What is the true cost of a North Carolina Speeding Ticket?
Published on 03/20/2018
North Carolina has some of the most punitive traffic laws in the country. You can keep your insurance rates low and affordable, just don't get a speeding ticket! John Kho at nerdwallet.com calculated the "true cost" of a typical North Carolina speeding ticket, and it doesn’t look pretty...
The court costs and fines for your North Carolina speeding ticket can range between $188 and $238 on average ($188 court costs plus $30–50 for the speeding fine itself), which sounds expensive, but not unbearable. However, that is only the tip of the iceberg.
Say, for example, you're driving at a speed of 70 mph in a 65 mph zone, and you don't notice the speed limit drop to 55 mph. You get pulled over and decide to just pay for the speeding ticket. In this example, you’d receive points on your license, and your auto insurance premiums will go through the roof!
As Kho says “North Carolina’s Department of Insurance maintains a separate system for violations affecting auto insurance. Drivers receive points against their insurance — the amount depends on the speed limit in the zone where the driver was caught and the speed they were driving — and premium increases that last for three years.” Simply put, a speeding ticket in North Carolina can cost more than 53 times the cost of the actual ticket, with an average true cost of $1,619.63.
While you may just want to just pay off your speeding ticket and not have to deal with it, please call a traffic attorney first. Not only can that ticket cost you an arm and a leg, but there's other unseen or unapparent concerns (such license suspensions) to worry about. Our experienced traffic Attorneys here at iTicket.Law can walk you through your legal options - and what reductions may be available to keep the “true cost” of your speeding ticket as low as possible. We pride ourselves on making this process as quick and painless as possible.
