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Hello everyone,

I need advise regarding my insurance:

Please help me out with as much you can in your previous experience similar to this.

I am 24 and I have 5 years of driving experience with no accidents, speeding tickets and a clean record.

So I was driving in Whitby (registered and live in Barrie) in a 50 km road limit and I was doing 80 km. I got pulled over by police on one of their speed traps. An officer pulled me over and claimed I was 80 km over. provided him with drivers license, registration and Insurance. acknowledged that I went over and asked to get off with a warning. after he arrived back he wrote me a ticket for going 15 km over the limit with no demerit points.

Question: my insurance is with allstate and after receiving the ticket and this is my first ever offence, I was wondering if I just pay the offence and don't inform insurance, will this all in all affect my insurance I currently have and will my insurance find out about this? Anyone that has allstate too can you advise me on this?

anon12345 wrote:Question: my insurance is with allstate and after receiving the ticket and this is my first ever offence, I was wondering if I just pay the offence and don't inform insurance, will this all in all affect my insurance I currently have and will my insurance find out about this? Anyone that has allstate too can you advise me on this?

Technically, you're supposed to inform your insurance provider yourself. It's a part of policy terms. I'm not going to pretend anyone anyone does this (no one does).

Yes, your insurance company periodically pulls up your abstract. It's not something that gets wired to them immediately from the court house upon conviction. So while nothing happens today, they may ding you some time down the road.

It's a minor offense whether it's 15km or 30km. They'll charge you a surcharge percentage. If it's 5% for the first offense, then that's what you'll pay extra. Trying to compare your rates with someone else with Allstate is a lost cause. There's too many factors involved and you're never going to find a straight answer.

Occasionally, insurers will forgive the the first minor conviction, but how much a conviction will affect your rate depends on your individual policy and not necessarily the company itself.

Also, it is important to note that if you do wish to enter a plea of not guilty and have a trial, they do have the right to (and almost certainly will) amend the charge to the original speed, but this does not actually happen until you are called up in court to have your trial. You do still have a chance to enter a guilty plea to the 15 over (or sometimes it will be reduced to an even lower speed such as 10 over, saving a little money). Remember that anything 16 km/h or more over the posted speed limit has demerit points, although these don't affect your rates - just your driving record itself.

Of course, the officer might not show up and it will likely be withdrawn if this happens. It is also worth mentioning that depending on the setup of the speed trap, the testimony of 2 officers may be required. For example, if one officer was operating the speed measuring device and another gave the actual ticket, both would have to be present at the trial. If at least one of the two doesn't show up (for example, the officer who gave you the ticket shows up but the one who was operating the speed measuring device does not) it is usually withdrawn.

I hope this helps...

bend wrote:

anon12345 wrote:Question: my insurance is with allstate and after receiving the ticket and this is my first ever offence, I was wondering if I just pay the offence and don't inform insurance, will this all in all affect my insurance I currently have and will my insurance find out about this? Anyone that has allstate too can you advise me on this?

Technically, you're supposed to inform your insurance provider yourself. It's a part of policy terms. I'm not going to pretend anyone anyone does this (no one does).

> I have and do... on advise from here, have been told to not lie to any questions from the insurance company, but also somewhere it also says that its the drivers responsibility to let the insurance know of anything that can effect the

premium, i.e. tickets, yes some people do, but I don't wanna company to walk away from 40k worth of car, or severe injury

Yes, your insurance company periodically pulls up your abstract. It's not something that gets wired to them immediately from the court house upon conviction. So while nothing happens today, they may ding you some time down the road.

> they will apparently check every 2 years at minimum, so sometimes you get a cheaper year

It's a minor offense whether it's 15km or 30km. They'll charge you a surcharge percentage. If it's 5% for the first offense, then that's what you'll pay extra. Trying to compare your rates with someone else with Allstate is a lost cause. There's too many factors involved and you're never going to find a straight answer.

> yep correct

LWPS wrote:Remember that anything 16 km/h or more over the posted speed limit has demerit points, although these don't affect your rates - just your driving record itself.

This is incorrect...

1 to 15 over is 0 demerits and considered a MINOR conviction by insurance which can cause your rates to go up.

16 to 29 over is 3 demerits and also considered a MINOR conviction by insurance which can also cause your rates to go up.

30 to 49 over is 4 demerits and is considered MINOR by a lot of insurance companies, but MAJOR by some insurance companies, and in either case may also cause your rates to go up.

Insurance companies do not care about the speed over that you were going and do not care about demerit points. If an insurance company considers 49 over as a MINOR then this will affect your rates exactly the same as 1 over.

jsherk wrote:

LWPS wrote:Remember that anything 16 km/h or more over the posted speed limit has demerit points, although these don't affect your rates - just your driving record itself.

This is incorrect...

1 to 15 over is 0 demerits and considered a MINOR conviction by insurance which can cause your rates to go up.

16 to 29 over is 3 demerits and also considered a MINOR conviction by insurance which can also cause your rates to go up.

30 to 49 over is 4 demerits and is considered MINOR by a lot of insurance companies, but MAJOR by some insurance companies, and in either case may also cause your rates to go up.

Insurance companies do not care about the speed over that you were going and do not care about demerit points. If an insurance company considers 49 over as a MINOR then this will affect your rates exactly the same as 1 over.

I think what was trying to be acknowledged was that demerit points do not affect insurance, the type of conviction does. I.E a 10 over and a 25 over would result in the same increase (0 pts vs 3 points).

jsherk wrote:

LWPS wrote:Remember that anything 16 km/h or more over the posted speed limit has demerit points, although these don't affect your rates - just your driving record itself.

This is incorrect...

^^^^ da man !

1 to 15 over is 0 demerits and considered a MINOR conviction by insurance which can cause your rates to go up.

16 to 29 over is 3 demerits and also considered a MINOR conviction by insurance which can also cause your rates to go up.

30 to 49 over is 4 demerits and is considered MINOR by a lot of insurance companies, but MAJOR by some insurance companies, and in either case may also cause your rates to go up.

Insurance companies do not care about the speed over that you were going and do not care about demerit points. If an insurance company considers 49 over as a MINOR then this will affect your rates exactly the same as 1 over.