Muzza,

Trust me, I believe you (and may all of our luck hold -- I've had 4 tickets in 12 years and managed to avoid any negative insurance impact so far...). What the page I referenced asserts is that there have been claims made about overpayment regarding systems in multiple countries and it questions any cause-and-effect relationship. Essentially, if you took a random sample of 10,000 people with tickets, then put them in a 2x2 "overpaid/no overpayment" x "insurance hike/no hike" grid, could overpaying be shown to have a protective effect statistically? Or is the fact that some folks never see the points/hike a fluke?

OOT: Years ago in WA, you could check a 3rd box on the ticket and go before a magistrate to plead stupidity and beg for mercy; if your acting skills were up to snuff, you could get a 6-month probation after which the ticket would disappear *forever* (so have I had 4 tickets, or maybe 5, or...?). Unfortunately, the state supreme court decided that this was an overextension of magisterial authority, so now the best that 3rd box will do is perhaps get your fine reduced. The good old days, sigh...

Jim
(trying to do my part to help set relevant records for OT thread length...)