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Increase in car insurance rate after getting traffic tickets is incredibly high in California

April 25, 2016

Drivers beware!

Increase in car insurance rate after getting moving violation traffic ticket is especially high in California.

According to a report from InsuranceQuotes.com, insurance rate jumps up to 189% after getting moving violation traffic tickets. Not only driver has to pay for the fine, the insurance rate skyrockets as well.

California is one of the states that has the biggest increasing rate out of the fifty states in the United States. Hawaii has the biggest rate increase with 290.68% and California follows after with 189.34%. Louisiana has the lowest increase rate with 29.28%.

The traffic violation that causes the most increase in car insurance is the speeding violation with an average rate of 21% exceeding 1-15 miles per hour.

It has been found that even a minor traffic violation could raise insurance rate about 19%. In addition, signal violation will raise rate about 19% and carpool lane violation with raise rate about 18%.

The violation that causes the least increase is violation of seatbelt law which will set back driver about 6% increase.

A burden of increase in insurance rate is enormous when the car accidents happen. For example, a 45 years old working woman who is married, has no single traffic violation and has outstanding credit score, will ser her insurance rate go up by 78% if she caused an accident at her fault. This translates to additional $614 extra insurance premium annually. This rate is incredibly high considering the national average rate is 44% and additional amount is $370.

On the other hand, professionals advise that the there are ways to mitigate increase in car insurance rate. Attending courts, taking classes at traffic schools, and looking for other insurance companies are ways to avoid financial burden.

Laura Adams, senior insurance analyst from InsuranceQuotes says there are ways to make sure these infractions do not remain in the driving record forever.

Taking classes to learn about defense driving is good way to avoid high car insurance rate and it only takes a couple days to finish.

<Ji-Hye Park — The Korea Times Staff Reporter>