We’ve been seeing an increasing number of clients receive higher premiums on their auto insurance due to convictions on their licenses. Any infraction against the Highway Traffic Act is recorded against your license and may affect your insurance rates. Basically, any ticket except for a parking ticket. Even though a police officer may tell you that the ticket will not add any ‘points’ against your license, it is still recorded and may still affect your insurance. Tickets remain on your license for three years. Three tickets within a three year period will generally make you ineligible for a standard market insurer. This means that you will have to be insured with a “high risk” insurer thus resulting in higher rates. Some companies give you a discount if you are conviction free. In this case, one ticket will result in an increase to your rates due to the loss of the discount and often two tickets will mean an additional surcharge. An additional problem to the high rates is vehicle driving privileges. Where one person in a household has three or more tickets, that individual becomes ineligible as a driver under the current household policy. One vehicle must be insured through a high risk market and often the standard market insurer, insuring the good driver, will want to exclude the individual with the tickets. The solution to the problem is to watch speed limits, do not speed and make sure that all of your documentation is up-to-date, ie. driver’s license, plate renewals and insurance liability cards.