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Can't afford a to pay a ticket in full, what do I do?


josh817

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Well I received my second ticket last week. The first ticket was taken care of by defensive driving so it doesn't even show up. VERY cool, love the idea, everyone should do that if they offer it. Here in Texas you can do one defensive driving course every 12 months to dismiss a ticket. The police officer who pulled me over didn't even see it on his in car screen thing. I do mine online for like $35 and then they give you a $15 coupon through email for a second visit.

 

Anyway, its been only like 7 months since I did my course last so out of the 3 options, that one is out. 3 options being:

1. Take course, pay for course but pay less of a ticket ($230 dropped to $120 + course fee)

2. Pay regular fines and take the "hit" on your record

3. Defer adjudication, knowing my luck the judge will say pay the regular fines and take the course to get it off your record. So thats regular ticket + course fee + maybe court fee.

*Regular ticket for my speeding would be $230*

 

The way I have my money split up:

1. College

2. Car Parts

3. Gas

 

The Z funds itself by selling stuff I don't use, but since its my first year of college, my Z funds went to books leaving me with roughly $100. This is fine because once I'm finished with a motor I'm building at the shop, I should retrieve my $400 parts fund. However this ticket is due on the 28th, school starts the 24th. I don't want to ask to borrow money... Does Texas/most cities/city of Hurst have some sort of payment plan or maybe a delayed ticket payment system? It would be highly convenient for those highschool or college students that are barely making it by. To avoid all sorts of extra bull**** fees I've decided I want to just pay the ticket and take the hit. In 2010 I can do another online course and have a clean slate, Mom assures me that the insurance won't sky rocket for a teenager with a single ticket.

 

:redface:Thanks guys. Be careful on the ramp from Davis/Highway 26 onto 820 south.:redface:

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With no money Option 3 for sure! With option 3 you have the chance of the officer not showing up which is 100% freebie in Florida. If he does show, simply ask for the withhold and ask the judge for a payment plan. Clearly state that is why you came to court.

 

Dress nice, but not to nice, and be professional. Yes sir, yes maam whatever.

 

If you don't have any decent clothes go by Salvation army get a jacket, dress shirt and some pants and bring the reciept with you to court. If the judge says you look to nice simply explain you bought the clothes at salvation army and you have the receipt to prove it! This way your 100% honest and legit.

 

Optionn 2 is viable, but you don't have the possibility of the officier not showing up and you can't ask for withhold of judification.

 

Good luck. This is my experience based on many tickets over the years.

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Eh I don't even want to deal with court though if I'm to be honest. Dad got a ticket for a no right on red, which they say "failure to stop" on the ticket. He found it to be absolutely ludicrous especially since that light never use to be no right on red, and he did the necessary precautions for a right on red which would be to stop, look, and yield. All in all he said that the whole court thing was pretty much him stating his position which I guess would be no contest and then the judge just looked at his record and told him what to do, he got away with $90 ticket and no defensive driving and it didn't go on his record.

 

This would piss me off because Texas state law says that if I do defer adjudication then by law people under 25 must take the defensive driving, and then the judge can do like community service or whatever. I wouldn't do community service since I have school and work, so that basically leaves me with paying a full ticket, a defensive driving course, and court fees, but I get a clean record. I feel that paying just the regular $230 ticket in full and ignoring the court fees would be best, and just do defensive driving next year at my own pace. For financial sake though, it would be best if I kept expenditures as low as possible.

 

The other thing that pisses me off is that from the stories I hear, no one gets to explain the context of the situation. My honest opinion is that yah I broke the law so just do what needs to be done, but part of me would feel better if someone understood that I was trying to get to my sisters wedding, and that my grandpa was there for that day before he went back to New Jersey and he's like 87 years old so you know... spend as much time as you can with him before he leaves since it may be the last time.

 

I'd much rather just have the date set back so I don't have to worry about monthly payments and being late by like... a day or something silly.

 

 

As for the actual ticket stub, I'm not really sure how it even works. My first ticket said come into the station and tell them what you want to do by such and such time. I went in, said defensive driving, they said ok you have 90 days you can pay now or pay when you send in the certification. With this, it says I need to show up to court any time before/on August 28. How does the police officer attend the court if I can show up any day between now and the 28th? Or is it like my first ticket where I tell them what I want to do by August 28 and if I choose court they give me a scheduled time, if I choose to pay it they make me do it right there?

