Will Traffic Tickets Affect My Auto Insurance Rates in Washington
Reader’s Question:
I’ve had a few traffic violation citations here in Washington State. How will my driving history affect my vehicle insurance policy rates? The latest violation I had happened 2 months ago.
Anthony,
Bellevue, WA
The Washington State Office notes that auto insurance companies must compute the vehicle insurance rates based on the dollar amount. This base rate must be adjusted according to certain factors determined by the auto insurance company. These are gender, age, marital status, model and make of the vehicle, driving history, credit history, claims history, and geographical area. The vehicle insurance carrier may impose an additional charge if you have been in an accident or you have violated a traffic rule. This is referred to as a surcharge.
The WA Department of Leasing (DOL) notes that convictions and violations or infractions will be kept in your driving record for five years upon the conviction date. For collisions, this will be recorded in your MVR. The record will show who are involved in the incident, whether one or none of the involved parties were parked when the incident happened, the persons affected and the type of injury it caused them. For private vehicles, the incident will stay in the driver’s record for 5 years, while for commercial vehicles, it’s 10 years.
In WA, the auto insurance company decides on how long the violations or accidents could affect a driver’s vehicle’s insurance rate. However, most insurance companies will rate you based on your moving violations for a period of 3, 5 or 7 years, depending on the frequency of occurrence of the violations and accidents.
Will Out of Town Speeding Ticket Affect Car Insurance Rates?
Reader’s Question:
I received a ticket in Arizona and I just want to know if how much this will affect my insurance rate in where Im licensed, Washington. Thank you.
Carmi
Thank you for asking Carmi.
Washington and Arizona are both members of the Drivers License Compact. This means that the Arizona courts will share your traffic ticket and violation back to the Washington Department of Licensing (DOL), your home state.
The WA DOL site states that they keep a record of traffic violations, convictions for vehicle violations and for failure to appear or respond to traffic citation on every motorist in the state. This information is obtained by clerk of the courts and licensing agencies so it would show that the out of state information reported to the DOL would also be put on your WA driving record. You may check with the DOl to get more information about this..
If the Arizona traffic ticket is placed on your WA driving record then your insurance provider will be able to see it the next time they pull up your motor vehicle record (MVR). You may contact your insurance company to find out how much this violation can affect your insurance rate.
Goodluck!
MariCAR
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