When do tickets/citations actually fall off (CA—Car Insurance)

Hey there,

I have a few questions. Tldr is at the end.

In 2021, I was pretty irresponsible with my new car and ended up racking up 4 tickets in a matter of a couple months (March-May, 2021). It took me about a year to deal with all of them and in that time, my license also got suspended due to failure to appear/pay. I ended up getting rid of my car at around that same time and also had a lapse in insurance coverage since I no longer needed insurance. I’ve been insured continuously since April 2023.

Fast forward to 2023, I get a new car and all of my tickets were resolved around April/May of 2022. My license was also reinstated in 2022 (about a year suspension until I dealt w/ tickets). The only way I could get insured was to get on my mom’s insurance policy with Esurance as no one else would really consider me. All of the big ones denied me and AAA even said that due to the suspension, they couldn’t insure me for 10 years.

My mom’s insurance went from $130 to $470. She ended up getting rid of her car in 2023, so our rates dropped to $460. Then at our renewal, they dropped again, to $445/mo. The only car insured is a Nissan Sentra. We live in the cheap part of CA for insurance, not in a major metro area.

In January, I start shopping for my own insurance policy again and I disclose all the tickets. I mostly get denied, but progressive was willing to insure me. I would save about $500/6 mo with them, but they require a large up front payment (I think they take your first and last month’s payment up front). At this time, I also pull my driving record from the DMV CA website to see the full damage. I was cited for speeding and a red light camera. I also got a ticket for illegally stopping in an emergency lane on the freeway when I needed to look at a text thread to find my friend’s address in a city I had never been to before. There was also a violation for failure to show financial responsibility, but I’m not sure why the full violation was listed because I DID have insurance, I just couldn’t prove it — I went to court and proved it and paid an administrative fine of $25.

Anyway, fast forward to now, I pull my driving record again. And I see everything gone with the exceptions of the two tickets I got in May (I think, if I’m reading this correctly because it is extremely confusing to read).

The two listed state this:

Cit Date Conv. Date

05-17-21 05-24-22 16028A VC

22349B VC

40508A VC

405095 VC (this one confuses me because it seems to point to a suspended license, although my license was suspended at one point, I never drove on a suspended license. I can’t find many details about this VC online but it’s listed below this citation)

05-17-21 05-27-22 22349B VC

(Yikes, it actually looks like I got two speeding tickets the same day smh).

But in January, my record was much more extensive. This month, when I’ve been getting quotes or trying to get quotes, I’ve been disclosing all of my tickets that I got in 2021. But now I’m not sure I should be doing that? I spoke to someone at an insurance company and they told me that your driving record goes by the conviction date (the later date) not the citation date, but based on pulling my record and seeing citations gone, I don’t think that can be true. If I’m correct, I think these other two tickets will be gone on the 17th of this month?

If it’s true that these citations will fall off in a less than a week, would I be able to contact my current company (Esurance) to get requoted without the tickets? Or do I need to wait until renewal?

Does insurance go by the original ticket date or the date you actually went to court to deal with it?

How does the no insurance ticket affect insurance anyway? It was on the same ticket as a speeding ticket. Should my record reflect something different since I went to court and proved insurance and just paid a $25 fine (instead of a $860 fine)?

Tldr; CA—does the three year clock start from the time you get the ticket or from date of conviction (court date)? Should I be disclosing to insurance companies only what is showing on my record that I pull from the DMV?