Kevin McCormally: I am Kevin McCormally of Kiplinger's and I am here with Mark Solheim, a Senior Editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine and we are talking about Speeding Tickets.
Mark, it's a sickening feeling when you look up in your rear view mirror and see those flashing red lights. Cop write to the ticket, so you just pay it and put it behind you.
Mark Solheim: No Kevin, don't just pay and put it behind you because there is a hidden cost to a every speedy ticket.
Kevin McCormally: What would that be?
Mark Solheim: Your insurance premiums are going to be affected. Not necessarily with one ticket, many insurance companies would forgive one ticket. But if you get two tickets within a short period of time, you are going to pay.
Kevin McCormally: Okay, so I got caught, I got napped by the Cop for speeding. What can I do to mitigate the insurance penalty?
Mark Solheim: If you want to mitigate the insurance penalty, the short answer is go to court but some States offer alternatives to going to Court. One is traffic school, some States let you to get to traffic schools certain number of times.
Kevin McCormally: And that will wipe the ticket off your record for the insurance?
Mark Solheim: That will wipe the ticket off your record. The insurance company will never see it then. The other possibility is a pre-bargaining with the prosecutor who might mitigate the fine and more importantly mitigate the number of points.
Kevin McCormally: So that's the key is to keep the points off your record so that the Insurance company doesn't see that can increase your record.
Mark Solheim: That's the key.
Kevin McCormally: Now in some States it's actually required that the Insurance companies raise your premiums if you hit caught speeding?
Mark Solheim: Yeah. California is a perfect example and one of the biggest States in the Nation. Every ticket you get there will be a financial consequence in terms of higher insurance premiums.
Kevin McCormally: Well, Mark is there anything else you can do?
Mark Solheim: Tone other -- one other reason for going to Court is that there is always a chance that the Police officer won't show and for Police officers isn't there, the Judge is going to likely dismiss your case.
Kevin McCormally: Well, thank you very much Mark.
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