You know when you see those flashing lights in your mirror that something must be wrong. If you were speeding you think about how fast you were going, then compare it to the speed limit on the street. Then you begin to wonder if you ran a stop light, or if there is something physically wrong with your vehicle. No matter what the cause of you being pulled over is, you instantly begin to worry if your car insurance rates will go up. Usually when your auto insurance company finds out that you were in a moving violation, they may raise your rates depending on the amount of violations you have.

You may be wondering if it is possible to hide a ticket from your insurance company. Well, it is definitely not a smart thing to think about or even try, but your insurance finds out about your tickets without you even having to tell them. There is a chance where your insurance company fails to notice a moving violation report, but that is not the end of it. What happens is your insurance company usually has some type of annual renewal period, in which they will rerun reports and see if there is anything that was overlooked throughout the year. Then if they caught their mistake, the moving violation would be noticed and it could have an effect on your policy.

With some insurance companies, your very first ticket may not send your rates up. Say you have been a customer with your auto insurance company for five years, and you recently got a ticket. Unless you are getting moving violation tickets regularly, one ticket may not increase your rates all that much. Even though your thinking that just one ticket cannot make a difference, so why do they have to raise my rates? Well, it’s all about fairness to other customers. If there is someone else that has the same driving record as you, but you recently got a moving violation, how is it fair that your rates should stay the same as the person without a moving violation. In some cases, just one ticket on your record may have no effect at all, but you can never rule out the possibility.

Once you get your ticket your insurance company decides how much to raise your rates, if any, and from that point on your motive is to drive safer so your rates will go back down. If you show your insurance company that you are practicing safe driving, your premiums will reflect that. So even after a moving violation where your rates increased, safe driving and a clean record will lower your insurance prices back down.