Effect on Insurance

Most speeding tickets are for minor offences but the ticket can dramatically affect your insurance rates.

When you receive a ticket you should consider fighting to keep it off your insurance and to save any demerit points.

The insurance companies only find out about a speeding ticket when:

• the driver pays the ticket, or
• the driver doesn’t fight the ticket,
• the driver is found guilty after the court.

The insurance only learns of the ticket, after the driver has been convicted and the ticket appears on your driving abstract.

The insurance learns or can check for traffic tickets on your driving record only upon renewal.

They learn of the the conviction(s) one of two (2) ways:

• the insurance contacts the Ministry of Transportation for a driving abstract, or
• you contact the insurance and tell them about it.

No one (the police nor the courts) contacts insurance companies to tell them about your traffic tickets or driving record.

Only after a court date or when the driver pays the ticket is the Ministry of Transportation notified.

The insurance companies have to apply to the Ministry of Transport to see a driving record.  The Ministry does not automatically send the information to the insurance.

In Ontario, a Ministry of Transportation (MTO) driver abstract is available to anyone who has your drivers licence number.

An Ontario Drivers Abstract contains information like,

• the status of your drivers licence,
• licence class,
• any driving restrictions e.g. glasses
• any convictions for speeding tickets or traffic tickets,
• the number of demerit points you have accumulated in the last two (2) years.

When you apply for insurance, your insurance company will either ask you if you have any convictions for speeding tickets in the last three years or they will get a copy of your driving abstract from the MTO.

If you have convictions for speeding tickets, the insurance company believes that the risk of you getting into an accident or making a claim is higher than a person with a clean driving record.

Insurance companies are private corporations and can use different formulas for the costs of speeding ticket. Some insurance companies may seem to miss one speeding ticket where others will increase the rates.

Generally you can estimate that speeding tickets will affect the insurance in this manner:

• one minor speeding ticket – no affect or ten (10) percent increase in rates
• two minor speeding tickets – twenty five (25) percent increase in rates
• three minor speeding tickets – one hundred (100) percent increase in rates