Younger Drivers More Likely to See Car Insurance Rates Rise after a Ticket

SAN FRANCISCO, April 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Only 19% of Americans who received a traffic ticket in the past five years are paying more for car insurance as a result, according to insuranceQuotes.com. This is a decrease from 2013 when 31% of Americans who received a recent traffic ticket saw an increase in their car insurance premium.

"Insurers typically don't know as much about you as you might think," said Laura Adams, senior industry analyst for insuranceQuotes.com. "Oftentimes, unless you're a young driver, they are unaware of minor tickets and violations you receive on the road."

While millennials may be considered the most common culprits for risky driving, it's actually Americans between the ages of 30 and 49 who are the country's most ticketed drivers. Thirty-one percent of 30- to 49-year olds have received a ticket for a moving violation in the past five years, compared to 25% of 18- to 29-year-olds.

Drivers under the age of 50 who receive a ticket are much more likely to see their insurance premiums rise than older drivers. In fact, drivers 18-49 years-old are three times more likely to see their insurance premiums rise after receiving a ticket than drivers 50-64 years-old.

"Younger people have a bad reputation of being risky drivers and typically face additional scrutiny from insurance carriers," said Adams. "Most carriers check a young driver's record every six months, but won't regularly check an older driver's as these checks can be costly – and older drivers typically are safer drivers."

Additional Finding:

• High-income Americans (households with annual income of $75,000+) were the most likely of all income brackets to have received a ticket in the last five years.

Adams offers the following strategies for limiting the impact of a traffic ticket:

• Take a class at traffic safety school. You can wipe points off your driving record and learn how to improve your driving skills.
• Make sure you update your vehicle registration, license plates and state inspection. Letting one of these expire can draw extra attention from law enforcement.
• Avoid getting additional tickets to reduce the risk of increasing your insurance premium.

insuranceQuotes.com found that offenses such as driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident almost always result in higher premiums. Sometimes, a carrier will even drop the offending driver's coverage entirely. People who commit several smaller violations are also more likely to face higher car insurance costs.

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here: http://www.insurancequotes.com/auto/traffic-tickets-insurance-rate-increase

PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults living in the continental United States. Telephone interviews were conducted by landline (500) and cell phone (500, including 300 without a landline phone). Interviews were done in English by Princeton Data Source from April 1-4, 2015. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

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For More Information:

Caroline Farhat
Senior Publicist, Bankrate, Inc.
[email protected]  
917-368-8638

SOURCE insuranceQuotes.com

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