Receiving a traffic ticket in New York has financial consequences beyond the cost of the ticket itself. In addition to the fines, your insurance company can increase your rates and you can be assigned to the New York Driver Responsibility Assessment program which will cost you a minimum of $300. Fortunately, there is a way to reduce both your points and insurance costs by attending an approved Point and Insurance Reduction Program (PIRP) driving safety course but there are some things you need to know about the program before registering.

The consequences of getting a ticket in New York

In New York, a driver who receives six or more points on their driving record within an 18 month period must participate in the Driver Responsibility Assessment program. This assessment will cost a driver $100 per year over a three year period. For every point over six points, an additional $25 will be added. Failure to pay will result in suspension of your driver's license.
Point Reduction


Attending an approved PIRP course will reduce the points on your New York driving record by up to four points. For someone who rarely gets or has never gotten a ticket, reducing those points can help insure that you will not go over that six point assessment limit should you get another ticket within an 18 month period.

There are two important notes to remember when trying to reduce your points:

• The PIRP program is only good to reduce points on tickets received within the 18 month period before you attended the course. You cannot use the course as a “get out of jail free card” to reduce points that you may get in the future and you can only attend the course once in an 18 month period; points for tickets received within 18 months after attending the course will remain on your record.



• If you have already been assigned to the Driver Responsibility Assessment program, you cannot use the PIRP program to reduce the points and get out of paying your annual assessments.

Insurance Cost Reduction


Insurance costs can be reduced by 10% of the base price of your current insurance policy for three years by attending the PIRP course. As with the points however, there are a couple of things you should understand about insurance reduction.

• The Insurance cost reduction only applies if the principal operator of the insured vehicle attends the course. For example; a teenager, whose mother is listed as the principal operator on the policy, borrows her car and gets a ticket; he cannot get an insurance reduction by attending the course.
  


• Your Insurance company can still raise your rates due to a collision that was your fault or when the policy is renewed; the 10% reduction only applies to your current rates.
  

Labels: driver responsibility assessment, insurance reduction, ny pirp, pirp course, point reduction, point reduction course