How can your speeding ticket affect your finances?

As a South Carolina resident with a speeding ticket, you may want to think twice before paying it. Paying your ticket is an admission of guilt. This puts the ticket on your record, even if it is a small infraction. Having a speeding ticket on record can impact you more than you may think.

First of all, the ticket itself will cost you money. Sometimes the amount is so low that people would rather “suck it up and pay” than deal with the court. But this is only the first financial hurdle you will face. Beside that, some speeding tickets can actually be expensive. They can be hundreds of dollars depending on how fast you were driving, where you were and whether you were committing other infractions.

Next, you have to consider your insurance rates. One study found that drivers going 30 miles over the speed limit got a 15 percent rate increase. This is a huge jump. Since car insurance costs hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, a 15 percent increase adds on hundreds more. Even drivers going less than 30 miles over the limit can get increases of up to 11 percent. These increases will stay with you until the ticket is off your record, which takes years. That easily adds up to thousands of dollars in extra insurance expenses.

For more information on traffic tickets, follow the link to our web page. You can learn about the potential immediate repercussions, as well as extended consequences. You can also learn ways that traffic tickets can affect you long after the initial ticket.