Do Speeding Tickets Affect Insurance Rates?
One of the most common concerns we hear at OTD Legal is about the impact of speeding tickets on insurance rates. Given the high cost of insurance in Ontario, it’s understandable why so many drivers worry about how a ticket could affect their premiums. Here, we break down the reality of speeding tickets and their influence on your insurance costs.
Graduated Licensing and Insurance Rates
If you hold a G2 license, even a minor speeding ticket can push your insurance rates up significantly. G2 drivers are under more scrutiny because their licenses come with limited privileges. A speeding ticket almost certainly means higher insurance costs for you.
G license holders might face fewer issues for minor speeding tickets if their driving record is otherwise clean. However, you should stay cautious, as accumulating several tickets or facing a more severe speeding ticket will most likely increase your insurance rates.
Multiple Speeding Tickets
The real challenge comes when speeding tickets pile up. You may not worry about a single minor ticket, but too many show a pattern of risky driving and can label you as a high-risk driver. Insurance providers might raise your insurance premiums dramatically if you have several infractions, regardless of their severity.
Age is a Factor
Young drivers, especially those under 25, face tougher situations. Whether you’re holding a G1 or G2 license, any traffic violation, even a minor one, can affect your car insurance rates. Companies see younger drivers as generally riskier, so a speeding ticket could lead to higher insurance costs for you.
| Speeding Violation | Estimated Insurance Premium Increase |
| 1 Minor Ticket (1-15 km/h over) | 0-10% increase (varies depending on the insurer) |
| 1 Moderate Ticket (16-29 km/h over) | 10-15% increase |
| 1 Major Ticket (30-49 km/h over) | 15-25% increase |
| 1 Severe Ticket (50+ km/h over) | 25%+ increase, potential for being classified as a high-risk driver |
| Multiple Minor Tickets | 25-50% increase |
| Multiple Major/Severe Tickets | 50-100% or higher, likely to result in cancellation or significant increase due to high-risk status |
Get Help With OTD Legal
Facing a traffic ticket can be stressful, but OTD Legal is here to guide you through each step with expertise and confidence. Our team specializes in traffic ticket defence and can help determine the best approach for your case. Get a free consultation and quote now.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are speeding ticket details disclosed to insurance companies mandatory?
Insurance companies generally have access to your driving record, which includes speeding tickets. This information plays a part in assessing your risk as a driver. While you might not report the ticket yourself, it becomes part of your driving history.
What is the duration of a speeding ticket’s influence on insurance records?
A speeding ticket usually affects your insurance for about three years. However, each insurance company may have its own policies regarding how long they consider such infractions when calculating premiums.
Are there differences in insurance rate impacts between camera-issued and officer-issued speeding tickets?
Camera-issued speeding tickets do not go on your driving record. These vicarious liability tickets are issued to the vehicle owner, not the vehicle driver. There are no demerit points associated with camera tickets, and your insurance company will never know about them. Speed Enforcement tickets carry only a fine and no additional future penalties. However, speeding tickets issued by a police officer will be visible to your insurance company, and may have an impact on your driving record, demerit points, and insurance rates.
Video Transcription:
Do speeding tickets affect insurance? This is arguably the most common question that myself or any of my staff address on a almost daily basis. And I think, when I hear that, I can’t help but think most of my clients or our clients that, that approach us are very worried about their insurance rates.
And for good reasons, they’re quite high, very expensive. It’s a big part of the. Of getting through your day, you know, these are expensive rates. You don’t want them to get worse and if you do get a ticket, you know that that may be in jeopardy. So the answer to that question before they call is they know it’s a yes and I can confirm that speeding tickets can affect your insurance rate to varying degrees.
There are a number of factors that change how much that may hurt your insurance rate. In some cases, there’s an element of subjectivity to this, meaning that you could have a a G2 driver, which means you’re on a graduated license. You’re new, limited privileges. And And in that sort of a situation, you could have a 17 year old on a G2 license.
And if they had a minor speeding ticket and they’ve said, well, I’ve got a 15 over or a 20 over, which is either a zero point offense or a three point offense, am I going to be okay? And the answer truly is when you’re under a G2 license and you receive a speeding ticket, you’re not going to be okay.
The answer is going to be, well, how much will my insurance rate go up? So for most people that have the standard license, which is a G class license in Ontario, which simply means general license, a minor speeding ticket, one, is not going to have much of an impact on that type of a license. We’re assuming things.
That particular client is, you know, driving the standard 20 to 24, 000 kilometers in a year, and there’s nothing else on their record. And one minor ticket like that, they’re going to be fine and they probably will not need our help. However, you could, using this as an example that I’ve had at one point in time, we had a G driver and this driver accumulated tickets.
And they were all, arguably, each of them very minor, so many of them were zero point offenses and the other ones were quite low. There were three point offenses, which we consider to be minor. The sheer volume or quantum of those tickets put that particular driver into a high risk category, which effectively tripled their insurance rate.
So the amount of speeding tickets was the problem, not the quantum. Okay. So when it, the answer is when you, when you have a speeding ticket is certainly something you want to investigate. I would recommend calling OTD legal and, and getting that free consultation and make sure that you’re going to be okay, or at least know exactly what the impact may be on your insurance record.
I talked earlier about G2 drivers. We refer to them as novice drivers. So those are drivers that are just starting out and they’re going to have either a G1 or a G2, also commonly referred to as graduated licenses. Those particular licenses are particularly vulnerable to really any speeding ticket. That problem is compounded when they’re in a, what I call, a vulnerable demographic.
So drivers, male or female, under the age of 25, on a novice driver’s license, G1, G2, are particularly vulnerable to pretty much any offence on their record.
