Few things can ruin your day as quickly as returning to your car after a night out and seeing a parking ticket tucked under your windshield wiper.
Your first thoughts might be anger, confusion, or angst before settling into a state of acceptance (we’ve all been there!). At that point your mind will likely turn to how this parking ticket will affect you. Besides the obvious financial penalty, you may also wonder if parking tickets affect your car insurance rates.
Do parking tickets affect insurance?
The good news is that your parking ticket will not affect your insurance rates in Ontario. Parking infractions are usually administered by the municipality in which you received it and are not reported to the Ministry of Transportation, which administers your driving record.
It’s also important to remember that finding a car in a parked state means no one was driving it at the time, so it wouldn’t be a reflection of driving habits in most situations anyway (putting aside particularly awful parking jobs for a moment).
Can a parking ticket affect me in other ways?
If you pay your parking ticket on time, it will not have any other effect.
However, if you forget or fail to pay your parking ticket, you may face further penalties. In Ontario, you may not be allowed to renew your license plate sticker before paying the ticket and penalties. In some areas, your vehicle can also be towed and impounded until you pay not only the ticket and penalties, but the costs to tow and impound the vehicle as well.
Those things won’t affect your insurance rates, but they’re still unpleasant.
What other tickets don’t carry insurance penalties?
There are several violations administered by the police that do not have an effect on your insurance. These include:
- Not renewing your vehicle registration on time.
- Failing to remove snow from your car before hitting the roads.
- Red light camera tickets.
Red light camera tickets only record vehicles rather than the drivers inside, so they don’t result in demerit points. They don’t count as driving convictions, either. Cameras just record license plates that result in a fine, but that alone isn’t enough to affect your driving record in a serious capacity.
Which tickets do affect my insurance rates?
There are three categories of driving convictions in Ontario, and but the ones affecting insurance rates are usually moving violations. These include:
- Speeding tickets.
- Failure to stop at a sign.
- Distracted driving (usually texting).
- Careless driving.
- Driving over the legal alcohol limit.
- Stunt driving.
If you have an otherwise clean driving record, it’s possible that your insurance will not be affected by just a single ticket. More serious infractions like those listed above will have a substantial impact on your insurance premium, as will the presence of several tickets or violations. Remember: insurance companies do check driving records when providing a quote!
Thankfully, parking tickets don’t raise your insurance rates. But that doesn’t mean they are any less aggravating and annoying.
Check which tickets are affecting your car insurance rates in just 3 minutes right here. You might even find a new discount or two!
