“Passenger Seat Belt Ticket - Insurance Rates Impact”

I got a seat belt ticket as a passenger sitting in the back seat with a fine of 240 and no payable. I am the primary owner of the vehicle. If I decide to plead guilty to the charge, will this affect my insurance rates at all? Has someone who has been in a similar situation pleaded guilty? How did it affect your insurance rates?

It will depend on: a) will this ticket go on your Moving Violations Record (I am assuming yes); b) which insurance company you are insured with; c) what your record was like before you obtained this ticket. Some insurance companies offer a conviction free discount so being convicted of this could cause you to lose the discount and your premiums go up (some insurers have an endorsement to protect this discount after one minor ticket). If the insurer doesn't offer this discount then having one minor ticket might make no difference. If you have other tickets in the last three years or accidents in the last 6 years adding this ticket to your record could result in a surcharge or could cause your insurer to not renew the policy altogether, in which case you would have to go to the high risk market to seek coverage. Your best bet is to speak to your insurance broker/agent and see what they have to say as they know what your situation is.

Hi

Thank you for responding. This was the very first ticket on my record since I started driving. I have a G license as well. I am secured with Desjardin Insurance for 6 years as a primary driver, do you think letting them know about the charge is safe? As far as them not increasing my premium or are most insurance companies transparent with their clients.

On the contrary, I talked to a legal team and they are willing to fight the charge for me for a fee. Do you think its worth fighting the charge to get in removed all together or reduced from my abstract. I did apologize to the police officer and maybe she has a recording of that. Do you think they use that against me in court if I decide to fight it.

I don't know if Desjardins has a conviction free discount so I can't say whether this ticket on your record will affect your premium. You do not have to inform the insurer of the conviction. Some insurers will pull your Moving Violations Record (MVR) before the renewal to confirm what's been going on, but most won't pull it every year so it could be a year or two before they find out about the ticket. Your Desjardins agent can inform you whether your policy has a conviction free discount but they can't guarantee you that the company won't pull your MVR on next renewal nor can they guarantee that even if you win the ticket in court that your premium won't go up for another reason (i.e. across the board premium increase). Whether it is worth to fight or not with no information about the conviction free discount I cannot say. If Desjardins does not have this discount (or if you don't qualify for it) then being convicted of this charge won't affect your premium (assuming everything else stays the same) so there is no benefit in fighting the ticket (assuming nothing else happens in the next 3 years). The other questions you had at the end I have no expertise in so someone else will have to answer.