Speeding ticket can cost you more than $900 in Illinois
It’s Independence Day weekend. You’re driving out to the suburbs, into the city, up to a lake or maybe down to the state capital. You’re going 15 miles per hour over the speed limit. Lights flash. You hear: “License and registration please.” You’re on the hook for $120. Or so you think. In reality, the...
It’s Independence Day weekend. You’re driving out to the suburbs, into the city, up to a lake or maybe down to the state capital. You’re going 15 miles per hour over the speed limit. Lights flash. You hear: “License and registration please.” You’re on the hook for $120. Or so you think.
In reality, the true cost of that ticket could be much more, depending on where you receive it.
Consumer finance site NerdWallet has discovered just how much speeding tickets cost drivers in Illinois by taking into account the resulting increase in drivers’ insurance rates.
Over a five-year period (because that’s how long insurance hikes typically last in Illinois, according to NerdWallet), a speeding ticket in Chicago will cost drivers $846.55. That’s months of food and care for the family you’ll be watching fireworks with this weekend.
Assuming you were allowed to buy fireworks in Illinois (you’re not), that’s enough to set off more than 100 roman candles to celebrate your freedom.
And Chicago’s not even in the top 10, as car insurance rates vary from place to place.
Harvey, Cicero, Park Ridge, Berwyn and Calumet City round out the top five in the state, each with a true ticket cost of over $900.
Speeding in Evanston or Vernon Hills has much less of a financial impact; there, drivers pay the least in insurance hikes, at $577.40 and $588.75, respectively.
As was mentioned above, the fine on the ticket handed to you by a police officer only accounts for $125 of a speeding ticket’s total cost. But if you had been caught going less than 20 miles per hour over the speed limit in Illinois on Independence Day four years ago, that cost would have been $45 less.
That amount was hiked overnight to $120 on Sept. 15, 2010, because it hadn’t been increased in a while.
Whether you’re thinking about the true cost of freedom this weekend or just enjoying time off, be sure to remember the true cost of driving above the speed limit in Illinois. It’s not as simple as paying a fine.