Will Unpaid Traffic Tickets Affect My Car Insurance Rates?
Reader’s Question:
I recently moved here in Massachusetts, but I’m from Texas originally. I’m planning to buy a car here, but I have an unpaid traffic tickets in Texas. Will this affect my car insurance rates?
Linda
Cambridge, MA
You can get car insurance coverage in the State of Massachusetts even if you have traffic tickets that you have not paid yet in the State of Texas provided that your Texas driver’s license was not suspended because of this. In most states, and Massachusetts is included, if you fail to pay your traffic tickets, penalties ranging from driver’s license suspension to vehicle registration suspension may be ordered against you. If this happens, then you would need to take care of both paying the traffic ticket and having your driver’s license and vehicle’s registration be reinstated for you to legally drive again. Also, car insurance companies will not grant you any coverage if you are not able to provide them with a full valid license and vehicle registration.
In the State of Massachusetts, a single parking ticket can prevent you from renewing your driver’s license and/or vehicle’s registration. To keep your license from being suspended, it is best that traffic tickets be taken care of as soon as possible. You can either pay the fine or choose to fight it in court. If a conviction is issued against you, try to have a settlement with the court. Most states, including Massachusetts, will allow you to take traffic school so as to have the points against your driving record be reduced. Keep in mind that tickets received from outside the State of Massachusetts will be reported anyway and will be put against your Massachusetts driving record and will be treated as if the violation took place in this state. Although Massachusetts is not a member of the Drivers License Compact (DLC), this state has arranged to share criminal violation and driving record violation with other states, and Texas is one of those states.
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