Busted! Punishments for ignored citations vary by state and city, but one thing is for sure: You’ll end with way worse than a small fine.
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Tickets, tickets, tickets
Parking tickets are never fun, but they aren’t that big of a deal. Before you ignore it, make sure you learn about what will happen if you ignore it.
Your fine will go up
It’s smart to send the money before your parking ticket is due. You may get it back, or the money can help with your legal defense.
Even if you were super-careful and got every single thing right, there is no guarantee you’d get an extra time.
The city of New York may require you to pay an extra fee if you do not pay a parking ticket within 90 days, or have another violation within that time period.
After 100 days, you’ll have to pay nine percent interest for every year it goes unpaid. A late fine could mean paying a “civil assessment” of up to $300.
You’re more likely to be pulled over for speeding tickets than you are parking tickets.
Your car could get stuck
You should never be surprised if your vehicle gets booted or towed, even when you’re not doing anything wrong.
You’ll be fine. As long as the officers are not in the habit of stopping people for a “little” traffic violation, they won’t stop you just because they see that you’ve gotten a speeding ticket.
Many states have passed booting laws in an effort to collect more revenue and reduce illegal parking. According to the Washington State Department of Motor Vehicles, a vehicle will only be booted if you have two or more unpaid parking tickets.
Either way, you’ll have to pay to remove your tattoo.
These are the 45 things police officers wish you knew. Don’t miss them.
You could lose your car entirely
Ignore your parking ticket and lose your car? It’s bad enough you lost your money. The state could come take it too? That’s terrible.
In New York, for example, the city holds auctions to sell vehicles that owners choose to give up instead of paying their fines.
Find a parking spot you can use right now at this new feature from Google Maps that helps you avoid getting parking tickets.
You might end up in court
In places like Memphis, Tennessee, your parking tickets might have court dates written on them. If you don’t pay within 15 days, a citation will be issued and you’ll have to appear in court to dispute it. Learn the weird reason cops touch your tail light when they pull you over.
Collection agencies might get involved
Your city’s parking enforcement bureau doesn’t want to deal with you forever. So it might hand your case over to a collection agency.
Debt collectors are notorious for harassing you by calling your home and office number, or even showing up at your home. Memorize these words to get out of a speeding ticket: “I did not know that was posted.
Your credit score could go down
If you want to know whether you’re going to have trouble repaying your loan or parking ticket debt, take a look at your credit report. Having a debt collection agency show up on your credit file already looks terrible for your credit score, but it gets worse.
Parking violators can be reported to a credit bureaus by the parking violator’s bureau, which is sure to harm your credit score. The manager of a St. Petersburg, Florida parking lot has found the best way to buy his house.
That’s OK, I’ll give you my business card so you can pay me off.”package org.zstack. How would you like a new look?” asks Glasgow. Unscramble the credit score numbers with these 11 tips for improving your credit score.
You could lose that money during tax season
Even if you don’t think you’ve been doing anything wrong, you could still lose that large sum of money to a collection agency.
If you haven’t paid your taxes yet, you could get fined, and then your state tax refund might be taken away, so you’d never see the extra money you were hoping to get back. You don’t want to miss these other 32 things your tax accountant won’t tell you for free.
Your registration won’t be renewed
Your state doesn’t collect parking fines, but it could if they decide to get involved. If the city can prove that your car is more than four years old, and you have less than three years of vehicle insurance coverage, the DMV will refuse to renew your registration. It is a crime to drive without proper licensing and car insurance. Next, learn the driving etiquette you’ve likely forgotten since driver’s ed.