You may have wondered how much a ticket or an at-fault accident would increase your insurance premium.  You may have wondered this hypothetically, or you may be curious because you recently received a ticket or were involved in an at-fault accident.  The short answer to the question of how much your premium will increase due to an at-fault accident or ticket is “it depends”.  It depends on a number of factors that are outlined below.

At-Fault Accidents – Drivers who are involved in an at-fault accident are viewed by the insurance company as a higher risk than someone who doesn’t have any at-fault accidents on their driving record.  Being viewed as a higher risk driver will result in an increase in your premium.  This increase in premium will be 10% or greater depending on the seriousness of the accident and whether or not you have other negative driving history.  The seriousness of the accident is a large factor in the degree to which your insurance company increases your premium after an at-fault accident.  Accidents that result in an expensive claim or those with bodily injury will result in a much higher premium increase than a fender bender with little property damage and/or no injuries.  The nature of the accident is also a large determinant of the level of premium increase.  If the accident involves what is known as gross negligence, which would include things such as driving under the influence (DUI) and reckless driving, then your policy premium will increase drastically and your policy could even be canceled.  To make matters worse, if you have more than one at-fault accident, the premium increases can be stackable, which means you could have 10% + 10% increases in premium for two at-fault accidents.  The good news is that accidents drop off of your driving record after 5 years, so after 5 years of no at-fault accidents, your driving record will show that you are accident free.  Some companies reset your accident history at the 3-year mark.

Tickets/Moving violations – Speeding tickets and other moving violation typically results in a premium increase at renewal time.  Your insurance carrier looks at the number or tickets on your driving record within a certain span of time and then based on this information, adjusts your premium according to how high of a risk it determines you to be.  Based on this information, the insurance carrier can determine the likelihood that you will be involved in an accident with property damage and/or bodily injury.  While most insurance carriers won’t drop a policyholder when they get a DUI or license suspension, they will increase the premium by typically doubling or tripling your premium.  The amount of increase depends on the seriousness of the other factors such as rate of speed and BAC (blood alcohol concentration).  The amount of your increase will also likely depend on how good of a driving record you had before the ticket.  If you didn’t have a good driving record before the ticket, you won’t see as much of an increase as if you were going from a good driving record to a driving record with a ticket.  Many times you can request traffic school, which will wipe the ticket from your record (assuming it isn’t a DUI or reckless driving and you don’t currently have either of these infractions or others on your driving record in certain period of time).

Generally speaking, a ticket or at-fault accident will result in a premium increase at renewal time, but if your driving record was good prior to the ticket or accident, then you may not see much of an increase if the ticket or accident was not serious.  If you get a DUI, reckless driving, or get into a serious at-fault accident with significant property damage or bodily injury, then you will likely see a huge premium increase.