Traffic citations, depending on the violation, can cause auto insurance rates to significantly increase.There are many factors that an insurance company evaluates to determine what a person's auto insurance rate is; age, gender, years of driving, accidents, and of course traffic citations. The most common reason for insurance rates to sky rocket is traffic citations.

Traffic tickets have been climbing year over year to a record of over 40 million issued last year. This trend is realized by and increasing driving population as well as automated ticket issuing systems. This has generated over $6 billion in revenue nationwide, which has become an important revenue stream for states.

SearchQuarry.com, a U.S.based online public records resource, acknowledges traffic citations are considered criminal records. Traffic citations can vary from infractions to misdemeanors depending on the nature of the violation. Traffic citations will stay on a person's criminal record for 3 years however a DUI can stay on a person's criminal record indefinitely.