticket is unlikely to have a significant impact on your auto insurance premium.
Short-Term Effects of Receiving a Speeding Ticket
In most cases, your auto insurance rate will not change at all when you receive a speeding ticket. Your auto insurance provider doesn’t pull every policyholder’s record every month to see if anything has changed, so your ticket will likely go unnoticed until it’s time to renew your current policy or shop for a new one. However, if your auto insurance provider notices the ticket when you renew your policy, then you may see your monthly premium increase.
The Effect of Speeding Tickets in the Long Run
While speeding tickets are not rare, they’re still something that could potentially affect your premium, particularly if you’re under the age of 25 or you’ve received several speeding tickets within a short period of time. This is because drivers who receive multiple speeding tickets are statistically more likely to cause a car accident. The greater the risk that your insurer believes you pose, the more they will charge you for coverage.
Do Insurance Companies Look at My Driving Record?
Auto insurance companies look at your driving record to decide how likely you are to file a claim. If your record is riddled with traffic violations and car accidents, then they know that statistically there is a good chance that they will end up having to pay out money on your behalf. As a result, if your driving record is less than perfect, you pay more for auto insurance.
We have all had our lapses in judgment — driving too fast when we are running late for work, letting a distraction cause us to rear-end the driver in front of us or speeding through an intersection when a yellow light turns red. Unfortunately, these can stay on our record for years, resulting in high monthly premiums.
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How Long Do Accidents or Traffic Violations Stay on Record?
The amount of time that traffic violations and car accidents stay on your record depends on the state you live in. Nationwide, a speeding ticket stays on your record for three years on average; in some states, tickets fall off in a year and others, they stay on for six years.
In Nevada, the Department of Motor Vehicles uses a demerit point system. Traffic violations are assigned a point value. For example, following a vehicle too closely is four points, reckless driving is eight points and failing to dim your headlights is two points. Accumulating a certain number of points may cause your license to be suspended for six months. Points only stay on your record for 12 months, meaning that after a year, traffic violations should no longer affect your auto insurance premium.
Car accidents stay on your record for longer. Again, this varies widely by state. In Nevada, most crashes stay on your record for three years, though a serious crash that results in a conviction stays on your record for 10 years.
Reporting Accidents or Speeding Tickets to Your Insurance Company?
If a car accident is very minor and results in no injuries or property damage, then you may choose to not file a claim. However, it is important to note that in Nevada, failing to give information or render aid at the scene of an accident can get you six demerit points.
Even if you do not report a traffic violation to your auto insurance company, this is information that they have easy access to. While your premium will not increase mid-contract, you can expect it to increase when you renew your policy.
Will a Parking Ticket Effect My Auto Insurance Rate?
Parking tickets! We all get them from time to time. But can they affect your auto insurance rates? Well, so long as you pay it promptly, it’s unlikely that a parking ticket would affect your insurance rates.
Impact of a Parking Violation
A parking ticket is considered as a non-moving violation that doesn’t carry any demerit points or have any impact on your car insurance premiums. They are issued for reasons such as parking in a no parking or street cleaning zone, expired meter, double parking, etc. Even if you get them frequently, they will not be added to your driving record, and you’ll eventually pay the same car insurance prices as any other driver. The majority of parking tickets issued in Las Vegas are civil infractions that carry no jail time.
When Parking Tickets Can Affect Auto Insurance Rates
Ignoring parking tickets and refusing to pay that ticket or letting multiple tickets build-up could subject you to consequences that will see your car insurance rates go up. Unpaid parking tickets attract consequences such as.
Large Fine Amounts
- Hold or suspension of your license
- Inability to renew a driver’s license
- Suspension of vehicle registration preventing renewal (failure to make payment after 90 days)
It’s clear that even if parking tickets won’t directly impact your driving record, failure to pay the fines has serious consequences that will lead to high insurance rates when seeking out a new policy. An active registration is needed for you to get auto insurance, so failure to renew your vehicle registration means that any time you drive, you’ll be driving illegally. If a person gets caught driving without registration and/or insurance, they could face substantial penalties.
Dealing With a Parking Ticket
It’s important to note that parking tickets are associated with a car and not the person driving it. Therefore, if you happen to lend your car to a friend or family member who parked it illegally, you’ll be responsible for paying the ticket. The easiest way to deal with a parking ticket that you received for a legitimate error is to pay them immediately.
The options to pay or contest the parking violation are always printed on the ticket. If you wish to contest, you should quickly file an appeal so that the issue can get sorted as soon as possible.
Clean Your Driving Record to Save on Auto Insurance
While in many cases you simply have to let some time pass for infractions to fall off your record, there may be a few things you can do now to lower your rate.
Address Issues Quickly
If you’ve gotten pulled over for a broken taillight or because you forgot to renew your vehicle registration, then you may have received a traffic violation called a “fix-it ticket.” In most cases, these violations have a deadline attached. If you pay the fee or fine and show the court that you corrected the problem, then your case will be dismissed. As long as you take care of these “fix-it tickets” quickly, then they won’t go on your driving record. However, if you don’t take care of them in a timely manner, then they will likely end up on your record and drive up your monthly premium.
Take a Driver’s Safety Course
Many auto insurance companies provide an incentive for taking a defensive driving course in the form of a discount on your monthly premium. In some cases, attending traffic school may allow you to keep infractions that are moving violations off your record. However, it’s important to ensure that the safety course you take is approved by the DMV.
Build Good Driving Habits
While your driving record may not be perfect, if it’s been a long time since your last infraction, then you may be able to have driving point violations removed from your record. Your local DMV can help you determine whether this may be an option for you.
Work On Getting a Higher Credit Score
Drivers with higher credit scores generally get lower insurance premiums.
Run Auto Insurance Quotes Under Both Spouses Names
Believe it or not, running quotes under both spouses names may net a lower rate under one of the spouses.
Don’t Always Go with State Minimum Coverage
If you always insure your vehicles for State Minimum (Currently 25/50/20), that is considered a higher risk to insurance companies. If you carry higher limits (ex: 250/500/100), you are considered a lower risk. Lower risks get better rates.
Affordable Coverage with Nevada Insurance Enrollment
A bad driving record doesn’t have to ruin your chances of getting affordable, quality auto insurance. In addition to following these steps, an agent can help you compare policies and discounts and find the right coverage at an affordable price.
Our agents specialize in helping drivers find the best coverage at the best price available to them. We can help you find the right auto insurance provider and determine which discounts you qualify for to get an affordable rate without sacrificing quality coverage.
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