I received a speeding ticket while driving last week in Texas. I’ve been driving for so long and I make it a point to maintain a clean driving record. It was my first traffic violation and now that it happened I’m afraid on the impact it will have on my cheap auto insurance premium. Will it increase that much?

Charlene

El Paso, TX

In general, if a person is involved in a traffic violation and it’s his or her first offense, car insurance companies do “forgive” their policyholders and would not “punish” you with higher auto insurance rates. Since, you’ve mentioned that it was your first traffic violation and I’m assuming it was not a serious offense at all, then I would not expect any effects of that violation to your cheap auto insurance rate that you have at present.

However, I just wanna clarify that it’s just an industry-wide practice. Whether you would get an increase or not on your car insurance rate still depends on your auto insurance company. Normally, auto insurance companies would consider the seriousness of your traffic violation. If you get involved in more serious traffic violation like DWI or DUI, then I would say it would greatly affect the cheap auto insurance you have because with those convictions you will be considered then as high-risk driver thus making you someone riskier to be insured.

I would say that it’s best to ask your auto insurance agent whether getting a ticket speeding ticket would affect your cheap auto insurance rate or not. If it does increase, then you can always looks for affordable auto insurance rates by using this website.