You may be aware that not paying your bills on time may hurt your credit score, but what about unpaid traffic tickets? Not only can these tickets cost you hundreds or even thousands of dollars, but can they even ding your credit health if you don’t pay them on time?
Key Points
- Traffic tickets can have a negative impact on your credit score if you leave them unpaid.
- You have a certain window of time to pay your ticket, usually around 30 days, before further action is taken to collect the unpaid dues.
- If you can’t afford the ticket, you may be able to work off the fine to satisfy the ticket and avoid any damage to your credit score.
Can Traffic Tickets Affect Your Credit Score?
Yes, traffic tickets can impact your credit score, depending on whether you’ve paid your traffic ticket on time:
- Paid On Time – Any traffic ticket that you get and pay on time, will not be reported to the credit bureaus and will not affect your credit.
- Not Paid On Time – While the health of your credit report and credit score won’t be affected directly by you getting a traffic ticket, problems do start to arise when you leave your tickets unpaid for longer and longer periods of time. When you don’t pay your traffic tickets on time, it may be sent to a collection agency, which has the potential to severely negatively affect your credit.
If you’ve been diligent with paying your tickets, your credit score shouldn’t be affected. But unpaid tickets — including those from way in the past — can come back to haunt you in the form of a lower credit score.
Lisa Prosser knows this all too well. Despite her timely bill payments, Lisa was unpleasantly surprised to discover that unknown offences dating back to her teen and young adult years had been pulling her score down.
According to a recent CTV article, Lisa had to do a little digging to find out what was dragging down her score. She eventually learned that offences that took place when she was 17 and 22 years old were affecting her credit health. Unfortunately, notices of these offenses were being sent to an old address that Lisa hadn’t lived in for years, so she had no way of knowing about them.
Unfortunately, this slip in the cracks negatively affected Lisa, and can impact others, too, for the following reasons:
These Debts Are Permanent
Under the Provincial Offences Act, fines permanently stay on file because they’re classified as Crown debt. Fines can date back decades when they moved from provincial to municipal government responsibilities.
There’s No Statute Of Limitations
No statute of limitations exists for these offences. That means creditors may continue pursuing collections for the long haul. This type of debt doesn’t disappear, so you could technically be hounded for debt collection with no end in sight until you pay up.
A Collection Notice Won’t Protect You
A notice of collection is meant to warn you that you have unpaid debts that you must pay as soon as possible. Then, you can respond accordingly. But in the case of provincial and municipal fines, collection agencies don’t have to prove that they made an effort to contact you because the statute of limitations doesn’t apply, as mentioned.
In Lisa Prosser’s case, she didn’t receive these notices because she had not lived at the address that they were being sent to. Even still, the collectors don’t have to prove that they sent anything at all.
You can be as diligent as you can when it comes to paying bills and tickets. But even the most responsible consumer can be caught in an unfortunate situation like this that could have a negative impact on their credit health.
Find out how long information usually stays on your credit report?
Can You Remove Your Traffic Ticket From Your Credit Report?
If your credit score is suffering as a result of unpaid traffic tickets, you may be able to mitigate the impact by removing the remark from your report. To do so, you’ll first need to pay the overdue ticket and deal with any other fines or fees to the city. Then you can request that the public record be taken off your credit report by either filing a dispute or writing a goodwill letter.
What Can You Do If You Get A Traffic Ticket?
While getting a ticket is an unpleasant and expensive experience, it’s fairly easy to deal with. Any standard ticket will have all the details about what you are accused of doing, how much you owe, and how to pay or contest the charge written somewhere on it.
Need a loan to pay off your traffic ticket?
When most people get a ticket, they simply pay it through one of the acceptable methods, such as online, by mail, or in person at a designated city establishment. These are the easiest and quickest ways to solve the issue.
How Fast Do You Need To Pay A Traffic Ticket?
In general, traffic tickets must be paid off within 30 days to avoid further penalties. In certain provinces, some tickets even include a small discount if a driver pays the ticket off by an earlier date. So, if you’re guilty and the ticket is just, you’re better off paying the fine as soon as possible and chalk it up as a learning experience.
What If You Want to Contest A Traffic Ticket?
If you think that your traffic ticket is unjust, there is the option of contesting it by filling in a specific section on the back and mailing it to a designated location. Doing this will often involve waiting a considerable amount of time and eventually attending court as a result.
If you don’t want to (or don’t think you have to) pay the ticket, fighting it in court or inquiring about it can be worthwhile. However, it’s important to realize that you may not win your case and could deal with court fees as a result.
Nevertheless, letting tickets go unpaid and simply forgetting about them is not the way to go, no matter what the infraction is for.
Can Traffic Tickets Affect Your Car Insurance Premiums?
What about insurance? Many people are not only curious about whether a traffic ticket affects their credit score, but also if it can impact their insurance. Auto insurance is already expensive as it is, but can traffic tickets make it even pricier?
Yes, your car insurance rates can potentially be affected greatly by your traffic tickets. If you get pulled over for a DUI, distracted driving, or serious speeding charges, there is a good chance your rates will see a steep increase.
While parking tickets and a few speeding tickets here and there aren’t likely to raise your car insurance rates by a lot, they can still bump it up a little. Basically, everything included in your driving history has the potential to raise or lower your insurance costs, no matter what. How much these tickets affect your insurance will depend greatly on the severity of the offences, how frequently you are being ticketed, and how soon you are paying your tickets.
What If I Can’t Afford To Pay My Ticket?
If you’ve received a traffic ticket and don’t have the money to pay it (or simply don’t want to pay it), you may be able to work off your offence by putting in some volunteer hours. Many provinces offer a ‘Fine Option Program’ that allows you to work off your fine instead of paying it with money.
Most provinces and territories — except Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador — have a Fine Option Program. To qualify, you must be an adult (or live in a province that has a program specifically for young offenders), be unable to pay the fine, and register with the appropriate agency in your province.
The Bottom Line
Traffic tickets can certainly affect your credit scores and insurance if they go unpaid for too long or if you continue to accumulate them at a rapid pace. As a result, you should always pay for your parking, speeding, or other traffic tickets as soon as possible. Thankfully, traffic tickets are pretty easy to deal with; it’s more about coming up with the money to pay your ticket and ensure it’s handled in a timely manner.
