How long will a speeding ticket affect your insurance?
Your state driving record is where your insurer will check to see if you have any tickets and if so, when they were incurred. In most states, a speeding ticket will stay on your state driving record for 3-5 years, though the duration varies by state, and some states keep violations on your record permanently.
When determining the premiums for an auto policy, insurance companies look at what’s called the "experience period." Insurers have different experience periods, but a typical one would be the 36 months prior to the date of review. The insurer reviews your driving record and any losses over that period, determines if they can offer you a policy and, if so, how much it will cost. (Insurers often have longer experience periods for serious offenses like DUI and reckless driving.)
When will my rates go up after a ticket?
A speeding ticket will most likely affect your insurance if it falls within the experience period when you get your next policy, and will probably continue to affect your rates until it is far enough in the past that it’s outside the experience period. In practice, that usually means the ticket will affect your rates for the length of the experience period starting with your next renewal.
If a speeding ticket raises your insurance rates, the timing of the ticket compared to the timing of your renewal determines when that happens. That’s because most insurance companies won’t raise your rates until you renew your policy. For example, if your policy renews in January of each year, and you get a speeding ticket in February, it won’t affect your current rates until the following January.
How long the points from a ticket stay on your license
Most states will also put demerit points on your license after you get a ticket for speeding or another moving violation. If you get too many points over a certain period (such as from multiple speeding tickets in the same year) your license may be suspended. While every state has its own rules, demerit points from a ticket generally come off your record sooner than the ticket itself.
Demerit points do not directly affect your insurance; they are only used by states to determine whether to suspend or revoke your license. But having a license suspension on your record can make getting insurance much harder and more expensive.
Some states, such as Hawai‘i and Mississippi, don’t have a points system but still suspend driver’s licenses for violations they deem excessive.