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Thats a great ramp! Goes from street, to ramp, to highway. Very cool

Well I blame you Big-Phile and Chris! :flamedevi Honestly I'm not making this up, that day when I was coming onto the ramp I was thinking about that Cowtown track day at MSR that you made a video of and I was like "Hey they said something about 'R compound' tires". At that current time I remembered that my cheap tires had like an R14 on them and I was like well.. they're $50 tires so they can't be anything special, lets try this out anyway. 4th gear, going on the overpass, 90mph tires squealing but no understeer just yet. It was perfect! :burnout:

 

Thats not how I got my ticket though! I was merging in with traffic and I guess the right hand lane was flowing quicker than I thought. My speedometer tends to read 5mph too fast so I set it at 70mph (with the impression that I'm REALLY doing 65). I go into the left hand lane to pass someone and bring it to like 75-ish. Cop is sitting there right on the left hand shoulder so I was like eeesh. Long story short, I guess the speedo is only 5mph too fast when I'm doing like 0-45mph and then it comes back to normal. Now that I have this big ticket I've calmed myself down. I'll only do 70mph max on a regular 60mph highway and I only drive like a burglar on the twisty back roads and stuff. I must say its rather nice to cruise at 2300RPM in 5th gear rather than 3000RPM. I'm wanting a 4.38 diff anyway because I realize doing 145+mph on highway 6 isn't necessary. Actually, it gets quite scary so with a 4.38, theoretically I can still do like 150-160 @7000RPM but I wouldn't maintain an RPM that high for that long just to go stupid fast.:icon15: I'm setting the rev limiter to 6500 or 7000, there isn't anything up there for me to use.

 

Thanks Big-Phil and Chris for mentioning R compound tires and making me want to see if I have such a thing. :icon44:

 

Oh and get this, he was like hey this is a nice car blah blah blah. He was a pretty cool cop but he asked if it ran well and I just looked at him. Sometimes too well, Officer... Then I contemplated how exactly I was going to pull out off the shoulder and back onto 65mph traffic without looking like I'm off to cause more trouble and without spraying rocks and **** all over his car. Haha

 

By the way, Big-Phil or anyone that is in Texas, do we have that NC thing that 240hoke was talking about? I have All State insurance I do believe. I'll call on Monday I suppose.

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In washington, you can get set up on a monthly payment plan for any ticket if it's going to be going on your record, even if they judge agrees to reduce it.

It's only if you get it differed off of your record that you have to pay it in full.

 

I got my ticket differed, and the clerk at the payment window still offered to set me up on a payment plan because my $235 ticket was, "pretty big".

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Haha yah I know. I don't know anything about tires. I just go by the rule of thumb you get what you paid for and I paid $110 for a a new set of summit 205's on the rear. Haha Like I said though! 90mph on the over pass and now wobbling or understeer! :P

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Indeed good sir. Hahahaha 14 x 8 Supra wheels. I think I can do a 225 if I really wanted to but I'm worried about any rubbing.

 

Also, horrible news. Usually I'd just take the insurance hit of like $10 more or whatever but as always, the severity of the ticket does matter. 15mph or more counts as reckless driving she said and they can drop you for that. So... Looks like I will be doing defer adjudication and pray that they won't make me pay all right there... or should I do an attorney?

 

 

Edit: Haha Radial 14 not R compound. I'm sure I would have just stuck to the ground like a tick with R compound! :P

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Indeed good sir. Hahahaha 14 x 8 Supra wheels. I think I can do a 225 if I really wanted to but I'm worried about any rubbing.

 

Also, horrible news. Usually I'd just take the insurance hit of like $10 more or whatever but as always, the severity of the ticket does matter. 15mph or more counts as reckless driving she said and they can drop you for that. So... Looks like I will be doing defer adjudication and pray that they won't make me pay all right there...

 

I have 225s on my 15x8 RBs, I had to use a 1/4" spacer to get my fronts not to rub but the back tires don't have any issues. I'm considering throwing some 245s on the back. The 15x8 RBs have a +4 offset IIRC, do you know the offset on yours? you might be okay just to use a small spacer. I had to swap the front studs out, but I'm sure you're quite capable of that task :)

 

Back on topic:

 

:shock: Well I hope all of that works out for you.

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