Auto & Driving
How Your Driving Record Affects Car Insurance Cost
Surcharge data based on Insurance.com and CarInsurance.com 2025-2026 violation research.
A ticket, an at-fault accident, and a DUI do not raise your premium by the same amount. Here is what each one actually costs, in real dollars.
Data sourced from Insurance.com, CarInsurance.com
The three violations compared
Starting from the national average premium of about $2,315 a year, an entry-level speeding ticket (1 to 10 mph over the limit) raises the annual cost by roughly 30%, to about $3,010, an increase of about $695.
An at-fault accident raises it by roughly 61%, to about $3,727, an increase of about $1,412. A first DUI conviction raises it by roughly 103%, to about $4,699, an increase of about $2,384, more than doubling the base premium outright.
The gap between these three is not evenly spaced. Going from a ticket to an at-fault accident roughly doubles the percentage increase, and going from an accident to a DUI adds a comparable further jump.
Insurers treat each violation type as a distinct signal of future claim risk, not points on a single linear scale.
Why a DUI costs so much more than a ticket
Insurers price violations according to how strongly each one predicts a future claim, not simply how serious the violation felt at the time. A DUI conviction is one of the strongest predictors of future at-fault claims in an insurer's own data, which is why it more than doubles the average premium rather than adding a moderate surcharge the way a routine speeding ticket does.
Some insurers decline to renew a policy at all after a DUI, pushing the driver into the non-standard or assigned-risk market at substantially higher rates than even the surcharge figures above.
The surcharge applies on top of your age-based rate
These percentage increases apply to whatever your age-adjusted premium already is, not to a flat national number. In dollar terms, that means the same violation costs more for a driver whose age band already carries a higher multiplier, since the percentage surcharge compounds on a larger starting number. See how age affects car insurance rates for the age side of that calculation.
Frequently asked questions
How much does one speeding ticket raise my rate?
A single entry-level ticket, generally 1 to 10 mph over the limit, raises the average annual premium by roughly 30%, from about $2,315 to about $3,010, an increase of roughly $695 a year.
A more serious moving violation typically surcharges more than this baseline figure, which represents the lighter end of the range.
Does an at-fault accident cost more than a ticket?
Yes, considerably more. An at-fault accident raises the average premium by roughly 61%, to about $3,727 a year, versus a ticket's roughly 30%. That is more than double the percentage increase, and the gap in dollar terms is even larger since it applies to the same base premium.
How long does a violation stay on my record for rating purposes?
This varies by insurer and by state, and is not modeled in the figures above, which reflect the immediate cost impact of having a ticket, accident, or DUI on your record right now, not how many years that impact persists before falling off.
Ask your specific insurer directly if you need to know when a past violation will stop affecting your premium.
Do multiple violations stack on top of each other?
The figures here model a single worst-record scenario, clean, one ticket, one at-fault accident, or one DUI, rather than combining several violations at once. In practice, multiple violations on the same record typically compound the increase further and can push a driver toward the assigned-risk or non-standard insurance market entirely, a more severe outcome than any single-violation surcharge shown here.